Fruit Growers News

Eco Apples: Customers buy concept of ‘advanced IPM’

The phrase “Integrated Pest Management” doesn’t exactly flow off one’s tongue, and produces a somewhat fuzzy effect in the brain as well. “Michael felt the name Eco Apple would have a bit more punch to it than IPM,” said Dan Cooley, a plant pathologist with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Michael he refers to is Michael Rozyne, the director of Red Tomato, where the term Eco Apple was developed as a marketing tool for apples produced using the best Integrated Pest Management practices. They call it “advanced IPM.” “IPM is a little more complicated than the term ‘organic,’ and doesn’t have the name recognition,” Cooley said. “That makes it harder to sell. But for apple growers in the Northeast, IPM is achievable.” Eco Apples were conceived in 2004 and had sales of $400,000 through Red Tomato the first year, Cooley said. In 2003, selling apples labeled…  » Read more

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Elections Spur Outpourings of Hope for Progress

Within hours after Sen. Barack Obama became president-elect of the United States, agricultural organizations began issuing statements of congratulations. Those with histories of being warmer to Republicans were warmly noncommittal to the Democratic winner, while those with histories of warmth to Democrats expressed their optimism. National Farmers Union (NFU) is usually “in” when the Democrats are “in,” and felt strongly that would be the case this time. "We congratulate President-elect Obama and look forward to working with a president who wants to work with us,” said NFU President Tom Buis. “Obama clearly stated throughout the campaign his willingness to work with rural America on the issues important to those in the countryside.” Both Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden have a 100 percent favorable voting record, as tabulated by NFU, but plenty of senators share that distinction. The rating was based on four votes related to passage…  » Read more

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Global Demand and High Fuel Prices Drive Fertilizer Costs

So what was behind the astronomical fertilizer prices this year? Was it the world’s leading suppliers of potash conspiring to “fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the price at which potash was sold in the United States,” as alleged by a federal lawsuit filed in September in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis? Or, was it increasing domestic and global demand, high fuel prices and a weak U.S. dollar? A handful of industry experts said the latter reasons were the cause. Fertilizer prices were 121 percent higher last September than they were in September 2007, according to Kathy Mathers, vice president of public affairs for The Fertilizer Institute, which represents the fertilizer industry’s interests in Washington, D.C. Mathers said a number of factors contributed to the price spikes of the last year or two, the main factor being a sharp increase in global demand. Between 2001 and 2006, world…  » Read more

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Growers Plan To Replant Some Orchard Sites Lost To Plum Pox

Tim Weiser plans to plant 7 acres of stone fruit next spring, and some of his neighbors are planting, too. That’s a big deal in Adams County. Adams County, the biggest producer of stone fruits in Pennsylvania, was the hot spot where plum pox was discovered in September 1999. This “first ever in the U.S.” discovery spurred state and federal governments to implement an aggressive eradication program. Weiser Orchards, York Springs, Pa., was the third farm to lose all its peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots. Trees were ripped out in 2002, and for six years Tim has been buying stone fruits to keep his farm market supplied. Vegetable and field crops grow on the 44 acres he lost to plum pox. But next spring, he gets to start again. As a result of the discovery of plum pox in Pennsylvania, several growers lost their orchards or the right…  » Read more

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Northeast Growers Reach More Customers with Red Tomato

About 40 farms in New England, New York and Pennsylvania sell produce through Red Tomato – and none of them appear to have a bad word to say about it. Some of them rely on Red Tomato to sell most of what they produce, and others sell some to Red Tomato but much goes elsewhere. Many use an amalgam of several marketing methods. Richard Bonanno at Pleasant Valley Gardens in Methuen, Mass., is a good example – and an outspoken proponent of Red Tomato. “It’s been a good marketing arrangement for us,” he said. “Red Tomato reaches higher-end stores that pay a fairer price, and that helps our bottom line. It reaches a high-end customer base of people who want to work with farmers who are doing a better job.” Bonanno left his position as a weed scientist at North Carolina State University a decade ago to return…  » Read more

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Red Tomato Turns a Symbol into a Useful Reality

You have to think a little outside the box to understand Red Tomato. First of all, Red Tomato is an organization that is only a little bit about red tomatoes. Red Tomato is a name, a symbol, really, meant to evoke the great idea of a well-colored, high-quality, vine-ripened, juicy, flavorful, locally grown, garden-fresh fruit or vegetable, as opposed to ... the other kind. About 40 fruit and vegetable growers in the Northeast use the Red Tomato symbol as a brand under which they sell apples, peaches, sweet corn, sweet cherries, pears, squash, lettuce, peppers and other fruits and vegetables and, yes, tomatoes, too – some of them heirloom. Red Tomato is headquartered in Canton, Mass. It markets produce for farmers who hew to “high-end” quality standards and use Red Tomato as their wholesale distributor of fruits and vegetables to markets along the East Coast. Trader Joe’s and…  » Read more

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