About the New England Produce Council Expo
Every year in August, the New England Produce Council holds an expo in Boston. It’s just a little over an hour’s drive from where I grew up in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut. The show serves as another real-world place of connections for crop growers, produce distributors, produce-related CPG’s, grocery store managers and retailers, and vendor services. These professionals sample product, look at produce, learn more about new products, and exhibitors gain contacts for new accounts.
Why is New England Produce Council Expo different from other trade shows?
Meandering through the trade show floor, I noticed that people were having great conversations. The energy was positive, but not fast-paced nor as crowded like the global expos. While the Seafood Expo North America was full of giant, impressive displays, and crowds of people swarming the trade show floor. Some of the vendors at the NEPC Expo commented that they love the vibe at this Expo—friendly, low pressure, and ability to create more connections with others. Visits at the booths seem more intentional and less “hurried.”
Here are some of my notes, insights, and a few snapshots from this interesting event. (forgive the lighting quality in these shots!)
NEPC Expo is Additional PR for Garden-related & Floral Wholesalers
Garden supply companies and flower wholesalers get additional exposure to potential retailers and grocery store purchasing agents. Grocery stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods seek new, innovative products to surprise and delight customers who love natural living.
Organic Mechanics, near Philadelphia, drew my attention because of their unique, colorful patterns on their trade show booth and promo materials. The pattern reminded of art deco fabric, except with a tropical twist. I admire brands that are able to pull off a classic but bold branding. Organic Mechanics soil bags are found at my local health food store (Willimantic Food Co-op) but it is so interesting to know that they also supply huge totes of soil for greenhouse growers and plant wholesalers. I met Mark Highland, the founder himself & genius behind operations. Their unique selling proposition is that this is potting soil that does NOT have peat. Peat bogs are some of the best carbon sequesters, and when soil companies use peat, it’s almost like they’re robbing the earth of its carbon. Organic Mechanics uses biochar, local compost, composted pine bark, rice hulls, and various sustainable materials. Mark told me that rice hulls can prevent soil gnats! Thanks so much for this tip, Mark!
Across from Organic Mechanics’ booth was the largest orchid grower in the USA, Silver Vase Orchids! I love to photograph this scale of orchid growing. It is amazing to know that Silver Vase Orchids simply started with a small shade house, and a husband and wife who dreamed big. Their orchids thrive in over 1 million square feet of greenhouses. You can find the orchids in grocery stores like Trader Joes. They sure dreamed big!
You must serve the demand.
High protein snacks with REAL blueberries? There’s a growing demand for higher protein snacks and real fruits. It was a delight to taste a sample of this new product with peanut butter and blueberries by Naturipe Farms. Naturipe’s slogan is “Berries Bring it” and the blueberries sure do bring it with this new protein-packed snack.
JC Tropicals had gorgeous display of tropical fruits. I also got to try a Pepino Melon for the first time, which is a tropical fruit that Latinos love.
Other examples of how companies are trying to meet market demands, is Calbee’s Harvest Snaps changing the type of oil they use. Harvest Snaps are those delicious, crispy fried snacks made with peas. They’re now using avocado oil instead of vegetable oil.
Jonathan Sprouts, a familiar brand to me, located out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, told me that they have come out with a new skincare product made out of broccoli sprouts. Due to recent significant anti-cancer research, there’s a growing interest in foods and skincare products made with broccoli sprouts. Although Jonathan Sprouts was at the expo to promote their popular sprouts business, they showed me some pictures of their new skincare products they’re proud to start marketing towards.
Capturing Flavor in Images is Key
Cleveland Kitchen uses vibrant, bold imagery with hard lighting, which helps convey the bold and zesty flavors of their sauerkrauts and kimchi. In order to create this style of photography, the photographer used bare flash with no lighting modifiers (most likely. I’d be surprised if it was something else). The undiffused, hard light creates well defined, sharp shadows. It makes food look like it’s being illuminated by summertime sun.
I also loved hearing the history of their brand, straight from the founder himself! It all started with Mac and his brother at farmer’s markets. Everyone has a story to tell. What’s yours?
Also, I was thrilled to meet Scott, VP of Sales of Bluewater Farms, a cranberry company. I’ve been obsessed with their branding for some time, which was done by Primary360, which you can view here. Ever since I photographed some cranberry bog action, I’ve been interested in connecting with cranberry brands making a ripple in the cranberry industry.
