The Canadian creator of Arctic apples, bioengineered to not turn brown, envisions using the same genetic manipulation to boost efficiencies and grower profits in the orchards of the future.
Neal Carter, founder and CEO of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, unveiled his aspiration for the tree fruit industry during a day-long event for ag tech stakeholders on April 30 at several sites throughout Washington’s Columbia Basin.
At the event, an eclectic gathering of researchers, entrepreneurs, government officials, vendors and a few growers toured the Summerland, British Columbia, company’s slicing and bagging facility in a Moses Lake, Washington, industrial park and its orchards in nearby Royal City. The orchard visit featured autonomous equipment demonstrations and discussions of fertilizer technology.
Also announced during the orchard stop: Walla Walla-based data startup innov8.ag has acquired 2ndSight Bioscience of Spokane, a labor and inventory tracking company. The founders of the two companies say the merger will enable growers to use data about bloom, soil health and yields from innov8.ag to help predict their labor needs.
Innov8.ag CEO Steve Mantle is a frequent speaker at industry events and at one time coordinated the Smart Orchard, a block set aside by growers for technology experimentation.
The day culminated in a seminar at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake where panelists discussed the state of agricultural technology and the skilled workers who must wield it in the future.
Carter, who owns a family orchard in British Columbia, laid out his vision by presenting a white paper he titled “Traits and Tech: Designing the Orchard of the Future.” In it, Carter proposes embracing the same genetic engineering his company uses in its apple production to create super-dwarfing trees that produce buds and fruit on new branches the same year. That would allow farmers to plant trees even closer together and keep them about 6 feet tall with a narrow fruiting zone maintained by mechanical hedging every year.
Overall, he wants the tree fruit industry to keep an open mind to all forms of technology to ensure profitability through the coming decades.
“Ag tech is a solution, and genetics are a part of ag tech,” he said.
—by Ross Courtney
