Posts Tagged “feature”
by Michael Price, Science
The U.K. journalist Miles Kington quipped that knowledge is knowing tomatoes ares a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad. It wasn’t always this way. Decades of commercial growing have altered the tomato’s genetic makeup, turning it from a once-sweet fruit into today’s relatively tasteless sandwich topper. Now, a new study has uncovered which flavor-enhancing genes have been lost, giving growers a “roadmap” to breed tastiness back into their tomatoes.
“This is great work, which I believe could only be done by very few groups on Earth,” says Changbin Chen, a horticultural scientist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, who wasn’t involved with the study. “This is doable for commercial growers who supply the fresh tomato market.”
Tomatoes are among the highest-value crops in the world. In the United States—the world’s second largest tomato grower behind China—they account for more than a billion dollars in sales annually. Nutritionally, they are important sources of vitamins A and C. But the large, plump, ruddy tomatoes available year-round in grocery stores taste much different than the small, multihued, berry-sized fruits that evolved more than 50 million years ago near Antarctica and were first domesticated in Central and South America some 2500 years ago. The fruits spread throughout the world following Spanish colonization in the 16th century. Over the next 400 years or so, hundreds of regional cultivars of tomatoes emerged, but they mostly stayed small, sweet, and flavorful.
Then, commercial agriculture exploded after World War II, and tomato crops were bred for higher yields, disease resistance, redder color, and firmness, explains Harry Klee, a horticultural scientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville and one of the study’s authors. These traits helped growers sell their crops for more money, but growers neglected genes responsible for taste, Klee says, and many of these were lost or tamped down over thousands of generations.
By the New Jersey Department of Agriculture
(TRENTON) – The New Jersey Department of Agriculture projects its peach crop to be one of its largest in years.
“New Jersey’s crop of peaches are shaping up and will be available in abundance throughout the state,” said New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher. “ We want produce retailers and buyers as well as consumers of Jersey Fresh produce to know that we anticipate having a plentiful supply of peaches.”
New Jersey is one of the nation’s top growers of peaches. In 2015, farmers grew 42.2 million pounds of peaches on 4,700 acres valued at $27.6 million. The 2017 peach crop is projected to produce between 55 and 60 million pounds of peaches on 5,500 acres, according to the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council.
“The New Jersey Peach crop is looking strong and healthy for all varieties within the fruit set,” said Francisco Allende, the general manager of Sunny Valley International, Inc., in Glassboro, N.J. “We expect this to be one of our better harvests in recent years.”
South Jersey
The beginning of peach season is expected to start in South Jersey in about week. It will gradually work its way northward. The first peach variety of New Jersey’s season is the Sentry. The crop then moves into the Gala and Flavorcrest varieties. The season finishes with the Loring and Red Haven varieties followed by the John Boy. New Jersey then moves into the Crest Haven variety season, which also includes the Gloria variety of peach, followed by Jersey Queen and Fayette varieties. The Encore and Laurol varieties will wrap up the season sometime in mid- to late-September, when the last of New Jersey’s peaches should be picked. White peaches are expected to begin shipping around the end of July and continue through mid-September.
“We are excited with the way our peaches look right now,” said Santo Maccherone, a peach grower who owns Circle M Farms in Salem, N.J. “Our crop has come along nicely and we have high expectations for quantity and quality.”
A half-cup sliced fresh peaches is just 30 calories and provides 10 percent of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C. Ripe peaches should be stored in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for up to five days. Rinse peaches in cool water and dry before eating.
Apple shipments for the upcoming 2017 shipping season are projected to increase. Meanwhile, here’s a glimpse at California sweet corn shipments, as well as kiwifruit imports.Western state apple loadings are forecast higher, while and Midwest and Eastern apple shipments are seen to be down slightly compared to last season. The first estimate of the 2017 apple crop projects volume to hit 255.6 million (42-pound) cartons, up 2 percent from the previous season.
The 2017 estimate was released recently at the Premier Marketing Apple Forum in Syracuse, N.Y. The Premier estimate shows the East and Midwest region to be 4.5 percent less than the 2016 crop. However, apple production in the Western U.S. is forecast to be up 5 percent compared with 2016.
The estimate is the first for the 2017 U.S. apple crop.
Apple Shipper Expanding
Fowler Farms of Wolcott, NY is a grower/shipper of apples and is expanding the packing capacity it has for fruit coming from its 2,500-acre, six-farm operation. The company is now installing a new eight-lane grader/sorter system. The multimillion-dollar system should be operational in time for the start of Fowler’s apple harvest beginning August 1st.
Founded in 1856, family-owned Fowler Farms is one of the largest vertically integrated apple farms in the U.S., offering 23 varieties of fresh apples and a line of refrigerated ciders.
