Produce Podcasts

Fibermaxxing and Why Pears Are the Perfect Superfood for Modern Nutrition Trends

Wed, 13 May 2026 22:35:21 GMT

Fresh produce has a huge opportunity, says Barbara Ruhs, director of nutrition affairs and communications with USA Pears. Within the last year, the term “fibermaxxing” has exploded on social media, turning the latest viral trend into a shift in focus from protein to gut health.

Ruhs, who joined “The Packer Podcast” to highlight this trend, says the truth is most Americans don’t eat enough fiber.

“It’s estimated that for every 1,000 calories, people consume about 8 grams of fiber,” she says. “Daily recommendations are upwards of 25 per day. So, if you’re a general typical American consuming a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, that means that you’re getting about 16 grams of fiber, which is about half.”

And fibermaxxing calls for consuming 30 grams or more of dietary fiber. While those interested in adding fiber can choose whole grains, beans, lentils, supplements and more, fresh produce is perfectly positioned to lead the fibermaxxing conversation.

“Fiber is just related to so many positive health benefits from obviously gut health,” she says. “Consuming fiber also feeds the microbiome, so these beneficial bacteria in the gut ... have all these beneficial properties for your health and well-being.”

Ruhs says the fresh produce industry can learn from the protein craze and apply that appeal to fiber.

“One of the key things with protein is that it’s cool and that it’s associated with performance and more energy,” she says. “Knowing that protein is associated with performance and energy, I think is something very appealing to consumers. It’s same thing for fiber. Fiber can also help you feel better and perform better and give you energy and all these other things that help manage your blood sugar.”

Naturally, Ruhs says, pears are a good option for those seeking to add more fiber into their diets, as a medium fruit contains about 6 grams of fiber, which she says is higher than other fresh fruit.

“It is really a natural way to consume more dietary fiber,” she says. “When I’m talking about eating more pears, of course, we do tell people to add them to meals and combine them with other foods like proteins — but to think of them as something that helps you to feel better and live better and perform better overall.”

With a viral trend like fibermaxxing, there’s a lot of information out there. So, how does Ruhs recommend breaking through the noise? She uses what she calls a “science sandwich” in her messaging: Lead with the attention-grabbing component, add scientific information in the middle and end with food messaging.

For example, she says a science sandwich tackling fibermaxxing might go something like this: “Fibermaxxing is a is a popular trend. Why should you care personally about it? It’s going to help you feel better, perform better with better digestion, manage your blood sugar, help with neurological health, help you reduce your risk for like chronic diseases. And then, wow, wouldn’t it be great to add some sliced pears on a grilled pizza with some gorgonzola cheese or putting pears on a charcuterie board with some really nice cheese?”

She says this makes the nutrition information approachable and doable and doesn’t overwhelm consumers, and it also helps to promote fresh produce as a way to achieve fiber goals.

Retailers also have a huge opportunity to capitalize on the fibermaxxing trend. Ruhs says it’s important for retailers to engage consumers all along the path to purchase, from digital outreach to circulars and then also at POS displays. She says retailers can help boost the health halo of fresh produce by communicating the real benefits of a fiber-rich diet while offering real-life solutions.

Ruhs says this could be touting fiber’s ability to offer sustained energy throughout the day, managr blood sugar and more.

“Communicating messages along the path to purchase and after purchase so that it’s easy for consumers to connect,” she says.

Retailers can also help consumers find fiber-rich produce in stores with shelf tags and color-coded icons and endcaps and recipe ideas, such as fiber-filled snacks and side dishes with a gut-health focus.

And Ruhs says as younger generations continue to see a spike in colon cancer, fresh produce can play a huge role, too. She says emerging research shows the benefit of eating more fiber in colon cancer prevention.

“If we can get people to actually consume the five recommended fruits and vegetables per day, which [with] 30 years as a dietitian, I’ve been saying the same message: Eat more fruits and vegetables,” she says. “The fact that less than 10% of Americans consume even close to that is sad, but look at what’s happened with protein. So, if we can put some of that same magic to fiber and fresh produce, I do think we’re going to see the needle move.”

John Hollay on Why the 21st-Century Food System Cannot Be Saddled With 1980s Labor Policies

Fri, 01 May 2026 09:50:23 GMT

Agricultural labor is such a critical part of the fresh produce industry — beyond just another “input” — says John Hollay, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers. He joined “The Packer Podcast” to give an update on where ag labor sits at the federal level and why both relief from burdensome regulations and federal ag labor reform are necessary.

“What we have right now is an agriculture system, a food system that is rocketing forward into the 21st century and making sure that all farmers come along, but it’s saddled with a labor system essentially that comes from the 1980s,” he says.

Hollay says that Congress and those working in the administration see the challenges that growers face with getting and affording workers as a food security issue.

“It’s not just something that’s an afterthought for the few folks that actually are still engaged in agriculture,” he says.

Hollay says this administration has understood the unique challenges facing the agriculture industry when it comes to labor and has committed to solving those challenges. While Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer recently resigned and Keith Sonderling has been named acting secretary, Hollay says he doesn’t see a change in that support with that transition.

Sonderling attended NCAE’s annual meeting to discuss the importance of the interim final rule on the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which could provide $17 billion in projected relief to growers. Hollay says Sonderling has shown interest in protecting the regulatory investment in ag labor.

“We’re very happy to see Mr. Sonderling in that role and eager to see again the continued work to make sure that the interim final rule gets implemented in the way that it was envisioned and that the rest of the agencies that support the Department of Labor in its work in the H-2A program,” Hollay says.

He adds that the industry awaits the publishing of the final rule to codify the updates to the program to provide some clarity on the rule moving forward.

“We had a program that was broken for so long,” Hollay says. “So, getting a more reasonable wage back in place is something that’s critical.”

He says growers using the H-2A program have questions about this interim final rule and are seeking guidance on how to move forward with the publishing of the final rule.

“It’s really to bring the certainty that our members need as they’re trying to navigate this space,” he says. “[One] of things that the rule did was make it more affordable and more attractive to a lot of folks that haven’t used the H-2A program before.”

Also top of mind for many using the H-2A program is federal-level legislative relief. Hollay says House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson has indicated a focus on passing the farm bill before working on legislative relief, which will hopefully happen soon. Hollay says it’s critical that some sort of federal reform gets passed to help provide certainty for the future of U.S. agriculture.

“We’ve been operating under the 2018 farm bill and obviously had some fixes in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ so we know we need that,” Hollay says. “It’s been 40 years since we’ve had a labor fix. … We’ve got to make sure that the employers know that they’re going to have the workers there that can actually help them take advantage of this updated farm policy.”

Why Hispanic Consumers Are the Future Engine of Produce Growth

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:47:23 GMT

Ruth Villalonga, president and CEO of Villa Communications, says it’s common for marketers across industries to see Hispanic shoppers as a niche — and it’s time to forget this misconception.

“This is a multitrillion-dollar market,” she says. “It is the engine of the economic future of this country. The Hispanic segment of our American consumer is younger. It‘s actually larger. It’s growing faster than any other group. It has a longer spending horizon than the general market.”

Villalonga joined “The Packer Podcast” to offer viewers a sneak peek of a session on the Hispanic shopper, “Billions in the Basket: Engaging the Hispanic Shopper With Fresh,” to be featured Friday, May 29, during the West Coast Produce Expo.

She says what this means for fresh produce is that the Hispanic shopper overindexes not only on grocery spending but also particularly on fresh fruits. Villalonga says Hispanic shoppers also see value and quality as key standards.

“If your strategy does not include them, you have a huge hole in your growth strategy,” she says.

Villalonga says Hispanic shoppers are high-spend decision-makers and heavy food users. Many Latino households cook at home, buy produce multiple times a week and gather with extended family around the table.

“The incremental dollar of growth that you see in that group and that you will see over the next decade is disproportionate when it comes to their habits and their culture and how they spend,” she says.

Villalonga notes that bicultural Latinos show an openness to discovery, trying new brands and identifying equally as 100% Hispanic and 100% American, which she says likely contributes to that experimentation seen in the store perimeter.

“We need to retire this idea that [Hispanic people] are just the hands in the field,” she says. “The data show they are trading up in natural, organic, better-for-you produce, and they’re extremely intentional about quality and flavor.”

And this, Villalonga says, provides retailers an opportunity to understand what Hispanic shoppers truly value and see them as co-creators in storytelling.

“They are heavily moved by a cultural connection and by heritage,” she says. “They have a strong preference for products from their country. For example, they also like the storytelling that connects their food to the roots.”

Villalonga says, for retailers, focusing on storytelling with bilingual experiences and authentic cultural clues is a great way to connect with those shoppers.

“They’re also very heavy digital users, so they overindex on WhatsApp, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram,” she says. “So, using those platforms and those channels to connect authentically will be an important part of how you start thinking about embracing this consumer.”

She says Hispanic shoppers prefer family-run businesses and will reward brands that speak authentically to their values through storytelling.

Villalonga says she’s excited to take the stage at the West Coast Produce Expo and hopes panel attendees understand the significant opportunity the Hispanic shopper provides.

“My hope is that retailers and suppliers walk away seeing the Latino consumer opportunity, not as a specialty add-on campaign, but as part of their default growth plan,” she says.

Reimagining the Produce Playbook for an Omnichannel World

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 21:19:00 GMT

“There is nothing about 2026 that is what we’ve always done and what we should keep doing,” says Jonna Parker, vice president of the fresh food group at Circana.

Parker, who joined “The Packer Podcast” to give a quarterly update on trends in the fresh produce industry, says the model of growers growing a commodity and then a grocery store marketing and selling that item is antiquated.

“The reality is consumers can discover and buy anything they want, whenever they want,” she says. “In any other consumer industry now, and even in produce, we are finding that digital discovery is vitally important, and e-commerce is important too.”

