On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:12:10 -0500, Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

!
>
>I sell fruit also at the largest Farmers market in the area.
>
>Real "organic" does not sell very well as the fruit is ugly cosmetically.
>50-75% goes on the compost heap. Fungicides are perhaps more important than
>pest control as far as looks go.
>I know as I sold such fruit for a couple decades. People many times talk no
>spray but then slip past your booth to buy the perfect looking sprayed
>fruit. 


I am one of the larger apple sellers at the Minneapolis Farmers market (300 members)  
and manage 2200 apples trees. I can't disagree more with your experience. I am not 
100% organic but with very minimal spray rates and using IPM to determine when to 
spray I can keep my chem bill under $600 for a 1600 bushel crop. 

Farming and beekeeping is a continuum with many shades of grey between the two 
extremes of radical organic and nuclear chemical warfare. FInding a balance between my 
footprint and profit is in my view the goal as a producer. 

My customers have no problem with imperfect looking fruit and my sales have increased 
annually as more and more people ask what is in their food. 

Over and over I hear the same tired excuse that we have to use large amounts of chems 
to grow food and that the little guy like me does not count. B.S! if I can do it so can a 
larger grower. 

I guess like beekeeping, growing and selling fruit is local - we have the most significant 
natural food coop system in the USA and a large and growing customer base demanding 
cleaner food and willing to pay higher prices. 

Cheap food is becoming a relic of the past and has hidden costs like diabetes and obesity 
a large carbon footprint and heavy environmental impacts. Thankfully the next generation 
is not willing to take the lame excuses that have been the status quo for so long. 
 

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