Sweet Corn Shipments
Uesugi Farms of Gilroy, CA shipped its first conventional crop of the season from the Coachella Valley before Memorial Day weekend, and the company is now harvesting in Brentwood, CA. That harvest will continue in Gilroy. The operation has added white, yellow and bi-color organic sweet corn to its list of products. The organic sweet corn will come in packages of four ears, and is being harvested in Wasco, CA., and harvests will then move to Northern California, the Coachella Valley and Mexico.
Kiwifruit Imports
New Zealand kiwifruit imports by the U.S. should increase overall as the season is already underway for green conventional and organic kiwifruit, as well as SunGold conventional and organic fruit. Imports started last May and will continue through November. Kiwifruit is a rapidly growing in popularity and the SunGold in particular is expected to increase by 40 percent over last season.
by Hass Avocado Board
Insulin and homocysteine levels were lower in the avocado group, as well as a significantly reduced incidence of metabolic syndrome, according to a study.
Homocysteine, when elevated, has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors that raises the risk for heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke. The analysis, Avocado Consumption by Adults is Associated with Better Nutrient Intake, Diet Intake, Diet Quality, and Some Measures of Adiposity: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001 -2012 , was published in the journal Internal Medicine Review.
SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS:
- Compared to non-consumers, avocado consumers have:
- Higher intakes of dietary fiber, total fat, good fats (monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids), vitamins E and C, folate, magnesium, copper and potassium.
- Lower intakes of total carbohydrates, added sugars and sodium.
- Avocado consumers have improved diet quality, as measured by the Healthy Eating Index-2010.
- Improved physiologic measures include:
- On average, avocado consumers weighed 7.5 lbs less, had a mean BMI of 1 unit less and 1.2 in. smaller waist circumference compared to non-consumers.
- Avocado consumers were 33% less likely to be overweight or obese and 32% less likely to have an elevated waist circumference compared to non-consumers.
- Incidence of metabolic syndrome was significantly reduced for avocado consumers.
The findings are based on avocado consumption and its association with nutrient and food group intake, diet quality, and health biomarkers assessed using a nationally representative sample of 29,684 adults (ages 19 years and older) participating in the 2001-2012 NHANES. Fresh avocado intake averaged a consumption of 76 grams per day (a little more than half of a medium Hass avocado) and was assessed by 24-hour dietary recalls. Diet quality was measured using the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010), which measured adherence to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The analysis was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Children’s Nutrition Research Center and the Hass Avocado Board (HAB).
“These findings indicate incorporating avocados could be one way for Americans to meet the recommended fruit and vegetable intake and potentially improve physiologic measures,” said Nikki Ford, Hass Avocado Board Director of Nutrition. “As we fund additional clinical studies investigating the relationship between fresh avocado consumption and weight management and risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, we continue to encourage healthcare professionals to remain committed to recommending avocados as part of an overall healthy diet.”
About the Hass Avocado Board
The Hass Avocado Board (HAB) is an agriculture promotion group established in 2002 to promote the consumption of Hass Avocados in the United States. A 12-member board representing domestic producers and importers of Hass Avocados directs HAB’s promotion, research and information programs under supervision of the United States Department of Agriculture. Funding for HAB comes from Hass avocado producers and importers in the United States.
It’s summertime in overdrive and here are some loading opportunities you might not have thought of including garlic, watermelons and sweet onions.
Watermelon Shipments
Nationally summertime watermelon shipments have been decent so far this season, with heavy volume available for shipments arriving at destinations in time for the Fourth of July holiday. Strong shipments will continue in the weeks ahead as several states are just starting, or will be soon getting underway.
Georgia is leading U.S. shipments averaging around 5,000 truck loads per week. Volume will start declining in a few weeks. However, South Carolina’s watermelons shipment are underway and increasing. Carolina moved nearly 400 truck loads in the past week, but volume will be higher with each passing week.
Texas is in a similar situation, particularly in the eastern part of the state. It shipped about 400 truck loads last week, but volume is rapidly picking up….While the desert areas of California are winding down with watermelon loadings, the San Joaquin Valley, particularly in the southern area around Bakersfield, is building. Around 500 truck loads were shipped a week ago.
Onion Shipments
Sweet onions shipments out of Walla Walla, WA started in mid June and this season there should be more normal conditions in terms of volume and and timing, at least compared to 2016.
Last year, Walla Walla sweet onions had an early start and finish to the season
Garlic Shipments
California garlic shipments got underway in mid June and will continue until mid September. Christopher Ranch of Gilroy, CA, as well as other operations were off in volume 15 to 20 percent last year. However, shipments this year are expected to be more normal with fewer quality issues.
Christopher Ranch is celebrating its family owned farming heritage with colorful, new boxes for its 2 lb. and 3 lb. fresh garlic bags. The new box is in full color using custom artwork representing a California garlic field.