Parker says it’s time for the fresh produce industry to level up and fill the gap between the way consumers discover and purchase produce and how it is marketed.

“This gap between the way that consumers now discover and the way that other consumer-facing goods strategize about the role of price, availability, discovery is really disrupted right now,” she says.

Price is no longer an in-store and on-shelf discovery. Consumers are discovering produce in very different ways, she says, noting the rise of e-commerce and delivery apps.

“Nine out of 10 U.S. consumers are omnichannel shoppers, so even if they’re not converting online for the final mile of purchase, they’re using those apps as well as retailer apps to check prices, to check promotions in a whole new world,” she says.

Touting produce items for their “freshness” is also no longer a good marketing tactic. Freshness is table stakes, Parker says.

“The consumer is discovering differently in-store, out of store, in more places than ever,” she says. “So, the role of price really is not just a linear concept anymore. And I think it is the responsibility of all members of the supply chain to be smart and strategic on price.”

While consumers still perceive grocery prices are high, produce prices deflated in January and February and are lower than before the pandemic. So, she says, this is an opportunity for the industry to tout the unique value proposition of fresh produce.

Social media can play a critical role in this, too, she says. Parker points to cucumbers and grapes as ways in which both viral social media moments translated to sales data. Potatoes have also been popular on social media posts. Influencers showed how to extend the shelf life of grapes and also how grapes are a perfect snack. With cucumbers, an influencer showed how one cucumber could become several economical meals.

“This was all during a time when the consumer was trying to stretch their dollar more than ever, but we think in dollars and in spreadsheets,” she says. “We think spreading your dollar more than ever meant strategic price and promotion, but to the consumer, it was taking one item and being able to use it in multiple ways.”

She says consumers want information on how to incorporate produce into meals, and she says this is where center-store items have a leg up on produce. Center-store items have real estate on packaging and have spent a lot of time educating consumers on how to use the produce. But with produce, before the era of social media, that education came at the point of sale.

“When you compare price per ounce, price per volume, per eating occasion and serving, produce wins almost over any other thing you could use in its place,” she says. “When you show someone how to take that high-value, good-tasting, great item and use it in all these different ways, like freezing grapes or taking one cucumber and making three or four different salads with other things you have on hand, that’s [what] consumers want. They just needed to be shown.”

Parker says consumers seek out this type of food entertainment, where social media messaging can help show them new and exciting uses for sought-after fresh produce items.

“It’s entertainment at a moment where we need it more than ever,” she says.

And Parker adds that when brands spend on digital and social media messaging, it converts to real sales.

“If you look at almost any other consumer good in 2026, their marketing mix includes digital and social and trade, and the proof is so easy to see: Volume goes up when you digitally target smartly based on occasions and relevance to the right people at the right time,” she says. “All we need to do is do it.”

South Mill Champs' Lewis Macleod on Why Mushroom Automation is No Longer Optional

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:35:15 GMT

Mushrooms are a challenging crop to grow, doubling in size every day. There is a fine line between a mushroom that is ready to be picked and one that is past its prime, and this is where the potential for automation comes in, says Lewis Macleod, CEO of South Mill Champs.

Macleod joined “The Packer Podcast” to discuss automation in the mushroom industry.

“The challenge when it comes to picking mushrooms is making sure you pick the mushroom at the right time before it opens but also at the right time so it’s grown to be the optimum size that mushrooms are going to grow,” he says. “The challenge of growing mushrooms is every mushroom is different.”

He says it’s a fine line between the optimum time to pick a mushroom and one with gills that have opened and flattened out and has become too mature.

“Once it’s opened, the value of that crop is 20% to 25% of what it was beforehand,” he says. “The value of a product that’s become mature is below the cost to grow. So, it’s fundamental that you pick that crop at the right time. If you don’t have the labor, you’re really out of business.”

It’s this distinction between the optimum time to pick and too late that requires an incredibly skilled workforce.

“One of the challenges you have in the industry is this is not an unskilled labor job,” he says. “This is a job that requires nine, often 12, weeks of training to really require dexterity, and it’s also a repetitive job. It’s also a very difficult job.”

Labor is also a costly portion of growing mushrooms, he says, which can vary between 30% and 50%, and there’s also the ergonomics of picking, which can be harder for workers depending on the type of growing system.

While labor has been abundant in the U.S. in the last 20 to 30 years, it’s been a greater challenge in Canada and Europe, which has forced mushroom growers to modernize both infrastructure and automation.

Automation, Macleod says, increases efficiency and therefore helps reduce the overall cost of goods, which he says is critical as mushrooms compete against different commodities to fill consumers’ shopping carts.

“It’s simple math: When you’ve got labor as such a high percentage of your cost of goods and labor inflation exists, the cost of your product is increasing greater than maybe some of the competitive products that mushrooms compete against there on the shelf space,” he says. “This need to automate is really to allow it to compete against its alternative price on the shelf space.”

Macleod says the potential with artificial intelligence and machine learning with automation is high. Not only can automation allow for more fine-tuned picking of a bed more than once, but the robots will also pick continuously, which will boost quality.

“The opportunity to improve yield is really, really important when it comes to quality,” he says. “The great thing here is you can ensure the specification of what you committed to that customer is what goes into the pack.”

And coupled with cold-chain technology, the mushroom can be stored at the optimum temperature to provide the best product to the end consumer.

For the U.S. mushroom industry to reap those benefits, Macleod says, many growers need to upgrade to more modern production styles that are essentially more robot-ready. In Europe and Canada, more than 90% of growers use the Dutch production style, whereas in the U.S., that number is around 25% to 30%.

“There’s this transition that has to happen within the U.S. — to transition from old infrastructure to new infrastructure, to allow automation to happen in the U.S.,” he says.

Kam Quarles on the Path Toward Economic Recovery for Specialty Crops

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 06:25:31 GMT

It’s a challenging time for the specialty crop industry, says National Potato Council’s CEO Kam Quarles, who is one of four co-chairs of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance. Quarles joined “The Packer Podcast” to recap a week of visits on Capitol Hill with more than 100 potato growers from across the country.

“I think everyone is very focused on meeting with their members of Congress, explaining the environment right now, why it’s so dire, and then hearing from those House and Senate members: What’s the timing on an economic relief plan? What does it look like? What’s the size of it? How, ultimately, is that going to get out to family farms to keep them in business, hopefully, to get past this really ugly period?” he says.

And, of course, Quarles says another big part of the conversation was of the draft of the farm bill, which has now moved out of committee. He adds that discussions, markups and everything that goes along with getting a bill through the legislative process are key steps.

“If you never have a markup, you’re not going to get to the president’s desk,” he says.

Quarles points to the significant representation of specialty crops in this new iteration of the farm bill, commending House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson for working with the specialty crop industry to ensure it has representation in the farm bill. Quarles says this is in part due to the work of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance.

“Over the last 20 years, specialty crops, the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry, has gone from really nonexistent in the farm bill to one of the fastest-growing players in the farm bill, and really one of the most valuable connections directly back to consumers from the production ag side of the farm bill,” he says.

Of the highlights of this farm bill, Quarles says, is language on how the USDA sets up economic relief for specialty crop growers and the understanding that it’s different from row crop growers.

“Specialty crops are different than program crops, and why reinvent the wheel? Just rinse and repeat,” he says. “Make sure the programs that have worked, that have kept family farms in business — reload them with new resources, and you get it out the door efficiently.”

Quarles also points to provisions in this new farm bill for whole-farm revenue insurance for specialty crop growers and funding set aside for research on mechanization to help bring the specialty crop industry into the future.

And it’s that future, Quarles says, that the farm bill needs to look toward.

“We need a reauthorized farm bill right now that is looking not only at our current circumstances but [also] hopefully 10 years out in the future,” he says. “This is an incredibly competitive world that we are in. Our producers are feeling it, and they need tools that empower their competitiveness rather than kind of hold them back to an end, to a world that really doesn’t exist anymore.”

Quarles says this farm bill is long overdue, as this current economic crisis facing farmers is more of a perfect storm. Take inflation, rising input costs from overseas imports, ag labor challenges and layer in nearly perfect weather conditions, which created a larger crop, and you have a recipe for disaster.

“You have a larger-than-average crop that was very expensive to produce, and then you have consumers on the other side who are pulling back on some of their purchases — they’re seeing a more volatile world — and so, demand has been shrinking, and all of these have caused this collision, where, for potatoes, just in the russet variety alone, we’re looking at potentially half a billion dollars in grower losses,” he says. “The American Farm Bureau did an analysis of all of the varieties of potatoes out there. They’re estimating roughly $780 million in grower losses this year, and so extrapolate that out across all of the specialty crops, and the gravity of this crisis comes into focus pretty, pretty quickly.”

Quarles says while many may point to tax changes that could provide growers relief, in the meantime, growers are still farming with the same challenges they’ve faced but now with much tighter margins.

“We’re dealing with the present, and out in the future, those policies are going to take effect; if family farms go bankrupt in that interim, none of those policy improvements are going to impact them,” he says. “They’re out of the game, and that’s exactly what we want to avoid. That’s why this economic relief program is so important to deliver it efficiently, to keep those really valuable family farms in the game until better times are realized.”

Why You Should Nominate a Frontline Hero for Farmworker of the Year

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:00:24 GMT

“Farmworkers are the backbone of the agricultural industry,” says Alexandra Martinez, senior digital marketing and sales associate with the Equitable Food Initiative.

Martinez joined “The Packer Podcast” for a special episode to highlight EFI and The Packer’s third annual Farmworker of the Year Award. The nomination period closes Friday, Feb. 27.

Martinez says while many awards highlight suppliers, retailers and marketers, EFI saw a real need to celebrate farmworkers.

