Earmarks are often considered equivalent to pork barrel legislation, but the two are not necessarily the same. Over the years, agriculture—including the fruit industry—has benefited from funding gained by commodity organizations appealing to their senator or representative in Congress, who responded by providing them with special funding called an earmark. Some notable fruit-related earmarks include funding for fireblight research at Michigan State University and Cornell University in New York ($346,000 last year), funding for research on peach tree short life disease in the southeastern United States at Clemson University, funding for grapevine breeding at Cornell University, and funding for Armillaria […]