As I travel the country visiting apple growers and apple companies, one question keeps coming up: Who will be the next generation of apple leaders, the ones to lead the apple industry beyond the next decade? USApple’s 2009 Apple Crop Outlook and Marketing Conference, held last August in Chicago, featured a panel discussion on the future of the Washington apple industry and, indirectly, the American apple industry. Three of the four panelists—Robert Kershaw of Domex, Inc., West Mathison of Stemilt Growers, and Mark Zirkle of Rainier Fruit Company—are from the new generation of apple leaders. The fourth, Reggie Collins of […]