“The journey of fresh produce — of the fruits and vegetables that we have on our tables — not only starts with farmworkers, but it also depends on their specialized skills, knowledge and labor,” she says. “We wanted to give them the space to be recognized, to be cheered and to learn more about their stories, their passions, their knowledge and even their careers.”

Every worker nominated will get a certificate and recognition. Martinez says in previous years, companies of these workers have made it a point to celebrate the recognition. Past winners often comment about the teamwork it takes on the farm and also mention the importance of their colleagues, bosses and families. She says most are just thankful to be recognized.

“It’s just really sweet to see how thankful they are for everything,” Martinez adds.

What Makes a Good Nomination?

Anyone in the fresh produce industry can nominate a farmworker throughout North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Workers must be in the same role for two years or more.

Information is also available in Spanish and English at equitablefood.org/fwoy .

Martinez says any details provided can help paint a picture of why a farmworker is deserving of the award.

“Don’t be shy about writing a super-long nomination, because that’s really what we want,” she says. “We want a lot of details about skills that they have learned, milestones at work. … Those little details are the ones that are key for those final decisions.”

She says there are examples of past nominations that EFI earmarked as being particularly descriptive and helpful.

“We had some examples with some of the farmworkers who volunteered to teach co-workers how to drive or learn a third or second language,” she says. “And those are the skills we want to know, because that allows us to understand a little more, not only the environment where they are working but also to see a little more about the kind of person they are.”

As far as the nomination process, Martinez says it’s fairly straightforward with a few questions to answer. One key part of the nomination is to include a photo, as EFI will celebrate all nominees.

“Even if they don’t win or even if they are not the finalists, they’re going to be highlighted through social media with #FarmWorkerFriday,” Martinez says. “We’re always finding ways to highlight the people, the farmworkers, the frontline workers and people at your organization.”

Even if someone at a farm isn’t the one responsible for submitting a nomination, Martinez encourages everyone to spread the word to make sure those who can nominate someone do.

“This is the third year, and we want to keep doing that next year,” she says. “We really need your support, your nominations. We’re really looking forward to seeing who’s going to be the winner this year.”

Tamara Muruetagoiena on Building a Unified Roadmap for Sustainability for Fresh Produce

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 01:46:37 GMT

For a long time, the fresh produce industry was in a definition loop when it came to sustainability, and that noticeably hindered progress, says Tamara Muruetagoiena, vice president of sustainability for the International Fresh Produce Association.

Muruetagoiena joined “The Packer Podcast” to discuss the association’s work in developing the Global Fresh Produce and Floral Sustainability Framework , the challenges with bringing all stakeholders to the table and the benefits a framework will have for the industry.

It’s important the industry has a common language and is on the same page with sustainability, she explains.

“That common language is so needed right now, because for the longest time we’ve acted very focused on the different commodities and were very, very fragmented,” Muruetagoiena says. “It didn’t help anybody in the sustainability space.”

That alignment of language will help the industry better communicate the work already being done, she adds.

“We are the most sustainable industry in the world,” Muruetagoiena says. “Yet nobody knows about this. Well, that needs to stop. So, if we don’t have a common voice, how are we’re going to, you know, tell the world about this? We need to have a clarity for ourselves, where we are and where we’re going.”

Part of where the industry is going is within this framework, which focuses on five pillars: packaging, regenerative agriculture, food loss and waste, social responsibility, and climate change.

“It will give companies the opportunity to have a blueprint and then a North Star for their work on sustainability, on any part of sustainability,” she says.

Muruetagoiena says it was important to start on this framework with growers while also bringing retailers and other stakeholders into the conversation. She says it was clear that the industry needed, within this framework, definitions, outlines, key performance indicators and tools already in existence that can help growers meet this framework. IFPA plans to roll out the framework during its Global Produce and Floral Show in October.

Audit fatigue, she says, is a significant bottleneck in the industry as retailers seek to carve out a unique sustainability path that is a differentiator from competitors. However, this leads to many requirements and data for growers who have already put forth a lot of effort in meeting sustainability goals. She adds this is why the industry needs a framework and agreement to get all stakeholders on the same page.

“We need to create systems for the entire industry, and we need to have industrywide conversations, and we need to have everybody at the table,” Muruetagoiena says. “It’s also extremely difficult to accomplish, because they’re all very different companies. They all have their goals, but we need to come to an agreement. It’s not going to come easy.”

First, growers will need to be prepared for a sustainability audit. Muruetagoiena says much like food safety audits, sustainability audits will be necessary, though she tempers the idea of an additional audit with the understanding that the industry will need to streamline the process so it is not too onerous for growers.

“The grower community needs to agree that, yes, they will have to be certified for sustainability, and they’re so close to that,” she says. “There will be an effort there, and that effort is not to be taken lightly, so it will be significant.”

Then, Muruetagoiena says retailers also need to meet growers at a place where a standard certification, like the Consumer Goods Forum, would be accepted and not added to more requirements.

“I think that retailer community needs to acknowledge that work and stop their requirements after there’s a certification that is benchmarked against a system that they recognize,” she says.

Muruetagoiena says while it’s natural for some in the fresh produce industry to be skeptical of this effort, this framework is needed and will help ease any friction between retailers and growers in meeting sustainability requirements.

“I think the industry is really ready to find a solution,” she says. “They were really tired of the retailer requirements in the producer community, and the retailers are also sometimes tired of producers saying, ‘No, we can’t do this. This is too difficult.’ So, if there’s more of an industry-type agreement, I think everybody’s going to benefit.”

How Molly Pop Harnesses Nostalgia for Modern Marketing

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 21:06:49 GMT

Molly Pop Grape and Citrus Co. isn’t a traditional produce marketer. John Cymbal, the company’s co-founder and chief marketing officer , says the company doesn’t even look at produce as competition but instead at snacks in general.

“From Day 1, the goal was never to compete with the grapes next to us or other produce for that matter,” he says. “It was to compete with the things in your cart that weren’t grapes.”

Cymbal joins “The Packer Podcast” to talk about how Molly Pop approaches produce marketing from a different perspective. He says it’s drawing on the nostalgia of childhood sweets. People don’t eat produce because it’s healthy, he adds; people flock to produce because it tastes good and it brings joy.

“We leaned hard with Molly Pop with the flavor and the crunch and that nostalgia of candy,” he says. “Because our produce tastes like candy, it just echoes all that joy. And we’re not trying to leave the produce aisle with any of this. We’re trying to take a share back from the snack aisle.”

Cymbal says building brand awareness and loyalty in the produce department can be a bit of a challenge, but he says it begins with an experience.

“Those emotional connections are so key, and they’re very hard to get,” he says. “But building emotions with connections through consistency and delight in everything that we offer. You have to have that consistency, always be giving them some delight, to engage them, to excite them. ... What we’re striving to do is when you grab that pink bag, you’re picking up a promise that that’s what’s going to be in there.”

Cymbal says that the seasonality of fresh produce offers marketers an opportunity to create buzz and excitement, much like clothing and shoe companies that offer limited-time drops.

“Produce is inherently limited-edition,” he says. “Which is awesome. Every harvest is a moment. How do we capitalize on that? Every variety has a window, and we just decided to market it honestly, like culture does. When we have our availability calendar, those are all moments to engage, to get people excited. And those moments start with a moment by creating stories that back them up.”

Cymbal says these “curated picks” of fresh produce offer consumers quality and a flavor experience they can expect in every bag.

“That’s the edge of produce,” he says. “Because we are inherently limited-edition. ... Our grapes or produce becomes emotional when it stops being a commodity and it really starts to be a moment.”

And as for how Cymbal and his team work with retailers to bring Molly Pop into stores in a produce department that already offers grapes, he says the conversation is around repeat behavior.

“I try to tell them in one way or another that we’re not selling grapes, we’re not selling citrus, we’re not selling juice — we’re selling repeat behavior,” he says. “We’re giving your store a destination that guarantees what’s in this particular slot is going to be bright, bold, fresh and beautiful.”

And while many consumers might come to a produce department to buy a standard red, green or black grape, that’s not the ideal Molly Pop customer.

“We’re looking for a consumer who wants something new, fresh, innovative; it makes you want to come back for more,” Cymbal says. “That’s what we’re pushing for every single time. We want consistently people to come in. We want people to crave it. We want people to think about it and to have, you know, Molly Pop as that destination for all of that.”

Why the Industry Needs to Focus on Produce Pounds Not Just Dollars

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 01:15:05 GMT

The days of circular ads driving sales is over says Jonna Parker, vice president of the fresh food group at Circana. Shoppers have changed, and because shoppers have changed, that means the industry needs to change its approach to how it sells produce.

“We’re not going back to the days where people are just opening up their circular ad and circling and then going to one grocery store that has not been the way we’ve shopped as Americans for many years,” she says.

Parker joined “The Packer Podcast” to share some of Circana’s latest findings from its “Future of” survey. She says the overall outlook for the produce industry looks good, with a 2.5% dollar increase year-over-year and the produce retail sector to hit $101 billion this year. And while those dollar figures make the fresh produce industry a formidable force of growth, Parker says the growth trajectory for pounds sold isn’t quite as strong. She says Circana projects only a 1% growth in pounds year-over-year.

“When you expect stronger growth, and certainly in the last year, produce didn’t always grow as fast, especially in pound volume, especially in dollar sales, as other departments, like the deli prepared space, the frozen food space, the beverages aisle and the big story of 2025 was all about protein,” she says. “This year, being a 2.5% is certainly something we can high-five about. But gosh, shouldn’t it be bigger?”

While pounds are a major metric for produce industry businesses, Parker says, dollars are obviously a critical part of a retailer’s financial outlook, so the two are always linked.

