Rick Eastes Lands At Ballantine
Rick Eastes has frequently shown up in the pages of the Pundit. We mentioned him in Sunkist Wake-up Call? — our very first piece on Sunkist. When he was with Sunkist he wrote pundit Mailbag: Sunkist Responds To Article and two months later we were running Eastes Leaves Sunkist. In the course of our coverage […]
RJO Hires Retailer Scott Zeier
It is always interesting when grower-shippers hire retailers. Our usual rule of thumb is that the likelihood of success is inversely proportioned to the size of the chain. Bruce Knobeloch, for example, has thrived on the grower-shipper side of the business obtaining the position of Vice President of Marketing at River Ranch. But he originally […]
Why Don’t American Retailers Just Standardize On EurepGAP?
With all our pieces on food safety, as we have analyzed dozens of different schemes, we receive this plaintive cry: Why cannot U.S. retailers simply adopt the EurepGAP standard which covers food safety and worker welfare issues to the satisfaction of major retail chains in Europe and Japan? Most growers outside the USA already work […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — Sunkist’s Missed Opportunities
In our piece entitled, Pundit’s Mailbag — China, COOL And International Opportunities, we addressed a letter sent to the Pundit by Professor Thomas Reardon of Michigan State University. The letter, among other things, dealt with the prospects for U.S. growers in China and led us to these thoughts: “…when Sunkist appointed a new CEO, we […]
Security In Food Safety Jobs?
The hottest job ticket in town is having a food safety degree. PMA announced its desire to hire a Vice President of Produce Science and Safety back in November of 2006 and has found top candidates rather sparse. Jim Gorny Executive Director Postharvest Technology Research and Information Center UC Davis Now United is losing Jim […]
Stress And Obesity Linked But Don’t Stop Eating Produce
Public health authorities support increased consumption of produce in no small part because they know that proper diet and exercise, when combined, can keep people from getting obese and thus reduce their risk of diabetes, heart disease and other ailments. Yet, this knowledge is still mostly academic in the sense that most people who struggle […]
Banana Import Policies In Europe Defy Logic And Ultimately Hurt Consumers
It is rather odd that Europe and the U.S., neither of which are significant producers of bananas, should constantly be at loggerheads over the issue of banana import policies in Europe. If you want a perfect example of how governments often adopt policies that hurt their own people, you can not do much better than […]
Hannaford’s Organic Certification And Misguided Consumers/Press
Our piece, Hannaford Becomes First Organic-Certified Mainstream Retailer, attracted a great deal of attention, and now the Associated Press has caught wind of the story: Tara Withington, with her two young sons in tow, combs the aisles of Hannaford Bros. Co. supermarket for what she deems healthy enough to feed her family. Besides reading ingredients […]
Food Institute/Willard Bishop Webinar Provides Insights For Perishables Retailing
We announced Willard Bishop Consulting Issues Annual Future Of Food Retailing Report, which reviewed the new version of this annual report and provided an opportunity to register for a webinar offered jointly with The Food Institute. The webinar was held and revealed many interesting facts. Perhaps most graphically striking were these two slides: This slide […]
Pundit’s Mailbag —
Paying More For Farm Labor
Our piece, As Immigration Bill Comes To A Vote, Questions Surface On Farm Wages, led Billy Heller of Sunripe Produce to comment in an article we entitled, Pundit’s Mailbag — A Future Without Farm labor. Now another industry luminary, Frank McCarthy, who we’ve heard from many times, including comments on cartoon marketing here, private companies […]
