SPECIALTY CROPS AND FOOD SYSTEMS: EXPLORING MARKETS, SUPPLY CHAINS AND POLICY DIMENSIONS

fresh fruit and vegetable consumption has an important role in the efforts to protect individuals against serious and costly chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes (center for disease control and prevention (cdc), 2018), and conditions that have been identified by the cdc as some of the underlying conditions that put individuals at a higher risk for severe illness due to covid-19 (cdc, 2020). demand for fresh produce has been increasing in the us and growth is expected to continue due to governmental efforts to increase produce consumption per capita, as well as an increased number of marketing and promotional messages focusing on the benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables (usda, ers, 2020; food and nutrition service, usda, 2019; minor and perez, 2018; cook, 2011).even though currently us individuals are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables per capita than in 1970, the average us diet is still not aligned with the 2015-2020 dietary guidelines for americans for fruit and vegetable consumption (stewart and hyman, 2019; usda, ers, 2020; cdc, 2018). therefore, we anticipate government efforts to increase fruit and vegetable consumption will continue.over the past five years, a large percentage of retailers have consistently identified the produce department as one of the top three most successful in generating sales and driving traffic (progressive grocer, 2019). the popularity of fresh produce offers considerable potential for enhanced marketing revenues if producers can recognize and harness opportunities emerging from changes in food purchases. the produce industry is already taking advantage of the increased popularity of fresh produce among consumers by finding ways to better address consumer needs. for example, a collaboration between washington state university researchers, tree fruit growers, and industry representatives resulted in a new apple variety (cosmic crisp) designed to make 'consumers happy' (hollenbeck, 2019).meanwhile, producers and consumers need to be informed about the emergence of new business strategies, regulations, and policies that may influence their confidence in (consumers) or competitiveness within (producers) this quickly innovating food marketing sector. an example of these regulations is the 2018 food safety modernization act (fsma), which implicates new quality assurance and safety measures across the entire food supply chain (usfda, 2020). food safety incidents reduce produce demand and increase the costs of farms supplying fresh produce in the us; the fsma is expected to reduce such incidents (bovay, ferrier, and zhen, 2018). another example is the farm workforce modernization act that passed in the house of representatives on december 11, 2019. this act proposes meaningful reforms to the h-2a agricultural guest worker program to better fit the needs of the agricultural sector (us congress, 2019). because the produce industry depends heavily on labor, this act has the potential to improve the viability of the produce industry and its capacity to meet the increasing demand for fruits and vegetables (kroger, 2019). one more example of these regulations is the recently launched (january 2020) gmo labels regulations in the us. this is an important market development for all food categories, including fruits and vegetables, that needs to be studied more closely.demand trends and implications for the fresh produce supply chain:consumers continue showing interest in foods produced in unique ways, including organic, local, pesticide-free, free of genetically modified organisms (gmos), environmentally sustainable (bir et al., 2019; chen et al., 2018; govindasamy et al., 2018; mcfadden and huffman, 2017; rana and paul, 2017). these individuals and households keep fueling changes in the food system as they seek to purchase produce through diverse channels ranging from direct markets (e.g., on-farm markets, farmers' markets, community supported agriculture, pick-your-own, and roadside stands), to more traditional supermarkets, warehouse clubs, and big box stores (low and vogel, 2011), with expectations as broad as picking their own produce to highly branded products with 3rd party certifications. this evolution has led to a higher number of farmers considering new ways of producing and marketing their produce.the covid-19 pandemic is an example of how rapid changes in the food systems where consumers changed where and how they consume foods, caused for farmers to be forced to change production and marketing practices to satisfy consumer needs. in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, producers have lost substantial sales to foodservice outlets, including restaurants, schools, and hotels, and also adjusted to changes in consumer demands based on various states' 'stay-at-home' orders.the supply-side:on the supply side, producers are considering production practices, technologies, and technology innovations that target consumer preferences and needs, and .......