“If you’re a retailer, marketer, grower, shipper, brand or manufacturer, dollars are also important,” she says. “Because, especially if you’re a retailer, selling more pounds at a low loss leader doesn’t help you make your profit numbers.”

Parker, too, says price is another part of the equation with dollars and volume. Disruptions in the fresh produce supply chain can cause numbers to go up and down, while dollars and volume more closely correlate to supply.

“I’m not here to say that we should stop doing as advanced forecasting and supply as we have, but I think what I’ve often found in produce is the best place to explain this is demand is as important as supply,” she says.

She points to the dramatic change in shoppers’ behavior as more young shoppers move away from traditional grocery stores to buy produce.

“Grocery is now only about 40% to 45% of sales for U.S. produce,” she says. “When we did our survey work, many consumers, especially under the age 40, list non-grocery channel retailers as their favorite place to buy produce and give them tons of high marks on things like quality and freshness and healthy options and snacking.”

So, the focus needs to turn to “who is buying what, where and when,” Parker adds. She says building demand is critical for the fresh produce industry. Consumers get inundated with information through social media and other mediums. This digital age has changed consumer expectations and how consumers see produce.

“Produce is no longer a commodity,” she says. “A commodity implies there are no other choices. You have to buy this. But there are many other choices.”

And, consumers are no longer in a silo, she says, referencing the days of a circular ad driving sales. Consumers might research online and buy in store. Consumers might buy online. Consumers might also see product placement in a store that drives a sale.

“Where strategy is going to show a separation and results in this back half of the decade is to recognize the companies, whether they be retailers or suppliers, that are recognizing that consumers have needs and demands, and that when we understand that so much more with whatever we’re selling, that’s really going to help us stand out from the competition,” Parker says.

Peter O'Driscoll on EFI's Bold Stakeholder Strategy to Unlock Systems Change

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:37:43 GMT

Peter O’Driscoll, executive director of the Equitable Food Initiative, says his outlook on working with organizations and people with often differing perspectives has changed over time.

“In my younger days, I did a lot of work in advocacy, and advocacy is typically about telling people what they’re doing wrong and what they should do differently,” he says. “At this point in my life, I would say there’s really no point in trying to argue with stakeholders or to convince them to change their positions. So EFI starts from the premise that stakeholder interests are legitimate, even if they are totally opposite and opposed.”

O’Driscoll joined “The Packer Podcast” to share how EFI’s approach to bringing all stakeholders to the table can enact real change.

“What we’ve discovered is that when companies engage and listen to their workers, they do better on things like recruitment and retention,” he says. They become more productive; they become better suppliers. That helps them build business with their customers.”

And O’Driscoll says it’s more than likely those stakeholders disagree on about 90%, but he says, it’s that 10% that overlaps where the opportunities are.

“If you can keep folks focused on the small space where those interests overlap and build trust and build collaboration, you can begin to move out into deeper and more lasting forms of collaboration,” he says.

As for successes in this collaborative approach, O’Driscoll points to his work with Good Farms. As a major retailer looked to build out an EFI certification program, Andrew Williamson, owner of Good Farms, agreed to work with EFI to help build out this certification. And, Good Farms has continued to work with EFI on all of its new initiatives, O’Driscoll says, from greenhouse gas reduction programs to documenting and accrediting agricultural skills.

“What I would say about them is having certified all of their operations, they are really reaping the benefits of a much more engaged and motivated workforce,” O’Driscoll says. “And I hear that from their customers. I hear that from their retail customers. I hear it from farm management, but perhaps from my perspective, most importantly, I hear that from workers when I visit their operations, when they talk about how things have changed over time, on their operations and especially when newer workers compare that workplace culture to other places where they have worked.”

O’Driscoll also talked about how an Los Angeles Times article in 2014 helped spur on the Ethical Charter Implementation Program. He says following a joint effort in the produce industry, the charter was published in 2018. But, he says, advocacy communities criticized the Ethical Charter because it lacked input from labor.

“When the charter was published in 2018, EFI came out, and I think we were among the very few organizations that actually applauded and celebrated the publication,” he says. “And we immediately went to our retail partners, the folks with whom we worked on certification and said: ‘There’s a lot of good stuff in this charter, but how are you going to know which of your suppliers and their growers are actually upholding the principles of this charter? In practice, you have no way of knowing that, and that’s where your risk lies.’ And to their credit, those retail buyers agreed and accepted that there was risk, and that’s when they agreed to work with us on developing an implementation program.”

And O’Driscoll says the spirit of the ECIP is to help suppliers along a journey of continuous improvement.

“It doesn’t have a set of standards,” he says. “It’s a capacity building program, not a compliance test. And that means that even an employer who’s really struggling to implement effective labor management systems can demonstrate engagement and improvement over time. The whole premise of the program is it’s not difficult to embrace continuous improvement if you’re willing to be honest and open about what your starting point is because this ESIP lab software platform will actually guide you through the steps you need to strengthen those management systems over time.

Counting Down The Packer Podcast's Top 5 Moments Of 2025

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 23:12:26 GMT

2025 for The Packer Podcast has been a year of great conversations. While interviewing leaders and disruptors in the fresh produce industry, each guest has a chance to answer some “Fresh Take” questions to help our viewers get to know them a little better.

While each response is as unique as the guest, here are a few of my favorite responses:

1. Surprising “Saturday Night Live” Connection

Jennie Coleman, president of Equifruit and Chief Banana Badass, shared how she took a job as a cook for the Aykroyd family in Kingston, Ontario, after wrapping up a master’s degree.

Catch the entire episode here .

2. Beach, Please!

Tara Murray, vice president of marketing for Fresh Innovations and Yo Quiero Brands, shared how she answered the question when her future husband asked her what her dream job was.

Catch the entire episode here .

3. Silver Screen Shoutout

Walt Duflock, senior vice president of Western Growers, shares how his program at eBay had 15 minutes of fame in the “40-Year-Old Virgin” movie.

Catch the entire episode here .

4. Put Me in Coach

Frank Yiannas, former deputy commissioner of the FDA, shared with “The Packer Podcast” viewers his love of the New York Yankees and his dream to play in Yankee Stadium.

Catch the entire episode here .

5. Urban Farmers

Canadian Produce Marketing Association President Ron Lemaire shared his early ties to agriculture on his family’s farm in Ottawa.

Catch the entire episode here .

Uber's Hashim Amin on the Company's Unique Value Proposition in Grocery

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 10:09:37 GMT

Hashim Amin, head of grocery and retail for North America at Uber, says the company’s recent partnership with Albertsons is a prime example of how it seeks to redefine the grocery experience.

“When we think about these partnerships, you know, it’s really about building deeper, stickier customer relationships, and really extending the ability for Albertsons to get those framework groceries to their customers as well as new customers as well,” he says.

As for how Amin sees Uber competing against other large grocery delivery offerings, he says he sees the company as more of a “top-up” type of service, where a consumer might need something between trips for a meal or if an unexpected guest comes over.

“That’s where we play that really incremental but key role in getting those things to you for your last-minute needs,” he says. “Usually you have friends coming over or family coming over, and we can get that stuff to you within 30 minutes. And so, that’s why we have such a unique sort of incremental position that we’re able to serve for our merchants and customers.”

As for those consumers hesitant to utilize a delivery service for fresh produce, Amin says Uber has developed technologies to help consumers better convey expectations on the ripeness of avocados, bananas or other produce. He says this is about establishing trust with the consumer, which is critical.

“And trust is really earned through consistency,” he says.

The company also offers a freshness guarantee that if a consumer gets an item from a store that’s not what they want, Uber will replace it, Amin says.

“If you have specified you wanted a specific type of banana or avocado, and we pick it, but it’s not what you were looking for, we’ll make it right,” he says. “[It’s] looking at smarter replacement powered by AI. So, we will learn very quickly that you don’t like that, and we’ll make sure the next time we get as close to what you’re looking for as well.”

Amin says fresh produce plays a key role in Uber’s delivery platform.

“We find that fresh produce is really important because it drives, not only drives trust when you get it right, but it drives repeats,” he says. “Once we can deliver your fresh produce, or whether it’s your seafood or chicken or your barbecue, quickly and reliably, you’ll use us again for those last-minute needs that we serve. So, we put a lot of emphasis and effort into getting a lot of basics right.”

And as far as going head-to-head with Amazon? Amin says he sees Uber’s success in the unique role of being a source for “top-up” shopping, which he says is unique.

“We’re not really competing with the direct sort of stock-up shopping that you’re doing for your week or your month,” he says. “We’re playing that last-minute real convenience need for products that usually tend to be a smaller basket, and so a basket is usually a third or quarter of the size of your weekly shopping as a result.”

Get a Sneak Peek of What's New at the East Coast Produce Expo with Director of Events Heather Sterrett

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 22:31:36 GMT

Attendees at the East Coast Produce Expo will come together from across the country and world for two days in Adventura, Fla., to celebrate produce. To be held Jan. 12-13 at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa, this is the first major fresh produce trade event of the year.

Heather Sterrett, director of events and expos for Farm Journal, joins “The Packer Podcast” for a special episode to preview the event.

“It’s a nice way to kick off the year and just start,” Sterrett says. “Who doesn’t love going to Florida for a couple of days in January when you’re someplace cold? It’s a good way to start off the year and a nice warm destination.”

Networking and Activities Lineup

The event kicks off with a pickleball tournament, golf tournament, a poolside event and a tour of Little Havana in Miami.

“It will be super exciting go down into Miami and little Havana and get a tour of some really cool restaurants and places and get some food samples,” she says. “We also added pickleball, so if you’re not a golfer but do want to do some type of activity physical activity, you can do the pickleball tournament.”

Chair massages and networking will be key highlights of the Produce Pool Day.

