The Rural Voice, 2004-04, Page 6Growers not putting
`garbage' in bags
As an apple grower in Ontario I
was interested to read the column by
Mr. Carter in your March issue.
I take exception to the implication
by Mr. Carter that the apple growers
in Ontario put garbage in a bag and
try to pass it off as good apples. The
apple growers of Ontario produce
excellent quality fruit and send it to
one of the many packers in the
province to be packaged in a
presentable manner for sale to the
stores. These apples are handled with
the utmost care to ensure that they
will be in the best condition possible
when they leave the packing plant.
Our buyers demand this.
However most apples in this
province, that are sold through a
chain store, will get handled several
more times after they leave the care
of the packing plant. They usually go
from the packing plant to a
warehouse where they are
redistributed out to the stores. The
care with which the apples are
handled at these large warehouses
may not be the same as the treatment
that they received in the orchard or
the packing house.
Once the apples are shipped to the
store they are also handled again by
the store staff themselves as well as
the general public who wish to maul
over every bag to pick just the right
one. These apples could be kept on
the store shelves (in most cases
unrefrigerated) for several days
before they are sold so yes, it is quite
possible that there could be some
bruising show up on a few of the
apples by the time they make it to
your home.
I'm sorry that Mr. Carter had a
2 THE RURAL VOICE
Feedback
bad experience with his purchase of
Ontario apples but he should not lay
the blame on the grower.0
— Grant McMurchy, President.
Georgian Bav Fruit Growers Inc.
and scientists will eventually discover
all the things that Grandad knew.0
— Mason Bailey
Blythe Brooke Orchards
Bluth, ON
Discovering the Farmers should read
things Grandad knew this book
Your column by Jeffrey Carter in
the March issue of The Rural Voice
prompts me to comment and agree
with respect to apple marketing.
I'm sure the same comments can
be applied to other fruits and
vegetables as well. He has made a
valid point that the general public
should note and take seriously. There
is better quality available to
consumers if they take the trouble to
go out to farms and buy directly from
the growers.
He neglected to disclose the
savings money -wise that he
experienced. I'm sure he saved
something on the price as well.
It only stands to reason that
produce that is packaged for several
weeks in colourful plastic bags will
be less nourishing and tasteful than it
was when it left the farm or orchard.
I was interested that other
countries don't allow apples to be
waxed. I wish they would do that in
Canada. Waxed apples should be
peeled before eating. The most
valuable nutrients and enzymes are
right under the outer peeling and get
lost with the peeling. To eat the apple
with the wax coating is to consume
whatever the wax has been made of,
which is likely a product from crude
oil.
The recent, increasing concerns
for health, especially in young
people, should encourage the public
to take more care and consideration
in the selection of nutrition, even if it
should be more costly, though usually
it is not, if purchased from growers.
I would like to see much more
publicity like Mr. Carter's letter
promoted by officials in our health
care system and directed to urban
areas in a way that stresses that
proper diet is a better investment than
pills, capsules and injections in later
life.
I'm still hoping that researchers
I read in Keith Roulston's column
in the March issue of The Rural
Voice that he was reading Fast Food
Nation.
I read the book more than two
years ago. The book has been on the
best sellers' list for 108 weeks. I gave
my copy to the local library in Tara.
Unfortunately 1 don't think many
farmers have read it. The very people
who should read it!
I found it to be one of the most
compelling books I have ever read
and the most truthful. or multi-
national corporations would have had
author Eric Schlosser's hide hanging
on a fence.
Fm an 80 -year-old farmer still
farming and have realized most of his
predictions have come true. We know
that the average age of farmers is
getting older. I'm beginning to think
there are only two kinds of farmers
left: old men and damn fools. It's
even tougher when you fit into both
categories.
History has a habit of repeating
itself and is quite evident in the book.
I can remember in the late 1940s and
1950s they called it vertical
integration. Some farmers who
wanted to expand and couldn't find
financing were approached by large
feed mills who said they would
supply the farmer with hogs and the
feed to feed them and would split the
profit. Unfortunately there never was
any profit, at least for the farmer.
That was really a nickel-and-dime
operation compared to the control the
multi -national corporations have over
farmers right now as described in the
book.
It all starts with the word that
starts with a big G. I'm sure a lot of
farmers don't actually know who
they are dealing with since the multi-
nationals have gobbled up smaller
competition without changing the
name. There is an example one