Communicate the Expansiveness of a Farm with Drone Images
Blue River Legacy Farms stopped me in my tracks with this stunning drone shot of a blueberry field in Georgia. Rather than close ups of blueberries, a wide drone photo shows where the berries are grown. It shows environment. Context. Realities. And almost pulls the viewer aside to say, “look, this is where we are.” Or “look, this is our spot on this planet.” This image just drew me in, and brought me to a pause, and a conversation about blueberries with Blue River Legacy Farms’ COO, Steve.
It’s this kind of imagery that excites me to fly my drone! Ever since I got my part107 drone certification, I’ve been observing different drone images and their composition.
Agriculture: it's complicated.
In agriculture, one issue affects all one way or other. When there’s a recall, government issue, or natural disaster, the produce industry experiences its effects. And its the companies that have to deal with it in order for it to not affect customers as much. The July 2026 recall on Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce affected most companies on the Expo floor in some way or other. While I shook the hand and had a brief chat with a rep from Taylor Farms, it was obvious that the produce industry isn’t all about evil empires versus little farms. Instead, it’s a complex system where everyone has one common mission: to bring food to the poeple.
Jon Gorman was kind of enough to share about what he’s observed in his role with TheogCompanies, a group of brands including Dole Fresh Vegetables.
I asked Jon what were some of the challenges he’s noticed this year with fresh vegetables. He said one big one was the presence of influencers on social media. It’s not a good or bad thing, but he commented that influencers need to somehow be given more accurate information about current events affecting the vegetable industry, and even just about agriculture in general.
With the majority of population who has never grown a vegetable in their life, it’s not a surprise that there’s a lot of “misinformation” floating around social media influencers.
And there are government-related things that happen that ultimately affects the availability (and quality) of food on the grocery store shelf. For example, Jon said that towards the end of 2025, the federal government took away the licenses of over 30,000 commercial truck drivers. This ultimately affected the timeliness of produce hitting the shelf, freshness of product, and the prices. Companies have to figure out logistics and price increases with trucking brokers, and work around late deliveries. There’s an extra cost per load, on top of the increased gas prices. When something is a system, one part suffers, but other parts work hard for solutions.
Sometimes “Big Ag” isn’t really “Big Ag”
I hear people refer to large-scale farming as “Big Ag.” What is large? Some produce companies are actually supporting multiple farms and farmers’ livelihoods.
Farms that sell to their cooperatives benefit from the informational resources and grower support such as consulting on crop management. In addition, it forms a network of farms that can support each other, creating a community. A conversation with Megan from Smith’s Farm confirmed this. Smith’s Farm’s Stag Brand broccoli is not one ginormous farm, but it’s a community of broccoli growers throughout the East Coast. They can benefit from the support from Smith’s Farm.
Growers don’t necessarily want to be involved with marketing and selling the crop. And this is where these packing companies come in. Farmers want to focus on growing good, healthy broccoli (do you know how hard it is to grow good broccoli?!)
Just to get an idea of the scale of Little Bear company (owned by J&D Produce), their president Gina said that they have several packing plants from New Mexico to New Jersey. They market kale, collards, onions, and melons. Honestly, can you imagine a world without bagged kale? Can you grow enough of it, package it, and sell it all?
Colorful Imagery Attracts
I love the close-up photos of water droplets on apples, and the photos of the different apple varieties grown. A fascinating conversation—Fowler Farms is the largest apple orchard in Northeastern USA. Located in New York just south of Lake Ontario, the orchard of 26 varieties thrives in this micro-climate. Their display glows with photos of apples, and I can glean from this display that they’re a larger grower.
I have yet to see it, but Fowler Farms has 2200 acres. The apple trees are grown in a way that reminds me of a vineyard. The apples all get handpicked.
They are sustainable as much as possible—they manufacture their own mowers, self-guided carts, and even grow their own black locust trees to make their own sawdust, which serves as a mulch. It would be fascinating to see this operation through drone!
Our Common Ground
While I wholeheartedly support small, local neighborhood farms, at the end of the day, our diverse population in America still needs to eat. If it has to involve produce transported from California to New York, at the end of the day, the restaurants get their ingredients, people get their food. The common ground is this: No matter the size and scale of the business, everyone’s trying to do their best at what they do, and specializing in their niche, and finding their way to feed our families and world.
