- There have been published reports in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area that Trader Joe’s may build as many as 10 stores there. However, Trader Joe’s says that it has no plans for the Twin Cities marketing area.
- Fifty-three percent of the shareholders in Ocean Spray Cranberries voted to replace the cooperative’s 15-person board with a 12-person dissident group that wants the business to be more responsive to the needs of small-scale growers. The smaller group is expected to be open to the idea of selling the brand; the previous board rejected an $800 million offer for the brand from Northland Cranberries.
- The Washington Post reports this morning that four of the world's largest agricultural companies have created a new organization, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, that will share technology free with African scientists” in a broad new attempt to increase food production on that continent, where mass starvation is a recurring threat. “ They are donating “patent rights, seed varieties, laboratory know-how and other aid to help African agricultural scientists who are working with small farmers to battle plant disease, insects and drought.”