The Olympic-Themed Opening Reception and Keynote

And the official opening ceremonies of East Coast Produce Expo kicks off with the Opening Reception. Known for its fun themes, this is not to be missed. Sterrett encourages attendees to come dressed in attire fit for an opening ceremony. There will be pineapple bowling, curling and, of course, other special surprises.

“We’re going to do a USA Olympics theme and that ties into our keynote speaker, who will be speaking on Tuesday morning: Dominique Dawes, who is a former Olympic gymnast. She’ll be speaking Tuesday, so wear your red, white and blue and come all decked out in USA Olympic attire on Monday.”

Dawes will close out the education sessions and presentation with her talk “Success is a journey, not a destination.”

“She will do photos afterwards too, so if you want to get your photo with an Olympic gymnast, you’ll have that opportunity,” Sterrett says.

Want to register? Visit EastCoastProduceExpo.com to learn more.

Steve Mantle on How to Make Data Actionable for Growers

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 21:55:03 GMT

As Steve Mantle, founder and CEO of Innov8.ag, an ag tech company that provides data-driven solutions to growers, began working in agriculture, he says he underestimated the complexity of agriculture with its layers and layers of information that growers process to make decisions.

In the latest episode of “The Packer Podcast,” Mantle shares the importance of actionable data to improve operations. He says back when Innov8.ag started six years ago he quickly learned the variation between crops, regions and even growers.

“Every farm wants to do something slightly different and has different processes,” he says. “The toughest one, I think, was realizing that the tech adoption pace in farms is much slower than it is in pure tech and in B2C and B2B type scenarios. Realizing that the pace depends on personal relationships and the value of field-ready solutions, not just theoretical potential.”

Mantle says it’s easy for ag tech companies to get lost in the idea of a big picture solution, but for many growers, simple changes can have a huge impact.

He shares how one blueberry and cherry grower that uses Innov8.ag’s FairPick system learned that 15% of workers weren’t covering the minimum wage with the crops picked. So, the grower took those workers and worked on retraining and allocating to other projects, and the other 85% of workers picked an additional 10 minutes.

“That identifies as about $4,500 a day in savings,” he says. “So that quickly adds up, obviously, in a month.”

He says Innov8.ag has a project with the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, which equipped automated harvesters with cameras. He says one camera pointed down at the bins, which would be filled with blueberries as the harvester ran and then another positioned at the back of the harvester to see what was left on the blueberry bushes and what fell to the ground. He says this helps growers understand what’s happening with the harvesters.

“Bringing that all together is really key to making it actionable,” Mantle says of adding technology. “It’s all about the layers of the data and thinking about the data in different ways. And it really comes down to your process management at the end of the day, too, on being able to take action on it.”

One thing he’s seen is the greater need of growers on clarity of the data being generated, and this is the role technology plays in helping growers better understand the meaning behind the data.

“What works in apples could be different for blueberries or row crops, but the demand for trusted data is absolutely universal, and as tech providers, it’s our responsibility to ensure that we understand the complexity of each crop and each region,” he says. “Not going in arrogantly believing that what works in one place works in another or that we have all the answers; always be listening is really key.”

He says he approaches solutions for growers by asking the simple question: What keeps you up at night? And from there, he sees what types of data points, or lack thereof, creates stress for the growers.

“Quality is key that ties into profitability,” he says. “Often, we’ll hear people talk about, ‘Oh boy, how do I keep people working or more productive more of the time? How do I make sure that they’re not standing in line for different things?’” he says. “How to even just check out and check in, how do we make their [growers’] lives more simple? So, it’s just getting down in the brass tacks around pain points and challenges.”

And for growers seeking to turn data into action, he recommends starting with the basic question: What problem do you have that you need to solve right now?

Mantle says this is where collaboration between growers, tech companies and organizations plays a critical role.

“It’s important to collaborate closely between growers and researchers and tech innovators,” he says. “But often we’ll go to these research days, and it’s like, ‘All right, yeah, but that’s not going to apply to my field.’ So, feedback really accelerates meaningful innovation.”

Walt Duflock Unpacks the Future of Farming and Ag Tech

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 23:40:52 GMT

Walt Duflock, senior vice president of Western Growers, doesn’t have “ag tech bouncer” in his title, but maybe he should. Duflock shares some of what makes his role at Western Growers unique on the latest episode of “The Packer Podcast.”

Duflock says his role and Western Growers’ role is to help ag tech startups on the journey from idea to real-world impacts. He estimates there’s more than 2,000 startups in the ag tech and biologicals space, and there’s about 2,300 members of Western Growers.

“There’s no way that any of them can take calls from all 2,000 vendors,” he says.

He says ag labor in the state of California costs growers $16.3 billion a year at around 850 million hours of farm labor. And two-thirds of that 850 million hour is harvest, which is a challenge to automate.

“We work hard to get the one-third of the non-harvest, the weeding, thinning, planting, spraying out there at scale,” he says.

So, Duflock says it’s his job to help these startups understand what’s needed every step in the development of a new innovation.

“Our role is to kind of be the chief coordinator, the general manager, if you will, of the space and help those startups understand: What do you need to know at the start? What do you need to know when you go into trials? What do you need to go that first time you talk to the grower? And what do you need to show that grower in terms of economics? That shows them your tool can come in and help them, not just by doing the job, but by doing the job in economics that work for them,” he says.

Duflock, a fifth-generation farmer with more than 30 years’ experience in Silicon Valley startups (including eBay), says ag tech is the toughest space for startups to operate in.

“No space requires more patience than ag tech, and that’s the one thing startups don’t all get a lot of,” he says. “If you took venture capital money and you got venture capital board members breathing down your neck to deliver, deliver, deliver, it can be really tough. So, the first thing we tell startups is listen, play for the long game and build a product that is going to do the job no matter how long it takes.”

Because with specialty crop agriculture being such a tight-knit community, he says, growers will talk.

“Inevitably, it’s not always the stuff that does work that gets shared with everybody, widely,” he says. “It’s quite often the stuff that didn’t work. So, they’ll warn their friends off of taking some bad pass, but they may hold the good stuff a little closer to their chest.”

Duflock says he coaches ag tech startups to tailor the message to the audience, whether that’s a grower or an investor. He says startups need to understand that when discussing innovations with growers, it’s about improving economics and experience working with growers of a similar type of operation. And startups need a healthy dose of patience.

“That’s the trick for startups, is we’re one of the slower-moving spaces, so people just have to adjust their time frames and expectations on that side,” he says.

One thing Duflock encourages growers and startups to do is focus on the economics. He tells growers it’s important to discuss their economics to make sure the innovations would truly make a difference to their bottom line. And, Duflock says he tells startups the same thing, if they’re not able to show exactly how the economics of the solution pans out for the grower.

“[I] tell the startups, look, if you can’t get to the level of detail, you’re not there,” he says. “You’re not ready to sell it, you’re ready to share your machine. You’re ready to demo, but you’re not ready to trial or offer a sale to anybody. So, keeping both sides focused on economics has been one of the big wins the last couple of years.”

Anne-Marie Roerink on the Surprising Shifts in Produce Purchasing

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 13:02:45 GMT

Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, says she looks into a lot of trends within the food space, from candy, to deli, snacks, meat and, of course, produce. And she joins “The Packer Podcast” to share some of the recent trends she’s seen in fresh produce. Roerink says in the latest “What’s New?” research that she presented at the 2025 Southeast Produce Council’s Southern Innovations showed some surprising results.

Roerink says it’s no secret fruit has been outperforming vegetables in the produce category, but this year’s data shows an even bigger divide.

“As of pretty much January, the beginning of this year, all of a sudden, we saw that fruit started to accelerate in terms of growth, and we saw that vegetables just started to decline year or month after month in terms of dollars, units and pounds,” she says. “The trends that we had been seeing for five years all of a sudden started to really bifurcate in that fruit excelled even more, and vegetables started to pull back even more.”

Roerink says it’s important to look at the generational trend around fruit and vegetable trends to better understand what’s going on. Millennials make up about 60% to 70% of new unit growth, she says, while baby boomers’ fruit and vegetable dollars are down.

“Millennials are growing their vegetable engagement, but fruit is growing at double the rate, and that’s why we’re seeing such enormous strength in things like berries, organic bananas, citrus fruits,” she says. “I think we’ve got some work to do as the vegetable industry. Fruit is growing nicely, but to see all the main commodities and the smaller ones down year on year in terms of volume, that just means that we have an opportunity to engage with millennial consumers.”

And digging deeper, she says a lot of that growth in millennials is driven by a change in shopping habits when compared with baby boomers.

“[If] you look at millennials and Gen Z as well, and you see that all their inspiration is digital, and it’s led by YouTube, Instagram, TikTok is in the mix, and even Facebook is in the mix,” she says. “All of a sudden, you start to realize that that’s an opportunity right there. How can we elevate the profile of vegetables, all the goodness that they bring in terms of health and functional benefits and start to make sure that vegetables are part of those recipes, in addition to, of course, fruit, because we don’t want to see that decline.”

Roerink says it’s also important to understand the taste preferences of millennials and Gen Z, who are more likely to embrace global flavors when preparing meals. While both boomers and millennials might gravitate toward Asian flavors, most boomers flock toward traditional Chinese dishes and millennials look to Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese flavors, which she says is a great opportunity for retailers to bring new vegetables into the stores.

“That’s explaining why we’re seeing such a surge in things like avocados and cilantro and even some of the Chinese vegetables, cabbage and what have you,” she says. “Asian cuisines are coming into the mix as well, and that’s a huge opportunity, in my mind, for vegetables and to really authentically create those dishes that are popular.

Another reason fruit tracks higher than vegetables in millennial and Gen Z spending is those generations are parents whose children prefer fruit to vegetables.

