Got Produce? Cornell Professor Responds To Pundit Criticism…

We’ve paid extensive attention to the proposals for a generic promotion program for the produce industry. If you are just joining the discussion, here are a series of articles we’ve run in the Pundit that can help in understanding the issues at stake: Got Produce? Generic Marketing Program Dialog Begins, But Is It Right To […]

When Thinking Outside The Box,
Outer Space Comes To Mind

We are excited to get to Anaheim and have an out-of-this-world time seeing old friends, meeting new ones and learning all we can. Of course, the other alternative for getting off the planet is NASA and the space program. Lately our efforts in outer space — and the slow pace of space exploration — have […]

Shopping Experience Reveals Weakness In Branded Deli And Food Safety Protocols

We’ve lately been running a small series related to the supermarket deli. We started with a piece we titled DIETZ & WATSON TAKES ON BOAR’S HEAD Is Exclusivity Anti-Consumer? Is It Even Good For Retailers? This article dealt with a public relations battle that Dietz & Watson was waging against Boar’s Head and, more broadly, […]

Got Produce? Look Closer At Packaging And Handling To Increase Consumption

In the context of our extensive work on the proposed generic promotion board for the produce industry, we’ve had quite a number of produce executives point out to us that they believe the biggest difficulty in boosting consumption is the fault of the produce industry itself — selling the wrong varieties, harvesting it before it […]

Accolades In The Form Of A Painting

Earlier this year, the “Pundit” won an award for editorial integrity. It was, of course, thrilling that a panel of publishing and editorial experts would bestow such an award. Then we received a giant package delivery and it, quite simply, just blew us away. It came from one of the industry’s true luminaries and it […]

Troublesome Traceability Letters From PMA Veiled As Being Sent From Buyers

We’ve written a great deal about traceability and our recent piece, Is PTI Too Expensive And ‘Untenable’? A Retailer Speaks Out, which was built around a letter from Dan Sutton, Director of Produce at Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons LLC, brought a substantial response. Although part of that piece dealt with substantive issues regarding traceability and, specifically, […]

How I Met Irving Kristol

The passage of Irving Kristol has, of course, brought forth an avalanche of kindness from those who were close to him professionally and personally. Though I was not one of those fortunate to be close to him, I distinctly remember shaking hands with him three times: Once briefly at a Federalist Society Meeting at Harvard; […]

Is PTIToo Expensive And ‘Untenable’?
A Retailer Speaks Out

We’ve written a great deal about traceability. In one of our pieces, titled Is Produce Traceability Initiative Worth The investment, Gregory J. Fitz, President of Cleveland, Ohio-based Produce Packaging, Inc., pointed out severe doubts that the Produce Traceability Initiative was worth the cost for individual companies. Now Dan Sutton, Director of Produce for Albertsons LLC, […]

Pundit’s Mailbag — Sexism In The Produce Industry

I was reading the Perishable Pundit’s smart and progressive column in PRODUCE BUSINESS this morning and thought, with PMA around the corner — perhaps Jim Prevor would champion or at least take a look at my concern for what I believe to be antiquated and chauvinistic practices still seen within the produce industry. In this […]