Managers of club apple varieties dismiss the notion that small growers will be locked out of their programs. Dr. Terence Robinson, horticulturist with Cornell University, New York, expressed concern during the International Tree Fruit Association’s annual conference that small growers would not be included in managed variety programs and would therefore be unable to participate in the global apple industry of the future. “We cannot serve society well without small growers,” he said. “If agriculture becomes an industrialized, corporate, globalized business, I think we lose something. “So how can new variety managers help keep the family farmers in business? Are […]