Fruit Growers News

‘The Apple Man’ Leads School Lunch Effort

When Mark Doherty became chairman of the Michigan Apple Committee this year, he took the helm with a reputation in place. He was “The Apple Man,” who put Michigan apples into the food system of Traverse City Area Public Schools. Because of his efforts, 10,000 kids in his local K-12 school district were eating 40 bushels of locally produced Michigan apples every week. What seems astonishing, on the face of it, is that children in a school district in the nation’s third largest apple producing state were not routinely eating Michigan apples. But Greg Wilson, who works for the Michigan Apple Committee (MAC) promoting Michigan-grown apples, estimates that 80 percent of the apples eaten in Michigan schools come from Washington state – and the remaining 20 percent is split, with Michigan growers getting only a portion and other sales going to New York and Virginia. For Denise Yockey, MAC’s…  » Read more

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Extension Is Losing Funding, but It’s Not Losing Relevance

The story about Penn State Cooperative Extension on the front page of this magazine is the seventh in a series I’ve been writing for more than a year. It’s also the last profile I’ll write about Extension services in a particular state. This magazine will continue to cover Extension activities from other angles, of course, since those activities are a primary source of information for people who live and breathe agriculture. But after profiling the state of Extension (as far as it pertains to commercial fruit and vegetable growers) in Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Washington, California and Pennsylvania – and writing a story about federal funding – I’m starting to feel like I’m repeating myself. The feeling of repetition probably comes from a few general trends that are noticeable to anyone who has bothered to study Extension funding in the last few decades: federal funds are…  » Read more

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Extension Losing Its Personal Touch in Pennsylvania

This is the seventh and final story in a series about the future of Extension. The image of the county Extension agent riding in a pickup all day, visiting local farmers and doling out general advice, doesn’t apply any more. Nowadays, he (or she) more than likely is sitting in front of a computer, searching the Internet, reading and writing e-mails, perusing digital pictures and talking to growers on the phone. A consolidating industry, advances in technology and, of course, budget cuts have led to the new image of the county Extension agent (now commonly referred to as an educator). “It used to be the Extension guy was the only person growers would talk to,” said Matt Harsh, ag economic development educator in Adams County, Pa. “Now, there are a lot of other information sources out there.” The story is the same in Pennsylvania as in other states. Stagnant…  » Read more

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Prices of Juice Apples Have Gotten Positively ... Juicy

After nearly a decade of low and flat prices for juice apples, prices were sharply higher this fall, rising for the second year in a row. Apple juice concentrate, which cost as little as $4 a gallon for the Chinese version a few years ago and $6 this spring, was running about $11 in October, while European concentrate was around $15. Phil Pitts, who runs the sales desk at the processing apple division of MACMA, said Michigan’s processors had agreed to pay Michigan growers a minimum price of $6.25 a cwt. for tree-run juice apples this fall, but that only one paid that price. Everybody else was paying more, with prices as high as $8 a cwt. The MACMA processing apple division negotiated a minimum price of $4.25 in 2005 and boosted that by a dollar, to $5.25, in 2006. He said the additional dollar this fall…  » Read more

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