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GROWING YOUR BUSINESS STARTS WITH A PLAN
Your financial life encompasses much more than the current markets. It’s about what’s most important to you, how you want to live right now, and what your goals are for the future. Our advice has helped many clients achieve their goals, and we’d like to do the same for you.
Our team works closely with the Florida citrus community and truly understands the unique needs of the Florida farm and agricultural business. We know our clients’ circumstances and can help to tailor a customized plan to meet their needs for today and tomorrow.
So whether you're looking to save more intelligently, help to finance your business for the next generation, help to sustain your business or access your money more, a comprehensive financial plan can give you more confidence in your ability to meet your goals over time.
This column is sponsored by The Thornhill Wealth Management Group. Contact us today to learn more about our team and how we can partner with you. The Thornhill Wealth Management Group and G. Conley Thornhill, CFP®, CIMA®, Senior Vice President—Wealth Management, or Eric E. Johnson, CFP®, CIMA®, Vice President— Wealth Management, can be reached at (863) 298-3600 or toll free at (888) 411-5049. Email Conley at conley.thornhill@ubs.com or Eric at eric.e.johnson@ubs.com.
UBS Financial Services Inc.
295 1st Street South, Winter Haven, FL 33880 ubs.com/team/thornhillgroup
BIO: Conley works with high net worth individuals as well as institutional cli- ents by delivering highly customized wealth man- agement solutions. In addition, in 2010 and 2011 he was selected
as one of the Barron's
Top 1,000 Advisor's.
Conley Thornhill is a
CERTIFIED FINAN-
CIAL PLANNERTM practitioner and holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst® des- ignation.
As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, we offer both investment advisory and brokerage services. These services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate contracts. For more information on the distinctions between our brokerage and investment advisory services, please speak with your Financial Advisor or visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP® and Certified Financial PlannerTM in the U.S. CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association, Inc. in the United States of America and worldwide.
@griTech
New Technology Strives
to Give Shoppers
Even Fresher Produce
by ANDREA REEVES
THERE’S NOTHING more frustrating than picking out strawberries at the grocery store, just to find that some of the berries from the batch have already gone bad. As shoppers, we want the best, freshest berries for our buck. A team of researchers, led by the University of Florida, is creating a new tracking system to help with this problem. This new technology could transform the way companies ship fresh fruits and vegetables.
Thanks to the $155,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation, associates from the University of South Florida, Georgia Tech, and industry partners are researching a new system.
Two radio frequency identification (RFID) devices were put into each batch of strawberries as they were picked. These let companies know which products should go out to stores first, based on the temperature of the produce; the berries closest to expiration will be put out first, which will better ensure consumers are getting the freshest produce possible. They believe knowing the state the produce is in, as well as the
temperature it has been exposed to, will let companies know which products should go out first. This not
This not only helps give consumers the freshest products they deserve,italsokeeps companies from losing money and wasting food.
only helps give consumers the freshest products they deserve, it also keeps companies from losing money and wasting food.
“If you improve the efficiency of post-harvest handling, you reduce waste and losses and that improves sustainability,” says Jeffrey Brecht, director of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ Center for Food Distribution and Retailing. “Because, of course, if you ship something to market that’s not going to end up being eaten by consumers, every single bit of input in growing it, harvesting, packing, cooling, shipping— everything is wasted.” Brecht recently gave a presentation on his findings at the International Horticultural Congress in Brisbane, Australia.
Many circumstances factor into produce going bad. For example, if strawberries are picked during the middle of the day, versus in the morning when it’s cooler, they will most likely expire faster. At the point of transfer, when the strawberries are in route to their destination, the temperature each berry was exposed to matters more than the temperature in the truck. Therefore, it’s important to keep track of the temperature of the berries as they’re being picked, through pre-cooling, and as they’re packed into the trucks to be delivered to various stores.
Now, the normal procedure is to base which products go to stores first off of the temperature of an entire truck, which can be up to 28 pallets. However, not every pallet will be the same temperature, which can lead to some going bad before others, and ultimately can be a waste of food. Because some cross-country trips take multiple days in a truck to get from field to store, it’s important for businesses and growers to know this information— and ultimately— sell the freshest produce possible to us, the consumers. ag
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FloridaAgNews.com
by CONLEY THORNHILL
A UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA-LED research team’s development of a tracking system could change the way companies ship fresh fruits and vegetables.