More than 115 participants from 12 countries met the last two weeks of June at UC Davis for the 30^th Annual Postharvest Technology Short Course.  The event was one of the UC Davis campus’ first planned Centennial festivities and there was extra media focus associated with the event.

With a special outreach focus, on Saturday, June 21^st  the Postharvest Technology Research & Information Center celebrated the 30^th offering of the annual UC Davis Postharvest Short Course with a very special one day symposium entitled “Charting New Directions In Postharvest Biology & Technology” that featured three pivotal sessions:

Session 1 - The Consumer...

Drs. Linda Harris, Marita Cantwell, and Devon Zagory were among the invited speakers at the “Food Safety for Organic Production and Handling of Fresh Produce Conference” that was held January 22-23 at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove. The conference was organized by the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) ­and focused on the challenges to organic farmers and food handlers since the E. coli outbreak in 2006. "We want to educate organic farmers about how they can impact food safety," said Peggy Miars, executive director of the Santa Cruz-based CCOF. 

Congratulations to Dr. Trevor Suslow who was recently appointed to the American Phytopathological Society (APS) Public Policy Board in December 2007. The PPB provides scientific input on public policy issues to the society’s officers, federal policy makers and agency personnel, and works with other scientific organizations and coalitions to increase the awareness of the science of plant pathology. 

Dr. Suslow also recently addressed a plenary session of the 2007 APS Annual Meeting regarding “Plant Pathology:  A key discipline for microbial food safety cross-talk”.  This was an important event...