50th Anniversary
50 Years of FGN
Fruit Growers News is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and after looking through five decades of old issues, I am amazed at how much the f... more »
‘Food safety’ didn’t exist 50 years ago
When asked to explain the difference between traceability and food safety practices now and traceability and food safety practices 50 years ago, Karl ... more »
Direct marketing helps farms survive the past 50 years
In order to write this column, about how farm marketing has changed over the past half-century and where it might be headed in the next half-century, ... more »
Agritainment, cyberspace mark evolution in farm markets
In the age of superstores and grocery stores as big as football fields, not much has changed with farm markets, and that seems to be why they have end... more »
A Look Back
From the January 1976 issue of Fruit Growers News: "Whatever the season, apples, cider, donuts and related gift items are available at Hentry Nelson's... more »
Crop protection has entered a new era: IPM
Before examining the ways crop protection techniques have changed over the last half-century, George Bird wanted to go back a little further - 12,000 ... more »
Challenges pile up for honeybees, other pollinators
How has pollination changed during the last 50 years? In many ways - most of them bad. Let's start with rental fees. If you don't have native bees to ... more »
Managing pests
From April 1973: W.W. "Bill" Thompson, MSU Extension fruit entomologist and program director for the Cooperative Orchard Pest Management Project, is s... more »
Tree training in 1973
Tom Rasch of Greenville in west-central Michigan is shown with his 9-year old son, Tommy, examining training techniques used on a semi-dwarf apple t... more »
Plantings are closer, denser than they were 50 years ago
Three Extension educators shared their thoughts on the ways tree fruit growing systems have changed in the last 50 years. Jerry Frecon, Rutgers Univer... more »
More states growing their own wine grapes
While California remains the leader in grape and wine production in the United States, other regions of the country are quickly catching on. Both ne... more »
Ohio researchers from 1981
From the February 1981 issue of FGN: Table grape cultivars, growing in a test vineyard at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center... more »
Hiring farm workers more complicated than ever
To Craig Regelbrugge, conditions for U.S. agricultural employers are about as bad as they've ever been. An estimated three-fourths of ag workers in th... more »
Early mechanization
This image appeared in FGN in 1973, but it was taken in the early 1900s. The idea that mechanization can make orchard work more efficient has been aro... more »
More farm workers
This photo of farm workers is from 1981.... more »
Farm workers
This photo ran in FGN in 2006. The challenges of getting enough legal workers for harvest are more complicated than ever.... more »
Usage, population, sprawl push advancements in irrigation
Plants need water to grow, but as global demand for quality fruit has increased in the last 50 years, the need to have the proper amount of water fo... more »
Marketing orders, agreements perform different functions
Federal marketing orders and agreements were first authorized in the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937. The chief role of such programs i... more »
Extension’s financial foundation has shifted over the years
Through its college of agriculture, experiment stations and Extension offices, a land-grant university can greatly aid its home state’s fruit ... more »
CA storage has become staple of the fruit industry
In the past 50 years, the use of controlled atmosphere (CA) storage has become a staple of the fruit industry. It is one of the tools that allow gro... more »
Jim Swindemann
From FGN 1983, Bernie Swindemann's son Jim sets valves on the Gennofresh CA generator and scrubber to control oxygen and carbon dioxide mix in their... more »
Fruit spurred growth of organic farming movement
If the U.S. organic farming movement has a father, many would point to J.I. Rodale. In 1947, Rodale founded what became known as the Rodale Institute... more »
Changing consumer demand affects small fruit
A lot has changed for small fruit over the last few decades, but those changes were quite different, depending on the crop. Strawberries The biggest ... more »
U.S. fruit exports trying to catch up to imports
It’s safe to say U.S. fruit exports have grown in the last two decades. But not as fast as imports. In 2010, the total value of U.S. fruit expor... more »
New varieties impact the tree fruit industries
New varieties have had an impact on how the tree fruit industries operate. While new cultivars have had an effect on cherry, peach and other tree fr... more »
Tree fruit growers still looking for a mechanical harvester
Michael Glenn, director of USDA’s Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.Va., can list all kinds of technological innovations ... more »
Past is present
So, what's the difference between the fruit industry now and the fruit industry 50 years ago? Here's a sample of what we've learned in the past year: ... more »
Bayer’s Woodland Research Facility celebrates 50 years
From aggressive diseases and pest pressures to climate shifts, labor shortages and evolving consumer preferences, growers are facing more and more cha... more »