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JUNEAU — A heated four-year-old dispute over use of the bright blue, yellow and green "Alaska Grown" logo has been settled.
The Matanuska-Susitna Chapter Alaska Farm Bureau has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount in damages to the state Division of Agriculture, according to Palmer farmer Arthur Keyes, the newly elected president of the bureau chapter.
Keyes said the agreement also will allow the farm chapter to continue using the logo. He said members voted 21-3 in favor of the agreement.
"I think we reached a fair settlement," said Keyes. "The state was happy to settle this, we're happy to settle it and the farmers are looking forward to getting back to the business at hand with spring fast approaching."
Franci Havemeister, director of the agriculture division, said she is pleased the settlement will allow the dispute to be put behind them.
"I am excited to have a working relationship with the Mat-Su chapter and we look forward to working together to promote agriculture," said Havemeister.
The dispute started in 2004 when the Mat-Su chapter sought exclusive rights from the agriculture division to use the logo on promotional clothing. The Matanuska-Susitna Valley is just north of Anchorage.
The chapter said it had acquired the right from using the logo for over 20 years on apparel, like T-shirts, sweat shirts and hats. It filed for a federal trademark on the logo in 2005, claiming the state had not properly protected use of the logo.
The state sued the Mat-Su chapter, saying it created the logo in 1986 and spent several hundred thousand dollars promoting it. State officials say the logo is used statewide by about 340 companies, mostly on produce certified as having been grown in Alaska.
Efforts to reach a settlement failed in 2006 and, last August, the state had an injunction placed on the group's profits from sales.
A Superior Court judge ruled against the Mat-Su chapter last January. The settlement was reached before a May trial set to determine damages to the state.
The state, meanwhile, is drawing up regulations to govern how the logo is used in the future. Keyes said he expects that will resolve many of the problems his organization had with the logo's use.
"That's probably one of the biggest things that got this started is there were no regulations," said Keyes.
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DENVER (AP) — A farm worker's group protested outside Chipotle's headquarters, accusing the fast-food chain of buying tomatoes from growers who pay substandard wages to workers.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Florida-based group, said they want Chipotle to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes bought from Florida. But Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. spokesman Chris Arnold said the company stopped buying Florida tomatoes two years ago.
The group of about 75 people marched Wednesday to the Chipotle's headquarters in downtown Denver holding signs with a burrito image that has become emblematic of the company's product.
Some of the signs read, "Rice, Beans, and Serving of Exploitation" and "No More Exploitation." Once at the headquarters, the group delivered about a thousand postcards signed by people opposed to the alleged practices.
Aside from McDonald's and Chipotle, the group has launched similar campaigns against Taco Bell's parent company, Yum! Brands Inc. The group said they have reached agreements with McDonald's and Yum! Brands to increase the wages and working conditions of Florida farm workers.
Arnold, the Chipotle spokesman, said the chain spends more money on its food than any other restaurant in the country "because we buy premium ingredients from very reputable sources."
