The state has expanded its quarantine for huanglongbing in both the Mission Viejo and Foothill Ranch areas of Orange County.

The new varieties, developed at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, reportedly show tolerance to huanglongbing and have improved Brix and color.

Both the Controlled Environment Agriculture Alliance and the Associations of Mexican Tomato Growers warn of dire consequences if the tomato suspension agreement ends.

Growers are grappling with a second consecutive year of waning demand and no home for their grapes. The issue is complex with non-tariff trade barriers hitting the wine industry especially hard and a flood of imports that are creating cheap wine with which U.S. grape growers can’t compete.

The contamination was discovered after samples collected from a store in Buffalo, N.Y., were analyzed by the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets Food Laboratory, revealing the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in some 200-gram packages of Enoki mushrooms.

As part of the festivities, IFPA and its members offered interactive, hands-on experiences for families, including planting carrot seeds, designing custom bouquets at the IFPA “Bloom Bar” and enjoying nutritious snack-sized bags of baby carrots.