It is hoped by the shipper that the new look will make it easy for consumers to find fresh California Heirloom Garlic in the midst of all the other shipping boxes.
The company has the only garlic in the U.S. commercially grown from heirloom seed, the same seed discovered by Don Christopher in the 1960’s.
Salinas Valley vegetables – grossing about $5400 to Chicago.
This photo is of my two precious sisters Judy and Trisha on the beach in May on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. As you can see it is always a good time to celebrate our beloved America and its freedoms.
As a family, my sisters and my wife Vivian have been able to vacation there in recent years. We always marvel at God’s marvelous and beautiful creations. Watching the dolphins gliding effortlessly through the sea waters and the pelicans flying overhead in perfect formation.
As we celebrate our nation’s 241st anniversary, I continue to be so grateful I was born here and have lived in America all of my life with the exception of serving in the Navy four years. Having been to other parts of the world, I realize how fortunate we are to live in the United States. The poverty and suffering in so much of the world is almost beyond comprehension.
Our freedoms in American have come at great sacrifice. I think of a handful of young men I grew up with in a small Oklahoma town who died fighting in Vietnam. One of the most moving moments in my life was visiting The Wall in our nation’s capital and seeing their engraved names.
I think of my brave cousin Martin L. Johnson who fought in battle and was in three wars (WWII, Korea, and Vietnam) serving our country as a Marine and then in the Air Force. He passed away in 2015 at the age of 88. His beautiful wife Irene, 84, was a Marine and thankfully is still with us.
As we celebrate Independence, I pray for our country, and remain true to the principals of our Founding Fathers. Freedom comes at a great cost. But it is worth it. Wishing all of you the best celebration of Independence Day ever!
A
THENS, Ga., June 28, 2017 — The Cab Command™ controller for Carrier Transicold’s Supra® truck refrigeration units has been redesigned for mounting in the dashboard, providing greater convenience and versatility for users. Carrier Transicold is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
THENS, Ga., June 28, 2017 — The Cab Command™ controller for Carrier Transicold’s Supra® truck refrigeration units has been redesigned for mounting in the dashboard, providing greater convenience and versatility for users. Carrier Transicold is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).Offering the proven functionality of its predecessor, the new controller sports an attractive, intuitive interface in a refined compact design that conforms to the universal DIN specification, enabling simple and clean installation within a truck cab’s dash.
“Operators like the Cab Command controller because of its ease of use and functionality,” said Scott Parker, product manager, truck products, Carrier Transicold. “Our latest version offers the convenience of in-dash installation or, when used with an optional surface-mount bracket, it can be located on an overhead console, underneath or on top of the dash, giving users a wider range of placement options.”
The Cab Command controller features a bright, backlit LCD display that provides at-a-glance operating information, including setpoint, compartment temperature, operating mode and status. A smooth tactile keypad has logically arranged buttons for adjusting temperatures, changing operating modes and more.
The newly redesigned Cab Command controller is now standard for both single-temperature and multi-temperature Supra units. It is also backward compatible to earlier models. Plug-and-play operation makes installation easy for Supra unit owners who require a replacement controller or simply want to upgrade to the new version.
For more information about the Cab Command controller for Supra truck refrigeration units, turn to the experts within Carrier Transicold’s North America dealer network.
About Carrier Transicold
Carrier Transicold helps improve transport and shipping of temperature controlled cargoes with a complete line of equipment and services for refrigerated transport and cold chain visibility. For more than 45 years, Carrier Transicold has been an industry leader, providing customers around the world with advanced, energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable container refrigeration systems and generator sets, direct-drive and diesel truck units, and trailer refrigeration systems. Carrier Transicold is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp., a leading provider to the aerospace and building systems industries worldwide. For more information, visit www.transicold.carrier.com. Follow Carrier on Twitter: @SmartColdChain.
As expected, Idaho continues to have the most product remaining in storage for United States potato shipments this season, with loading opportunities higher than a year ago. Meanwhile, we also take at look at the best hauling opportunities for onions.Potatoes remaining in storages as of June 1st from the major potato shipping states totaled 55.5 million hundredweight (cwt), up 8 percent compared with a year ago, according to a USDA report.
The report noted potatoes in remaining in storage to be shipped in the top 13 potato-growing states, totaled 14 percent of the fall storage states’ 2016 production, which was 1 percent more than at the same time a year ago.
Potato shipments were up 1 pecent from a year ago and season-to-date shrink and loss was 9 pecent greater than a year ago.
Idaho potatoes in storage made up 38 pecent of total remaining spuds from the 2016 harvest, followed by Washington with 23 percent and 10 percent for Wisconsin.
