Single Step Award Winner — Joe Pezzini of Ocean Mist Farms
As part of our continuing series to interview winners of the Perishable Pundit’s Single Step Award, we have already interviewed Dave Corsi of Wegmans and Mike O’Brien of Schnuck Markets. The complete list of winners are as follows: Dave Corsi Vice President Produce Wegmans Food Markets Mike O’Brien Vice President Produce & Floral Schnuck Markets […]
Tesco’s Biggest Challenge: Prepared Foods
Tesco has a big disadvantage as it enters the U.S. market: Its executives speak English. That may sound counter-intuitive but have no doubt — it is good to have a customer just like yourself, it is OK to understand that your customer is totally different than you, but the worst possible situation is to think […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — Is WGA Unjustly Criticized?
Our piece USDA Explores Possible National Marketing Order For Leafy Greens…But Are We Ready? brought a reply from one of the most important people in the produce industry. In addition to being President and Chief Executive Officer of a major melon marketer holding the famous “Tri” brand, Steve Patricio is the Chairman of Western Growers […]
Single Step Award Winner — Mike O’Brien Of Schnuck Markets
Here at the Perishable Pundit, we were proud to announce the winners of the Single Step Award. The award honors those who have made a special contribution to the trade’s efforts to improve food safety. Drawing from the famous Lao-Tzu quote — “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — the […]
Dole Marketing Team Strengthens, Pushes Plush Toy Promotion
Not long ago, we ran a piece pointing out that Rick Utchell, longtime Vice President of Marketing at Dole, was going to retire and Ronda Reed would become Vice President of Marketing for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. Now Dole has announced that David Bright will be reporting to Ms. Reed as he assumes his […]
Is The USDA Exposing People To Sickness By Waiting For Test Results?
The USDA has the policy of waiting to see a presumptive positive test result confirmed before seeking a recall. As a result, consumers may have gotten sick from tainted hamburger. The Associated Press reports: USDA DEFENDS RECALL POLICIES The Agriculture Department defended an 18-day wait on recalling Topps beef patties and said it will re-evaluate […]
What Does Beef Recall Tell Us About Food Safety?
The situation in the meat industry should scare the produce industry silly. Why? Because it demonstrates that food safety is not a problem that gets solved, it simply gets managed. Bill Marler, the ace plaintiff’s attorney on food safety issues who brought the original lawsuits against Jack-in-the-Box, put it this way: Earlier this year J. […]
Is Publix’s Ownership In Crispers A Future Strategy Against Tesco?
As Tesco prepares for its US rollout and is expected to rely heavily on a prepared foods offering, one of the obstacles it will encounter is that Americans tend to get much of their take-out at restaurants. Restaurants have better food, more convenient, often offering delivery or curbside pickup service. Publix has been showing off […]
More Challenges For Farm Bill
It seems like just the other day we were running pieces, such as USDA’s Draft Farm Bill Targets Specialty Crops and produce Notches Up On Farm Bill, pointing out the trade’s success at getting additional funding in the Farm Bill. Yet now The International Herald Tribune reports that of the trade’s $8.5 billion dollar wish […]
Single Step Award Winner — Dave Corsi Of Wegmans Food Markets
To kick off our interviews with the winners of the Pundit’s “Single Step” Award, we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to speak with our first honoree (alphabetically): Dave Corsi Vice President Produce Wegmans Food Markets Rochester, NY Q: Your name and that of your company emanates such respect throughout the industry […]