“It really became clear that children are preferring fruit, and that for the most part, millennial parents say, as long as it’s fresh produce, if it’s fruit, a little bit more than veggies, I’m okay with that,” she says.

But she says in her research, she found that millennial and Gen Z parents want information on how to better incorporate fresh vegetables into their children’s diets. And while children are picky eaters, another barrier to vegetable consumption is many families are on the go.

“We also have to really keep in mind that produce goodness, so the vitamins, the minerals, the fibers, can be consumed in many ways these days,” she says. “If you look at millennials engaging with things like smoothies or those little pouches where you can drink out of or shots or supplements, you know millennials over-index for all of those. There is enormous focus on the importance and the benefit of fresh produce, but it doesn’t always translate into consuming the fresh produce, and especially different fresh vegetables.”

She says this is an opportunity to engage with children to help drive produce consumption. That could be as easy as being active on social media platforms, creating kid-friendly recipes with vegetables and incorporating vegetables into grocery store children’s programs.

“If you think about how many retailers have those programs where you can grab a free piece of fruit, whether that’s a banana or an orange, right, or an apple, but it’s always fruit,” she says.

Building Fresh Produce Brand Awareness with Tara Murray

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 11:10:59 GMT

There’s so much information out there for consumers with all the different social media platforms, so it’s paramount marketers in the fresh produce industry stay nimble, says Tara Murray, vice president of marketing for Fresh Innovations and Yo Quiero brands. Murray joined “The Packer Podcast” to share how marketers leverage trends to stay at the forefront of consumers’ minds.

“We’re staying on top of what those trends are, how things are changing, how the winds are going … and for us to simplify some of that messaging, provide those better-for-you products to encourage people to eat more and to eat better so they feel better at the end of the day,” she says.

Murray says it’s important the fresh produce industry taps into its unique value proposition of nutrient-dense products.

“It’s not just about opening up your favorite bag of chips and dipping it into the guacamole,” she says. “Avocados are nutrient-dense. They have good fats. They have some fiber, and you can put it on a sandwich, you can top your salad. You can do multiple things with it, and so, really encouraging people to take really good produce items and use it in different ways.”

And while each generation might have its own interests and focus, there are ways the produce industry can tap into the opportunities each of those generations present.

“Gen Z is really focused on — and thank goodness for their parents teaching them — a broader spectrum of food, a broader spectrum of nutrients, a broader spectrum of taste and cultures,” she says. “So, what can we do to encourage those tastes for each of those generations and encourage that consumption? Because to me, again, it’s up to the supplier to see what we can do to for the manufacturer to provide different ways for these different generations to consume the products.”

Pointing to the viral cucumber craze of 2024, she says the produce industry can really tap into those trends to keep the consumer coming back.

“As a marketer, we look at those different trends, we look at what we make and how we can tweak that to really hit the generational needs and the generational taste buds of those consumers,” she says. “It’s: How do you create nutrient value? How do you create and provide consumers with ideas for that nutrient value of what they’re consuming? So it goes beyond cost. It’s about how does it make you feel inside and out? You’re making better food decisions for you and your family.”

The challenge for produce marketers is to continue to evolve and stay relevant to the consumer. Murray says there are so many retailers that use social media to help inform the consumer about the different items available in produce departments. She says some retailers have tastings to help educate the produce department team to then better inform consumers about different taste profiles of the produce items available.

“Finding consumers where they are and providing them educational pieces for the different things that are in produce,” she says. “Seasonality is huge, so when it’s berry season in California, for example, making sure those retailers have some type of content around berries. You know, when are avocados are at their best? … It’s really getting out there and educating consumers and even the store operators on what’s in their departments to help with the consumers when they have questions.”

NCAE's Michael Marsh on Why Now is the Time for Ag Labor Reform

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 23:56:40 GMT

Editor’s note: This was recorded before the Department of Labor’s issuance of its interim rule for Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the H-2A guestworker program.

Labor has been a challenge in agriculture for a long time. However, it seems as though the stakes keep getting higher and higher, to the point it feels like something has to give. Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, who has been in the thick of the fight joins The Packer Podcast to discuss why he thinks now is the right time for change.

Marsh says NCAE and its members have been a part of a couple of recent victories — namely, a court case vacated the Department of Labor’s 2023 Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) Methodology rule and the USDA’s discontinuation of the Farm Labor Survey, which sets H-2A wage rates.

Marsh says he feels as though USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer really do want to make agriculture great again, and he says he’s optimistic that there will be an Interim Final Rule released soon to provide more clarity on the future of ag labor in the U.S.

“I’m hopeful that the fact that we’ve had the Department of Agriculture communicating with the Department of Labor, that we’re going to get something out,” he says. “It’s just sad that we had to litigate so much of this, when instead, if we’d had thoughtful regulation coming out, perhaps we wouldn’t have been involved in so many lawsuits in court trying to turn back what we had in the recent past.”

Marsh says some of the challenges in the past that have led to the current state of agricultural labor is some of the regulatory moves versus legislative moves. There have been several opportunities to enact meaningful change, but bills haven’t made it to the floor. And truly, the last real agricultural labor reform happened in 1986 with the Immigration Reform and Control Act.

“I think that one of the challenges that we’ve had for really long-term fixes is that Congress hasn’t done their job,” he says. “They have not chosen to legislate this. So, when the Congress chooses not to legislate, and the regulators are going to regulate, it’s given us, as the employers, the only other option we’ve got is to litigate.”

And that’s led to a broken H-2A program that doesn’t work for all of agriculture. It’s also led, Marsh says, to foreign countries outcompeting U.S.-based farms on cost and efficiencies.

“We’ve had so many changes in agriculture and our foreign competition has gotten much sharper with their pencils, so that they’ve been beating the pants off of us,” he says. “So, if Congress isn’t going to legislate and the regulators are going to regulate, we’ve got to figure out how we get the Congress to do its job.”

Marsh says data from the previous Census of Agriculture conducted by USDA showed that from 2017 to 2022 the U.S. lost 140,000 farms and fallowed about 20 million acres.

“A nation that’s unable to feed itself, has no national security, and we are at a tipping point, I think, as where we’ve got to have some change,” he says. “We’ve got to have some relief.”

Marsh says, though, a solution needs to be almost two-pronged. Growers need immediate relief. This would likely be relief from some of the burdensome regulations within the H-2A program and then also legislative relief.

“For the longer term, Congress has got to act,” he says. “Because, as we know, all you have to do is have one change in administration and the regulatory schemes that you’re attempting to run your business under, they disappear, and something else comes.”

Marsh says the U.S. imports more than 60% of its fresh fruit and 40% of its fresh vegetables, and it’s often easy to see why. Lower wage rates in Mexico and Canada, as well as other countries, might be more appealing to produce businesses.

“We’ve got to make sure that those legacy family operations stay in the family for this generation as well as the next generation, and give them some sense of stability and security,” Marsh says.

Bridging the Gap Between Innovation and Ag with Danny Bernstein

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:45:22 GMT

Danny Bernstein, CEO of The Reservoir, a nonprofit on-farm ag innovation incubator, says the fresh produce industry faces a major challenge when it comes to technology — a major disconnection between the innovation and the grower.

Which is what Bernstein says he set out to solve as he developed The Reservoir. Bernstein joined the latest episode to talk about the disconnect between ag tech startups and agriculture.

“What we’ve found, for example, is that startups would raise venture capital without having validated the idea with the major producers, the major growers in that space,” he says.

He says he found this to be directly in contrast with how things work in Silicon Valley, with structured customer validations and conversations. But, that’s just not happening in agriculture.

“You’d have a lot of amazing tech that was in search of a problem to solve,” he says. “And at this point in the state of the fresh produce industry, when there’s all these pressures on margin and pressures on labor and productivity, we needed tangible, rational tech that is solving real problems.”

The other challenge Bernstein says he hopes to conquer is access to true farming operations.

“Bruce Taylor has this funny line where he says, if he were to give away farmland for all the ag tech trials that were requested, then he wouldn’t have any farmland left,” he says. “So what we have tried to do is make it so that a technologist who wants to tackle ag, which we know is, of course, really challenging … we’re just trying to make that as easy as possible.”

The Reservoir leases 40 acres in Salinas, Calif., from Tanimura & Antle. Naturipe Growers will manage five acres of strawberries on the land and Tanimura & Antle will manage lettuce and celery grown on those 40 acres. Bernstein says, along with the Central Coast, The Reservoir aims to be in the Central Valley, as well as in Yuma, Ariz., to help ag tech startups work more efficiently.

“We’re really focused on what is the innovation system that we can put in place? How can we work with others to put in place to make ag tech work better at a system level?” he says. “One is, can we give them access to a farm really early on? Can that farm not just be an amateur farm, but could it be a farm that’s professionally farmed by growers that are respected at an industry level? Can we put farms in multiple locations so we can cover lots of commodities?”

He says a major goal of The Reservoir is to continuously improve on measuring outcomes — yield, cost, resource use — to better understand the impact the ag tech solutions have on the grower’s bottom line. He says, too, he also doesn’t want the innovations developed through The Reservoir’s incubator to disrupt existing grower relationships.

“We’re not going to bring a startup in that replaces a relationship they might have had for 60 years,” he says. “All these little bits and pieces need to work together in a system and that’s what we’re optimistic about.”

Another thing Bernstein says he hopes to debunk is the myth that all ag tech startups need to sell to growers. That’s not the case at all, he says. Instead, ag tech startups need to work with other tech companies to create holistic ag tech solutions.

“I remember there was a gentleman who was a very strong engineer. He said, ‘I’m building a robotic arm that’s specifically for agriculture. ... I’d like to meet a bunch of growers.’ And I said to him, ‘But growers aren’t your customer. I don’t know any grower who’s buying a robotic arm. That’s just not a priority for this grower. They buy a complete solution. They likely buy it from their dealer. Maybe they buy it alongside one of their input providers, because they want to think about how it integrates with that workflow.’ ... We hear stories like that all the time.”

