Victoria Fine Foods, New York, NY, has received Non-GMO Project verification on its Victoria flagship pasta sauce line.

Clif Bar, Emeryville, CA, and Organic Valley, La Farge, WI, partnered up to name the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the recipient of the nation’s first endowed chair focused on plant breeding for organic crops. This chair is the first of five that will be funded by Clif Bar, and in a statement, the company said this initiative was designed to advance agricultural research in the organic category, which currently receives less than 1% of total funding.

The Specialty Food Association, New York, NY, launched its first ad campaign and retail test targeted towards consumers, with the theme of “Celebrate Specialty Food. Craft. Care. Joy.” The retail test is currently based in New York and New Jersey, but the Association hopes to expand to different U.S. markets in 2016.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, August 2015(online 7/16/2015).