Randy Preusse
Image courtesy of Pacific Plug & Liner.
Randy Preusse joins Pacific Plug & Liner as new manager of Eastern regional sales
Preusse has an extensive background in territory sales and product manager roles.
Randy Preusse has joined Pacific Plug & Liner (PP&L) as the new Eastern regional sales manager. His goal is to expand the company's reach and better service customers on the East Coast and in the Southeast, according to a press release.
Preusse comes to PP&L from Skagit Horticulture where he was regional sales manager for 17 years providing perennial sales and technical support to brokers and growers in the region.
Prior to that, Preusse worked 6 years as a territory sales manager for Express Seed and spent 15 years at Ball Horticulture in product manager and territory sales roles.
He brings to PP&L extensive experience with the broker network and growers in the region. Preusse can be contacted at 360-333-5967 or randyp@ppandl.net
For more information, visit https://www.ppandl.com/
Logo courtesy of AmericanHort.
AmericanHort needs your help to save H-2B in 2020
Action alert calls upon industry members to write to their elected officials in support of raising the additional visa cap.
Industry News Labor Legislation
A recent announcement from AmericanHort Director of Advocacy and Policy Communications Tristan Daedalus urged members of the horticulture industry to voice their concerns and save the H-2B bill.
"As you may remember, the 2020 Homeland Security appropriations bill in the House included language that made the Secretary of Homeland Security's release of additional H-2B visas automatic, but with Congress gridlocked on spending bills, we need you to make the case to your elected officials that this change is necessary," his email reads.
He shares how, in late November, the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) posted the following alert on their website:
On Nov. 15, USCIS received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-2B cap of 33,000 H-2B visas for the first half of FY 2020…
"If you need H-2B workers before April 1, the H-2B program is no longer an option. With a cap of just 66,000 visas, this isn't a surprise. But Congress empowered the Secretary of Homeland Security to release a limited number of additional visas when it's determined to be necessary for the economy," Daedalus continues.
He ended the email on a strong note, and wrote, "We're working to make that action automatic, and Congress is listening!"
Let your elected officials know you support the H-2B program and #RaiseTheCap.
For more information, visit americanhort.org
AmericanHort
© josephgruber | Adobe Stock
U.S. House passes Farm Workforce Modernization Act
Industry organizations say the bill is a step in the right direction for immigration and agricultural visas.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 5038, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, with a 260-165 bipartisan vote. The bill now moves to the Senate to be voted on, and if passed there, will require President Trump's signature to be signed into law.
If signed into law, the act would change the H-2A temporary worker program and establish a "certified agricultural worker (CAW) status," according to congress.gov. Among other changes, H-2A adjustments would include the creation of a new electronic system for H-2A casework and modify "the method for calculating and making adjustments to the H-2A worker minimum wage." Certified agricultural workers could apply to be lawful permanent residents of the United States.
AmericanHort released the following statement after the House passed the act:
"For years, our growers have struggled with a broken immigration and agricultural visa system that harms their ability to succeed and sustain their farms and businesses in today's marketplace. In view of the huge contributions the horticulture industry makes to local and national economies, action here couldn't be more welcome," said AmericanHort Senior Vice President Craig Regelbrugge. "This is the first time in over 30 years that the House has acted affirmatively to address the agricultural labor issue."
In addition, AmericanHort said the following: "This bill addresses the challenge with solutions that stabilize the current agricultural and horticultural workforce, improve the legal channels for future seasonal and permanent workers in the farming sector, and advance integrity in the hiring process."
The United Fresh Produce Association said that, "For years, the produce industry and our agriculture sector partners have made an overwhelming case for legislation to reform our broken immigration system and help build a legal and reliable workforce. With the passage of the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act in the House of Representatives, we are now on the way towards finally achieving the reform our members so desperately need.
"This legislation marks an important first step in that process and it includes the basic principles of immigration reform that we have long advocated for," United Fresh continued. "The bill provides legal status for the current workforce, reforms the current federal agriculture guestworker program known as H-2A and ensures that we will have future access to a skilled, dedicated workforce. The bill also includes provisions to ensure the proper enforcement of our nation's immigration laws, but is contingent upon including the reforms to the current and future workforce for which we have long advocated.
Farm Workforce Modernization Act
Universal Product Code.
gguy | Adobe Stock
Universal Product Code inventor dies at 94
IBM engineer George Laurer and a group of collaborators created the black and white striped bar code in 1973, which is still used today in retail packaging.
According to a recent article published on NPR, IBM engineer George Laurer has passed away at the age of 94. Laurer is most famous for creating the universal bar code now used across the world for retail packaging.
On a June morning in 1974, a Marsh Supermarket cashier in Troy, Ohio, rang up a 67-cent pack of Juicy Fruit chewing gum using something novel — the black and white stripes of a universal bar code.
The Universal Product Code is now a packaging mainstay on everything from cereal boxes and produce to electronics and airplane tickets, but it might not have worked without IBM engineer George Laurer.
Laurer, who died this month at 94 in North Carolina, had been given an assignment by his manager: Write a proposal for grocery executives explaining how IBM would take a previously invented bar code pattern, in the shape of a bull's-eye, and make it work in supermarkets across the country.
But when that manager returned from a vacation, Laurer was there to meet him. "I didn't do what you asked," he said.
Instead, Laurer had created something else — the bull's-eye was gone and in its place was a linear bar code. Laurer had deemed the bull's-eye design unworkable. The circular code, inspired by Morse code and patented by N. Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver in 1952, was too small, and it would smear when run through the poor-quality printing presses used for most food labels at the time.
Continue to the full story at NPR.
Jason Stern.
Image courtesy of Bailey Nurseries.
Bailey adds Jason Stern to sales team
Stern, who has worked in the industry for almost two decades, will service the Mid-Atlantic region.
Posted by Chris Manning
Bailey has announced that Jason Stern has joined the Bailey Territory Sales team in the Mid-Atlantic region consisting of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Southern New Jersey and West Virginia.
Stern has been in the nursery industry for more than 15 years with experience in field production, wholesale and landscape sales, and most recently as the production manager for a large container operation on the East Coast. "I am excited to be joining the Bailey team," Stern said, per the release. "I look forward to meeting all of the customers and working with them to obtain the quality plant material for which Bailey Nurseries is known."
Stern is based in Virginia and begins his role effective immediately.
"I am thrilled to welcome Jason to our team," regional sales manager Jimmy Kuon said, per the release. "We are excited at the knowledge and experience he brings to this role and know that it will be of great value to our customers and their success."
For more information, visit https://www.baileynurseries.com/.