Former FDA Deputy Commissioner Talks FSMA Delay and Compliance Challenges

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 10:28:22 GMT

Earlier this summer, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would delay the compliance date for the Food Traceability Rule, colloquially known as FSMA 204, by 30 months .

Frank Yiannas, former deputy commissioner of the FDA, joined The Packer podcast to share his insights into why traceability is a critical step for the fresh produce industry and why it’s needed for the entire supply chain.

“It’s necessary, because in every big outbreak that happens, oftentimes we see that a lack of traceability is what I call an Achilles heel,” he says.

While the industry had been working to prepare for FSMA 204, which he says is a big undertaking, Yiannas expressed some disappointment that the FDA decided to delay compliance outright instead of moving forward with the Jan. 20, 2026, compliance date but with delayed enforcement, taking an educate before enforce approach.

“Had I been there, I would have been advocating strongly, for ‘Let’s provide the industry more time with something that we call enforcement discretion,’” he says. “The compliance date goes into effect, but you stay true to that FSMA mandate of educating before and while we regulate and give the industry certainty, maybe even in written form, that we would grant enforcement discretion for a period of time afterwards, and so you could have given them more time.”

Yiannis says the risk in delaying outright is that some companies within the fresh produce industry may stop progress toward compliance. There may be a thought that the FDA could delay enforcement again or even change the rule, but the FDA has said repeatedly that the agency has no intention of changing the rule.

“The good news is that industry has a little bit more time, and I strongly advocate that they use that time and don’t stop what they’re doing and work on it, because July of 2028 will be here before you know it,” he says.

Yiannis says he did an exercise a few weeks ago, looking at the outbreaks the FDA investigated and closed for this year. He says he discovered that 60% of those outbreaks were closed without identifying the food responsible for the outbreak.

“We live in a day and age where we have whole genome sequence, and the analogy I use is we can find needles-in-the-haystack cases of foodborne illness across the country; we know they’re linked because they have the same genetic match, which is a good thing, and I hope we continue to invest and make advancements in public health surveillance so we can find the needles in the haystack,” he says. “But we can’t find the haystacks — the foods from which these pathogens came from. We can’t delay this any longer than July of 2028, and if you say that you’re for radical transparency, as we hear a lot of leaders say these days, you can’t be for radical transparency and against food traceability. That’s an oxymoron.”

He says while FSMA 204 is a signficiant change, one of the biggest barriers to compliance is that many produce industry businesses don’t understand the true value of better traceability.

“We did a cost-benefit analysis, and on balance, we believe the rule will save the nation, the food system, our society at large, dollars, because we’ll be able to solve outbreaks quicker, prevent outbreaks, prevent these overly broad recalls that we’ve all seen over the course of the past decade,” he says. “We’ve seen repeatedly in these outbreaks. When you trace them back, it’s a source, yet everybody who grew the commodity got damaged.”

Yiannis says a challenge to implementing FSMA 204 across the entire fresh produce supply chain is what he calls the “last mile” at the distribution center and then shipping to a point of service such as a retailer or restaurant.

“I can tell you that in so many outbreaks, it was that last mile,” he says. “We couldn’t get good data on what was actually received at a restaurant or at a grocery store. There were always these estimates. And that’s why I say to those people who say that you don’t require capturing a traceability lot code at point of service, just don’t know. I hate to be so blunt, but they just don’t know, because they really haven’t tried to do this work.”

Ron Lemaire Talks Canada's Unique Role in Sustainability, Global Trade

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 21:15:20 GMT

Editor’s note: This interview with Ron Lemaire was recorded before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement to remove all of Canada’s tariffs on U.S. goods specifically covered under USMCA.

When asked about the biggest drivers of change in the fresh produce industry for Canada and globally, Canadian Produce Marketing Association President Ron Lemaire says there are a few forces at play; on this episode of “The Packer Podcast,” Lemaire lists wildfires, heat waves, logistics, geopolitical issues and more.

“It’s not one thing that’s really driving challenges for everyone within our supply chain,” he says. “It’s the compounding of challenges that we’re living with. And you know what the amazing thing is? The industry is so resilient. We still pivot. We still adjust, and that’s something that I think we can be proud of.”

Lemaire says tariffs are another big force in the global fresh produce trade. While most fresh produce falls under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), some imports such as beans, citrus, melons and more face 25% retaliatory tariffs. U.S. and Canadian officials have been engaged in conversations on the potential to remove those tariffs and also build better trading relationships, says Lemaire, adding that the Canadian government has taken a strong stance on those 25% tariffs remaining in place in response to the U.S. government’s initial fentanyl tariffs.

Lemaire says there are opportunities for a remission of duty for products not found anywhere else.

“Lemons are having a real hard time globally,” he says. “The U.S. is one of our primary sources, and it’s a market that we need, so importers could apply for a remission of duty to hopefully get that 25% back to leave some of the stress within the system.”

Lemaire says there have been discussions on the Canadian side of trade about the minimum tariff the country’s importers could live with.

“For me it is zero,” he says. “The fact that we’re talking about minimizing tariff frameworks and saying, ‘Maybe 10% is okay.’” The approach I want to win for us moving forward is getting back to a USMCA framework, removal of the tariffs for fresh produce, and then go and look at if there is a tariff regime in play.”

Lemaire says he and fellow association colleagues see any tariff on fresh produce as being a challenge for the industry.

“When you start looking at the production challenges, the tight margins that we all function within, even a 10% base tariff or even a 5% tariff is detrimental to how we conduct business,” he says. “A big part of that is part of my biggest concern today is that the U.S. administration has set the context for a baseline tariff discussion.”

Lemaire says that as the U.S. put the original fentanyl tariffs in place, Canadian shoppers developed anti-American goods sentiments. While those beliefs still remain, he says he’s seen a softening.

“When we look at the fresh fruit and vegetable sector in Canada, $4 to $5 spent on fresh produce at retail is spent on imported product, and a majority of that comes out of the U.S.,” he says.

Lemaire says Mexico is also a major fresh produce trading partner, so the future of the North American fresh produce industry depends on a good business strategy that works for the entire fresh produce industry.

“We’re seeing consumption fairly static in Canada,” he says. “We’re seeing price still a driver. We’re seeing consumers still shopping at discount and mass merchants and really feeling the impact; where banners are still thriving, and you’re looking at club stores also doing well relative to value proposition.”

And Lemaire says that Canada has begun to engage with other geographic zones as a response to these increased tariffs on certain fresh produce goods.

“If you grow a product and you only have a window where North America is your market because of perishability, we need to make sure we get rid of the tariff framework,” he says. “We need to make sure we have open flow of trade across borders. … When we sit down and look at it, the consumer at the end holds the power. If they’re buying and they are increasing consumption, we all win.”

Regaining Canadian consumer confidence in U.S. goods is an important next step in the future of North American trade, Lemaire says.

“We’ve encouraged and had discussions with the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, saying how do we rebuild and begin starting to look at a buy U.S. or some type of strategy that gets Canadians back on track relative to not only enjoying Canadian product and the products that they may not have access to through domestic production, but let’s look at the strategy that brings North America back together,” he says.

Kevin Hamilton on Driving Desire When Marketing Blueberries

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 13:41:12 GMT

Kevin Hamilton, vice president of global marketing and communications at the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, says that while marketing efforts in the industry often reflect the health halo of fresh produce, he equates that message to being the same as a sports car salesman — you can’t just sell a potential buyer on the car’s speed.

“Of course it’s fast. It’s a sports car,” he says. “Well, yeah, of course, it’s healthy. We’re talking about agriculture. So, everything’s healthy.”

Hamilton, who joined the latest episode of “The Packer Podcast” to talk about the future of fresh produce marketing and opportunities for blueberries to showcase its unique value proposition.

“My message and my point to all out there, at least playing in the in agriculture marketing space is just do it,” he says. “Look at what you’re doing, look at what everyone else is doing, and ask yourselves, are we different? Are we giving the consumer a reason to choose us versus other options?”

He says it’s critical for marketers to truly understand what consumers want, along with identifying key differentiators. Drawing on his experience in other commodities, as well as consumer packaged goods (CPGs), Hamilton says there’s more to marketing fresh produce than just its health benefits.

“We’re looking at things in a way that, again, sounds a lot like CPGs would look at it — at least from an above-the-line marketing perspective,” he says. “And the notion here is that we have the should down, meaning consumers know they should eat this product, because, again, the health story, the health halo, is well penetrated.”

He says, from there, the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council seeks to tap into consumers’ emotional connection to blueberries, which he says is a natural fit given the nature of farming.

“If there’s one thing that makes agriculture, and I should say historical agricultural communications and marketing, different than what certainly we did and what I did in CPG, before I got to agriculture, it’s that,” he says. “It’s this is a salt of the earth, type of space that’s very it’s very tangible. … What the CPG space figured out a long time ago is that’s not enough to generate margin on a product. When you think about all the things out there that are sold, and you think about the ones that are highest priced, it’s usually an emotional connection that’s driving the high price, not anything functional. … There is a lane there for us to own as a food product that doesn’t have to be simply about function and logic related to consumer value.”

Revolutionizing the Banana Industry with Jennie Coleman of Equifruit

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:34:53 GMT

“What we’re doing is changing the banana industry and changing a pattern of global trade that has been enforced for 100 years,” Jennie Coleman, president of Equifruit , says is the genesis for the company’s “Banana Badass” moniker in the latest episode of “The Packer Podcast.”

Coleman, the company’s Chief Banana Badass, says striving to enact true, meaningful change takes a bold strategy and steadfast belief.