Potato shipments out of the nation’s leading state, Idaho, are averaging over 1900 truck load equivalents of spud loadings per week. Meanwhile, the San Luis Valley of Colorado is moving nearly 700 truck loads each week, while southern Washington’s Columbia Basin and northern Oregon’s Umatilla Basin are shipping about 425 truckloads weekly of potatoes.
An interesting note is while Central Wisconsin has the third most potatoes in storage, it ranks fourth in weekly loadings with about 200 truck loads.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $4700 to New York City.
Onion Shipments
It is mostly dried onions coming out of storage right now. Volume is relatively low even among the leading volume onion shipping areas. Southern New Mexico has the most onion shipments right now averaging over 11oo truck loads per week. From here the drop off is significant as the combined Columbia Basin and Umatilla Basin (Washington and Oregon) is averaging only 425 truck loads a week – about the same as that area’s potato loadings.
In southeast Georgia where the sweet onion crop was one of the best in a long time, they are moving over 300 truck loads each week from storages.
New Mexico onions – grossing about $1500 to Dallas.
Washington, D.C. – On July 2nd, just in time for the 4th of July festivities, Avocados From Peru® (AFP) will treat baseball fans to a free topping of fresh Peruvian Avocado with the purchase of an Oriole dog during the Baltimore Orioles vs. Tampa Bay Rays game in Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Known as the ‘Avodog’, Peruvian Avocados add a flavorful twist to an American classic. Served with just a squeeze of lime or combined with other traditional hot dog toppings such as onions and tomatoes, freshly sliced or smashed Avocados From Peru make an ideal hot dog topping.
With nearly 20 essential vitamins and minerals, no sodium or cholesterol, and gluten free, it’s no secret why Peruvian Avocados are America’s favorite nutrient dense superfood.
Adding this heart-healthy fruit as a hot dog topping has already proven to be enormously popular with baseball fans –who devoured hundreds of fresh Peruvian Avocados during a New York Mets baseball game in July of 2015.
“We look forward to seeing Avocados from Peru become an integral part of the all-American tradition of attending a major league baseball game,” said Xavier Equihua, President and CEO of AFP.
Much like baseball, the season for Peruvian Avocados runs from May to September, earning them the nickname of “Summer Avocados.”
With the season in full swing, AFP has partnered with Walmart to feature and offer free tastings of this superfood at their stores. Fans who cannot attend the baseball game on July 2nd will still have the opportunity to try the Avodog at a local Walmart. Over 900 Walmart stores on the East Coast will also be demoing this baseball fan favorite on July 2nd.
Orioles fans taking public transportation to the game may also see city buses wrapped in a full-color billboard featuring the picturesque landscape of Peru and of course, delicious Avocados From Peru®. Various radio stations in the Baltimore area will also be featuring the famous frank throughout the summer.
For more ideas on how to top the classic hotdog with Peruvian Avocados, head to the AFP website:www.avocadosfromperu.com.
About the Peruvian Avocado Commission
The Peruvian Avocado Commission (PAC) is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was established in 2011 to increase the consumption/demand for Avocados from Peru through advertising, retail promotion and public relations. The PAC’s promotional activities are conducted under the guidelines of the federal promotion program for Hass avocados, which is under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Discount grocery retailer Aldi announced recently it would invest $3.4 billion to expand its U.S. store base to 2,500 by the year 2022.
The German grocer currently operates 1,600 stores in the United States and said earlier this year it would expand to 2,000 by the end of 2018 at a cost of $1.6 billion.
The $5 billion move would have Aldi as the third-largest U.S. food retailer by store count behind Walmart and Kroger.
“It should absolutely be more than scary to traditional grocers and retailers,” Mikey Vu of the consulting firm Bain & Co., was quoted as saying in a June 12 article in The Wall Street Journal. Vu said Aldi has improved its stores and products in recent years, and is attracting a larger mix of shoppers.
A point of differentiation by Aldi and other discounters, such as Lidl, which opened its first U.S. locations earlier this month, is their longstanding use of store brands to keep prices down, a common practice in Europe. U.S. consumers have traditionally been more brand loyal, but that is beginning to erode, especially with the millennial generation.
Millennials “are value-oriented and don’t hold the same stigmas about private-label items that older generations do,” Mike Paglia, director of the research firm Kantar Retail, was quoted as saying in the WSJ article.
“As we continue to expand and grow, our purchasing power continues to increase and allows us to bring products at better prices for consumers,” Scott Patton, Aldi’s head of corporate buying, said in an interview with CNBC.
Aldi said the new store openings would create 25,000 jobs over the next five years.
About Aldi
Aldi operates stores in 35 states, using a simple, cost-effective approach to grocery shopping to save shoppers on their grocery bills. The grocery chain’s website states shoppers have found that switching from national brands to ALDI exclusive brands can save them up to 50 percent on their weekly must-haves. More than 40 million customers each month shop with Aldi’s streamlined approach.