U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced details of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), which will provide up to $16 billion in direct payments to deliver relief to America’s farmers and ranchers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to this direct support to farmers and ranchers, USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box program is partnering with regional and local …
Berry People (www.berrypeople.com), a year-round, full-line shipper of branded organic and conventional strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and avocados has created new positions within its organization, added team members, and moved operations to a larger central CA office to accommodate the growth, with team members temporarily working from home until the mitigation of COVID-19 matters. “We are thankful to be an …
Pick Safety is a new effort from the California Strawberry Commission to highlight farm worker safety and industry-leading training and safety practices by emphasizing that everybody is responsible to always pick safety. “Our new I Pick Safety logo reminds people to be safe and healthy, and it highlights why this is important,” said Carolyn O’Donnell, communications director of the Commission. …
Strawberry planted acreage in California is up YOY in 2020 from its lowest level in almost 15 years, and increased plantings in the Santa Maria producing region continue. Florida’s acreage remains flat, while strawberry plantings in Mexico continue to expand. Updated estimates, based on our proprietary analytical tool, show that weekly strawberry shipments will increase in 2020, especially during California …
In one of the first agreements of its kind between California producers and a county food bank, two farms will begin providing, at a reasonable rate, produce to the Alameda County Community Food Bank, allowing it to provide additional much-needed fresh fruit and vegetables to a growing number of residents in need of assistance. This innovative pilot program assists the …
The Public Strawberry Breeding Program at the University of California, Davis, has released five new varieties that will help farmers manage diseases, control costs and produce plenty of large, robust berries using less water, fertilizer and pesticides. Two of the new varieties could increase yields by almost 30 percent. The Public Strawberry Breeding Program at the University of California, Davis, …
Botrytis fruit rot or gray mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea, is common fruit disease in California strawberries (Koike et al. 2018). Botrytis cinerea has a wide host range infecting several commercially important crops including blueberry (Saito et al. 2016), grapes (Saito et al., 2019), and tomato (Breeze, 2019). Fungal infection can cause flower or fruit rot. Fruit can be infected …
Having an odd number of chromosomes can produce sterile – and seedless fruit. Spitting out watermelon seeds can be a summertime rite of passage for some folks. Others like their watermelons seedless. How did those seedless watermelons (and other plants) come about? The May 7th Sustainable, Secure Food blog explains the topic of polyploidy. “Plants can have multiple sets of chromosomes, which …
Consumers want strawberries to be red, sweet, ripe and juicy, like those fresh picked from a garden. Suppliers want them to be easy to handle and ship, without getting squished. Commercial strawberry growers need their crops to be high-yielding and disease-resistant. An international team of scientists led by the University of California, Davis, and Michigan State University has taken a …
By Krisy Gashler These berries yield like the dickens. Cornell’s berry breeding program is releasing two new varieties, which will be available for planting in spring 2019: a strawberry, Dickens, and a raspberry, Crimson Treasure. Both varieties produce large fruits with vibrant colors that maintain peak flavor for longer than most heritage varieties. The new berries are the handiwork of …
