Pundit's Mailbag —
A Grower-Shipper Speaks Out On PMA’s Fresh Summit…Does The Industry Benefit From Seafood Towers, Surf & Turf And Fine Wine?
The pandemic has posed many challenges, both long and short term for the industry. Right now, foodservice is in despair and retail is riding high. But nothing is forever. Some changes, such as the move of consumers to purchase online, may pose long term challenges to the trade’s ability to effectively promote and introduce new products. […]
Seeing 2021:
Deriving Strength From Despair
Pursuing The Glimmering Light Of Opportunity
The year is over. The pandemic is not. But there is hope with the rapid rollout of new vaccines. One of every 1,000 Americans has died, if not from COVID-19, certainly with COVID-19. To those of us old enough to have children or grandchildren, there is an odd solace in the idea that if someone […]
The Present Of A Holiday Song That Begins In A Grocery Store: Take Two
A few years back at holiday time, we ran a piece titled The Present of a Holiday Song That Begins In a Grocery Store. Here is the piece: We were driving home from college for the holidays when a song came on the radio. We had spent a fair amount of time in grocery stores […]
The New York Produce Show And Conference Announces
'Thought Leader' One-on-One Discussions
Be Online December 9-11, 2020
Each year, at The New York Produce Show and Conference, we gather together a list of produce industry luminaries to participate in the Perishable Pundit’s Thought Leader Panel, which is usually presented at the Opening Breakfast. You can review some of the previous year’s participants at these links: 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 […]
Painful Pivot for Produce Trade Associations:
To ‘Rightsize’ and Re-evaluate Their Purpose
With the pandemic causing the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) to lay off many longtime staffers, and the foodservice side of the produce industry still reeling, we’ve been evaluating the best approach for the industry to follow when it comes to assessing the future of its national trade associations. This is not a new discussion… we’ve […]
Selecting A President:
The Challenge Of Deferring To Excellence In A Democracy
It is said that Will Rogers, the famous American humorist, used to include in his act a comment that when a President was elected, we instantly knew one thing for certain about him: An awful lot of people didn’t want him to be President. This is forever so, and maybe more so this year. Will […]
CHADWICK BOSEMAN’S UNTOLD STORY
What Hasn’t Been Said About His
Extraordinary Family, Community and Personal Effort
We have been gradually rolling out our new Perishable Pundit Podcast. You can listen, watch a video or read the text of our Premier Episode at this link: Destructive Protests Hurt The Ones Most In Need The second episode — and a list of industry luminaries who were kind enough to send in praise — […]
Bruce Peterson Asks The Question:
How Can Today’s Produce Associations Serve The Industry?
…And Who Will Pay For It?
We’ve been running a series of pieces discussing what the best options are for the produce industry in terms of the organization, or re-organization, of its national trade associations. We ‘ve discussed this issue, literally, for more than a quarter century, and you can see some of that discussion here. Now, as the pandemic started […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — Pam Young Leads Charge On Clean Trailers
If there is one thing we can learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that one never knows where the next big problem is going to come from. Today we have a letter from a key player in transportation who argues that the industry is not doing all it can to make sure that transportation […]
From The Pages Of PRODUCE BUSINESS:
College Begins For Jr. Pundit Primo
In our Fruits of Thought column in PRODUCE BUSINESS magazine, we’ve had the opportunity to share many personal things with the industry. Joyous moments such as weddings, births and other accomplishments. We’ve also shared the loss of friends and family and other saddening moments. Many in the industry have met the Jr. Pundit Primo, aka […]