“It’s not for the faint of heart to set your mind to a challenge which hasn’t truly been tackled before,” she says. “We really see being a Banana Badass as somebody who has the courage to change.”

And behind all of Equifruit’s creative marketing and eye-catching trade show booths is a strong message and success. Coleman says when she bought the business about 12 years ago, the company sold one container a week; it is now doing 30 times that.

“That’s still a small amount in the overall banana industry, but it certainly points to dramatic interest in our product and also the impact that we’re having with our growers,” she says. “In Canada, right now, one out of three organic bananas is a fair trade banana and most of those are through the Equifruit label.”

Coleman says Equifruit aims to challenge conventional thinking that bananas are loss leaders in grocery stores. While the retail industry might be reluctant to charge more for fair-trade bananas, she says it’s necessary to think about where that money goes.

“When we go into a grocery store and we see the low, low price of bananas and we work that supply chain back and we think of how little is being returned to the small growers or the plantation workers in that supply chain and it makes us a little bit crazy,” she says. “We at Equifruit are really looking for a more fair distribution of value along our supply chain — not just for those small growers and plantation workers we speak about most and of whom we advocate for — but we also want to reassure grocers that they have it in their right to raise prices at retail to make a little bit of more margin on this fruit, that it’s normal for prices to rise and it’s not normal for banana prices to remain stagnant the way they have for decades now.”

Coleman says those retailers that choose to sell fair-trade bananas need to communicate the motivation behind the price increase. And for those retailers that worry this could upset consumers, she says consumers will stand behind the decision.

“If you, as the retailer, make a responsible procurement decision and raise the price for your customers but communicate to them why the price has gone up, they will follow you, they will respect that the courage you’ve taken to do ethical sourcing in the banana category.”

And, Coleman says this isn’t a huge price increase, but a very small one with a big impact.

“We estimate that the increase at retail of a fair trade Equifruit program would be about 20¢ more,” she says. “Americans, on average, eat about 27 lb. of bananas per year. If we do that math, we’re asking consumers to shell out $5 U.S. more per year. It’s very, very accessible. Fair trade could just be the basis for responsible procurement.”

And having those conversations about what it means to ethically source bananas is an important part of enacting change.

“This is what being a Banana Badass is about — is to have those difficult conversations and think about what is in our reach to change,” she says.

How Technology Leads the Future of Labor Tracking

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 20:09:21 GMT

There are many ways to manage the paperwork side of ag labor. On the newest episode of “The Packer Podcast,” Nico Cabral, director of marketing for labor management software company FieldClock, shares the farming background of its founders and the inspiration that led to the company as it is today.

Founded by Ryan Vickery, Jeff Moser and Joshua Farray, the company uses smartphones and computers to replace manual labor tracking clipboards and time cards and turns them into a robust database for productivity tracking.

“Now when the job is done, you don’t have to go into the office and move all of these records into a spreadsheet and then move them again into payroll at the end of the week,” he says. “It’s all about efficiency and tracking to the second what type of productivity you’re getting on your farm.”

While the average age of a grower continues to rise, Cabral says it’s important for growers to understand that just because a literal paper trail might have worked in the past, with labor costs at an all-time high, it’s important growers know exactly what’s happening on their operations.

Cabral, who grew up on a farm in Northern California, says his father’s mantra was “work smarter, not harder,” and that sentiment is echoed in the type of solution FieldClock aims to provide growers.

“We’re trying to put a piece of technology in their hands that makes things easier for them,” he says. “The good thing is farmers are good at overcoming hardship. If there’s one thing that farmers can do, it’s adapting to change, so even though that tech is a stigma, we’ve noticed in a lot of our clients that overcoming that barrier is easy for them.”

And he says sometimes growers learn more about their team once the farm moves to digital labor tracking. Cabral says a client was surprised to learn an employee clocked in around 7:30 or 7:40 a.m. when other employees started at 7 a.m. While the employee had to drop off his kids at school, prior to FieldClock, the employee had listed his start time at 7 a.m. and had been doing so for many years.

“You look at that extra 30 minutes they’ve been getting paid for, however many years and we’re talking thousands of dollars,” he says. “In their head, they think ‘Oh, it’s a minor discrepancy,’ but minor discrepancies compounded over time turn into major dollars.”

Another client, he says watched production numbers in real time on the FieldClock app and noticed the production from one crew one day slowed down significantly. And after looking into the issue, the crew said fruit quality had dropped in that block being harvested.

“They made the decision to move the entire crew across the street and their estimate was they probably saved about $3,000 in additional costs that would have been incurred if they would have just stayed on that block,” he says.

Produce Industry Stalwart Shares Insight From 30-Year Career in Ag, Organics

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:39:06 GMT

Earlier this year, Driscoll’s announced that Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources and General Counsel Tom O’Brien would step down from his leadership role. O’Brien’s career spans several decades, and he’s played instrumental roles in food safety legislation, national organic standards and more.

O’Brien shared some of his career highlights and where he sees the future of organic produce in the latest episode of The Packer’s “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast.

He says that as conversations about organic began in the 1990s, O’Brien says the ultimate goal was to define what that term meant, though that took some internal deliberations and some feedback from the public.

“Ultimately, the rule came out in 2000 after I had left the Department of Agriculture,” he says. “Kathleen Merrigan and Keith Jones really got the final rules that met consumers’ dictatations together — which was the goal all along. That trust in the standards remains to this day, 25 years later.”

O’Brien says that as he and the USDA worked on those national organic standards, it often felt like criticism against conventional production.

“We’ve moved past that, and there’s a lot more comfort in ‘these are the organic standards and there’s conventional,’” he says.

But, after graduating from college and law school, did he ever expect he’d be where he landed?

“I really gravitated toward the produce industry — its dynamism, its market orientation just really appealed to me, and as a native Californian, I wasn’t from agriculture but I understood it better,” he says.

O‘Brien‘s time working on getting funding to support the winegrape industry in the fight against the glassy-winged sharpshooter was another influential point in his career, he says, and then another a major highlight was joining Driscoll’s after spending time with a law firm in Washington, D.C., that did a lot of work with the company.

“What I really loved working in government is being that kind of translator between really two different cultures — government officials and agricultural professionals — and getting them both to understand the other‘s world and what constraints they operate in and to achieve policy goal by bringing the two together in ways that they could talk to one another a little more effectively,” he says.

And he says he’s had a firsthand seat to watch the growth of the organic sector from first working on those organic standards nearly 30 years ago.

“I don’t know that anyone would have predicted it then, but it’s truly remarkable,” he says. “The organic brand is really strong, but it’s also fragile. At the end of the day, you know it’s strong in the sense that consumers have demonstrated a willingness to pay for rigorous standards and to pay for organics they trust. There aren’t a lot of certifications that really have that premium that comes with the certification.”

He says there’s also a potential threat if consumers don’t stand behind those rigorous standards.

“There’s always that hint that people are willing to accept pretty easily that USDA combined with Big Ag is going to water down true organic standards and that that is a danger,” he says. “If people don’t stay behind rigorous standards, that premium [for organics] could go away.”

Why it's Time to Think About Farm Transitions

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 10:40:59 GMT

Fourth-generation grower Chris Pawelski understands firsthand the struggles of transitioning his family’s farm from one generation to the next. Thankfully, Pawelski’s family made the tough decision to put the family farm in a trust. Pawelski returned to the “Tip of the Iceberg” to talk about why it’s so important for families to talk about succession plans before they’re needed.

Pawelski said his family chose New York FarmNet, a Cornell University-based program that offers support and assistance to farmers in the state, to help with the farm transition and protect his family’s assets. He said Pawelski and his family saw firsthand that family farms in the Hudson Valley cope with losing assets when a key family member could no longer run the family farm.

Pawelski said many farm families wait until it’s too late because talking about succession plans means having difficult conversations.

“People don’t like to think about it,” he said. “People don’t like to think about the fact that we grow old, and we die, and things move on. You have to plan for that, and it’s something you don’t want to think about because sometimes you’ll carry the illusion that if you don’t think about it can’t happen, but it is going to happen.”

But, as the Pawelskis created a farm trust, Chris said his father remained in charge and the law firm his family worked with enacted protections to ensure nothing changed in terms of decision-making. And Pawelski said his parents saw firsthand what happened when other farming families lost assets when the decision-maker or owner went on Medicaid, so he said his parents understood the objectives of transitioning the farm into a farm trust.

“My dad was in the driver’s seat and until the day he died, that didn’t change,” he said. “Even during his sickness, when he was diagnosed with cancer through those six months, he still made the decisions.”

And Pawelski said his mother was also diagnosed with dementia before his father died, and when the family eventually applied to Medicaid, the farm needed to already be in a farm trust.

“You have to get rid of a lot of your assets, and there’s a five-year look back,” he said. “You want to start working on [a farm transition] now because under the federal rules for us getting our Medicaid application, there’s a five-year look back.”

Which, Pawelski said, thankfully, the family had put the farm into a farm trust 13 years before the family needed to.

“It’s difficult, but it’s a conversation you have to have now. You have to start working on now, today,” he said. “The sooner the better. It costs some money and a lawyer to set it up and such, but it’s money well spent, and it’s very much worth it.”

As for the next generation hoping to take over family farms? Pawelski said it’s important that farming is profitable, otherwise the next generation won’t want to come back to the family farm. He said one of his children enjoyed working on the farm, but saw how much he and his wife struggled, especially in down years, and wanted to make a decent living in a career. If there were protections to support farmers better in from natural disasters and to help earn a decent living, more young people might want to make a career in farming.

“I think that’s a main reason why the next generation is not going into [farming],” he said. “Why would you go into something where you see how hard your family works and you know how much risk they take and sometimes losses they have and then have nothing to show for it at the end. It’s totally understandable why they wouldn’t want to go into it.”