Square Roots, the technology leader in urban indoor farming, is expanding its herb range by introducing three premium fresh offerings — Cilantro, Dill, and Parsley — to complement its widely successful signature Basil. Co-founded by Kimbal Musk, Square Roots’ herbs are grown across the company’s network of cloud connected and climate controlled indoor farms in New York and Michigan, and are now available in more than 200 retail stores — including Whole Foods Market, Fresh Thyme Market, SpartanNash, and FreshDirect.

“COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of locally grown indoor produce,” said

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and a 20 million-box season begins with box one. Crossing of Early Sweets, Perlettes and other early green varieties has begun at Nogales and are immediately being absorbed into the market. Flames and a dozen other varieties of all colors will follow shortly.

The growers have been coordinating with their distributors and retail partners on an ongoing basis all spring. The Sonora Grape Growers Association’s role is to support these activities by publishing crop information, said Juan Laborin, AALPUM general manager.

The original crop

Retailer and general registration for Organic Produce Summit 2021 is now open for the live and in-person event being held Sept. 15-16 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Monterey, CA.

Following the cancellation of last year’s summit due to the pandemic, OPS 2021 will be held as an in-person event and retain a similar format to previous OPSs, including an informative series of educational sessions, engaging keynote presentations, and a sold-out trade show featuring more than 130 organic growers, shippers and processors from across North America. Additionally, retailers and buyers will have a hands

Whole Foods Market has nearly 40 new stores in the pipeline and saw online sales triple between March and December 2020 as compared to the same timeframe in 2019. In 2020 the company created more than 10,000 new jobs, and it is actively hiring, with about 10,000 open positions currently posted companywide. But at this time of growth the company is also consolidating in some areas.

Whole Foods is making changes to some of its support teams — merchandising and operations, team member services, and technology — but the company said they will not impact any store- or distribution center-based

With spring firmly settling in with longer, warmer days on the horizon, greenhouse vegetable grower Pure Flavor has released the second edition of its successful Live Deliciously eMagazine. The new release is a celebration of spring, packed with interesting articles on greenhouse vegetable growing and product reviews to delicious recipes for consumer and trade audiences alike.

“The idea behind the Live Deliciously eMagazine is to deliver relevant, interesting and mouth-watering content in a single convenient digital format that you can flip through on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop,” said

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has imposed sanctions on two produce businesses for failing to meet contractual obligations to the sellers of produce they purchased and failing to pay reparation awards issued under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. These sanctions include suspending the businesses’ PACA licenses and barring the principal operators of the businesses from engaging in PACA-licensed business or other activities without approval from USDA.

The following businesses and individuals are currently restricted from operating in the produce industry:

• Farmer Jacks Produce