Water
Prison labor works for Colorado growers
With talk of farm-labor shortages across the country, can prisoners fill in the gap? Earlier this year, officials in Georgia and Alabama suggested using prison labor to replace missing migrant workers, but in Georgia at... more »
Honeycrisp celebrates golden anniversary
Few apple varieties have done as much for the industry in recent years as Honeycrisp, but its beginnings go back further than you might think. It was 1961 when the original seeds were germinated from... more »
Researchers working on orchard of the future
Imagine an apple or cherry orchard that can be fertilized, watered and sprayed for pests with the push of a button. Researchers have been imagining this for years, but now they are working to create... more »
E-Verify contributes to labor shortages across the country
Congress hadn’t passed mandatory E-Verify as of late October, but the threat that it might do so lingered over the country’s fields and orchards for much of 2011. Just the rumor of E-Verify was enough... more »
Arsenic, lead found in leading fruit-juice brands
Health officials with Public Health – Dayton and Montgomery County are encouraging parents to talk with their pediatricians in the wake of a Consumer Reports investigation released Wednesday that found arsenic and lead levels that... more »
Drought hurts yield, but helps quality of Texas grapes
West Texas grape grower Neal Newsome went from grappling with a killing freeze to watching his fruit suffer from the state’s worst single-year drought.“You can’t win for losing in a year like this. Nothing clicks,”... 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 fruit production, new apple varieties have revolutionized that industry.... more »
Growers say E-Verify will destroy the ag industry, but Congress has yet to offer a fix
With quick strokes of the blade, workers cut romaine heads from a Gonzales field on a brisk October morning. They precisely shave off the greenest exterior leaves and pass the crisp romaine hearts to an... more »
