Will Our World Be Dominated By
Junk Science And Sloppy Thinking?
We’ve carefully chronicled the “Fresh for Ellen” effort to use Ellen DeGeneres’s quest for a ”sugar free” life to promote fresh produce consumption: Plea For Ellen DeGeneres To Consider Produce In Her Sugar-Free Diet How Will Success Be Measured For Fresh for Ellen Social Media Campaign? ‘Fresh For Ellen’ Shows Passion And Potential To Help […]
Wal-Mart Swaps Strategy For Tactics
We often write about Wal-Mart, and after Wal-Mart came out with its earnings we asked: Wal-Mart Reports Strong Earnings: Is It Creating A Pricing Umbrella For Aldi? After writing this piece on Wal-Mart’s earnings, what prompts us to return to the matter was a note we received regarding a piece on Business Week’s website by […]
Pete Purcell: A ‘Diamond’ In The Sky
When Pete Purcell passed away last month we, of course, immediately reported the news on Pundit sister publication PerishableNews.com. We’ve held back from writing about it here on the Pundit as we have thought about how best to express what his passing symbolizes for this industry. It is note worthy that when Mr. Purcell died, […]
Spring Produce Show Lineup
Of course, the big produce event this season is the United Fresh Produce Association Show, which this year is themed Winning is Everything — we are certain in homage to its Las Vegas venue and not as a statement of values. United this year has a big event planned with Jeb Bush as the keynote […]
Symbolon’s Fleming Sheds More Light On Traceability
Traceability has long been an area of focus for us here at the Pundit. Few have contributed more substantially to this discussion than Gary Fleming, when he was working in his capacity as the Vice President, Industry Technology and Standards for the Produce Marketing Association. In fact, Gary contributed to at least five articles related […]
Gilligan’s Island’s Dawn Wells Generates 10 Million Viewers For Idaho Potato Commission
The Idaho Potato Commission is rightly trumpeting a marketing tool gone viral: Dawn Wells’ Famous Potato Peeling Video Viewed By More Than 10 Million! About two years ago, the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) created a video of Dawn Wells (aka Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island) peeling an Idaho® potato without a peeler The video was […]
‘Fresh For Ellen’ Raises A Question: How Should We Define Success?
We have run three pieces chronicling the efforts of Dan’l Mackey Almy, President and Managing Partner of DMA Solutions, to create a produce tie-in with Ellen DeGeneres’ announced decision to give up sugar. Our first missive profiled the effort and critiqued the nutritional science behind Ellen’s plan. We called that piece, Plea For Ellen DeGeneres […]
Analysis of CDC Database On Foodbourne Illness: Most Outbreaks Not Associated With Produce; Foodservice/At-Home Mishandling Is Chief Cause Of Produce-Related Outbreaks
Last fall, when the Center for Science in the Public Interest came out with its list of the “Ten Riskiest Foods,” we objected to the assertions being made with a Special Edition: An Opportunity Missed: ‘Ten Riskiest Foods’ List Highly Deceptive, Worse Than Useless to Consumers — CSPI’s Quest For The Headlines Means America Misses […]
Impending Marketing Order Leads To Frantic Efforts To Get Chilean Grapes In The U.S.
Congratulations are due to Richard Bright, whose valuable newsletter, Reefer Trends, just published its 500th issue. Just prior to the USDA rejecting the petition to extend the period when Chile can ship to the US without meeting more stringent requirements, Reefer Trends wrote the following: It has been a long time coming but the reefer […]
Chili As A Weapon
The whole industry is dedicated to increasing the sales of fresh fruits and vegetable, but who knew it had come to this: Indian military to weaponize world’s hottest chili By WASBIR HUSSAIN GAUHATI, India (AP) — The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism: the world’s hottest chili. After conducting tests, the military has […]
