Left
to right Dr. Robert Andersen, of Cornell, Sam Benowitz of Raintree
Nursery and Gary Moulton of WSU Mt Vernon.
It was too expensive in our latest catalog to tell you in detail,
some important things about fruit research, but here on the
web we’ve got lots of room among the electrons. You may know
that the future of fruit research in the U.S. is in danger,
but let me explain how, why, what it has to do with you and
what you can do about it. Most, if not all states are facing
budget crunches. As taxes have been cut, so have the budgets
of State Universities.
Here in Washington State that has meant that the variety trials
done by the Washington State University have been cut back.
It is the variety trials at WSU Mt. Vernon station and similar
stations throughout the nation that provide you, the home fruit
grower with the information about which of tens of thousands
of possible varieties will thrive in your yard. The State Universities
also do testing on cultural practices, pest control and other
issues to show you how to best grow fruits (and other plants)
yourself. Each state’s county agricultural extension service
then takes this information and gives it to you, the taxpayer.
The information is also provided to gardening professionals
and to newspaper, radio and TV garden writers, who pass it on
to you. (For example in Western Washington, where do you think
garden experts like Ciscoe Morris get the information they pass
on to you...from the Experiment Station, that’s where.)
In addition, many states also do plant breeding where they,
for instance, pollinize the flower of a very good tasting apple
with the pollen of a multiple disease resistant apple. They
then plant tens of thousands of seedlings so they can come up
with one new variety that is better than what already exists.
Most of the varieties in the Raintree catalog, many of which
are producing delicious fruit right now in your yard, are the
result of this research. Some of them are NY 101, NY 111, NY
858, Seneca and Long john Plums; Black Gold, White Gold, Surefire
and NY 518 Cherry; Liberty and NY 75414 Apples etc, etc, etc.
Look for them on our website.
Instead of paying taxes for fruit reasearch a person can save
money on their taxes by trying out thousands of varieties themself,
planting millions of seedlings and figuring out themself, through
scientific trials, how best to grow each type of plant. Or they
could save money on taxes by not growing any plants in their
yard. And of course by not having libraries and not having universities
and not having scholarships and loans and only allowing people
with well to do parents to go to college will save tax money...but
alas I digress.
In Washington State we are lucky. Part of the lost funds are
being made up by volunteer organizations. If you join the group
Western Washington Fruit Research
Foundation, you can help fund this important research
and variety trials in our state. And by doing so get delicious
fruit to sample and educational field days to attend. See the
website www.wwfrf.org for more information. However, western
Washington is unique. Most other states don’t have volunteer
organizations that are funding fruit research. Even in Western
Washington the volunteer funding is inadequate and needs your
help.
Research
in New York State
In the state of New York, Cornell University’s Geneva Research
Station has been a leader in fruit research and breeding for
100 years. Ironically they just celebrated their 100th birthday
this summer, at the same time that they announced that for the
first time in a century they don’t have the money to replace
the Stone Fruit Breeder Dr. Bob Andersen who is retiring. Valiantly
the other fruit breeders remaining are trying to keep Dr Andersen’s
existing trials going, though they really don’t have the time.
However, there may be no new breeding and variety trials. Look
through the Raintree catalog and you will see lots of plums,
cherries, apples etc that come from the breeding programs at
Cornell. I’ve listed many above. There is some wonderful stone
fruit breeding in California. However most of us in the U.S.A.
don’t live in a California climate. Most of the varieties that
thrive there don’t thrive here or in most of the colder parts
of the United States. If most of us are going to have varieties
that work for us, they are going to come from places like Cornell
and there aren’t any places in the U.S. like Cornell. Another
interesting thing about Cornell’s Geneva station is that students
from around the world go there to study. Now with Dr. Andersen’s
breeding work coming to an end, foreign students will no longer
be going there to train. Dr. Andersen told me that a top ranking
official in the Iranian government and also experts from Iraq
and other countries have trained at Cornell. This means that
alot of the top people in governments hostile to our country,
trained in our country. This means that there is a large reservoir
of good will and friendship, and understanding among the leaders
of the world that is deemed by New York officials, to no longer
be worth supporting. If our universities no longer train these
people and they instead train in China or Japan or say France,
then what will the United States have lost?
Homeland
Security
It is ironic that our country has $87 billion dollars for homeland
security. Isn’t having a secure food supply having homeland
security. We thought so in WWII when everyone was encouraged
to plant victory gardens. Now we are encouraged to keep going
to the mall and doing the things we normally do or else the
enemy will have won...Alas I digress again.
HOW
TO SUPPORT THE GENEVA NY EXPERIMENT STATION FRUIT RESEARCH
To make a long story, not quite so long, Dr. Alan Lakso is the
Chairman of the Dept. of Horticulture at Cornell University.
You can write to him at Cornell University, Department of Horticultural
Sciences; Geneva NY 14456
Write him and tell him why you think the “Stone Fruit” which
includes Peaches, Plums, Cherries, Apricots etc is important
to you and why you would like to see it continue. Also tell
the Chairman that you would like them to keep on Dr. Andersen’s
talented and dedicated technician Jay Freer. Jay could keep
alot of the important work going until they are able to hire
a new stone fruit breeder. What would for sure keep it going
would be a large grant, but a letter will help too.
I believe this is correct, that a program at Cornell that is
really thriving is the wine grape research because it is funded
by money from the United States tobacco companies. Nowadays
whoever has the most money gets to have the fruit researchers
and gets to have them work on whatever projects they want. Almost
every researcher from Washington State to New York State and
in between is being bought by big industries. If a researcher
brings in private money then he continues to be funded. The
big industry then gets all the tax money we are still paying
for upkeep on the Experiment Station’s facilities and equipment
(which comes to many millions of dollars) as a bonus for supporting
the researcher.
But what about the research that helps us individual citizens
who don’t own a huge industry. What about self reliance and
what about people growing their own healthy food. It may be
worth alot, but its not rewarded in our current way of running
governments. If you want to grow your healthy fruit and eat
it too, then you better step forward!
To add insult to injury, private companies are paying for the
exclusive patent rights of all these varieties that were developed
at public Universities with public taxpayers funds. This way
the university doesn’t have the expense of paying for the patent
and gets some money back in royalties on plants sold. So alot
of the varieties bred and developed with taxpayer funds are
owned by large private companies. It is illegal for you, the
taxpayer, to grow these varieties in your yard! Some of them
you can buy from a very large nursery but some of the varieties
are offered only to commercial growers and you could be prosecuted
if you grow them in your yard. The research station could be
prosecuted for providing you with information about these varieties.
This is in Stark contrast to how Cornell made varieties available
in the past. What they have done in the past is let anyone who
wants to, grow the varieties developed. They then charged a
royalty of about 75 cents a tree that you would pay to the grower.
The grower paid it to Cornell. Everyone could take advantage
of the excellent varieties offered. Under this new way of doing
things, a University could and has sold exclusive rights to
a whole bunch of varieties at one time to a big company. This
company then would offer the varieties that sold in large quantities
to commercial growers and sit on the so called minor varieties
that would maybe be only of interest to a home gardener in a
certain part of the county. Cornell, facing a budget crunch
and needing to get as much money as possible, is deciding how
they want to make their varieties available in the future. Raintree
Nursery is working with them, and successfully so, to keep making
at least home garden varieties available to anyone willing to
pay the per tree royalties.
The individual taxpayers of this country have lots more money
than the tobacco industry. However the only way we are organized
to fund what is important to us is through taxes. And through
voluntary efforts. But who is more likely to dedicate their
energy to a cause? A professional lobbyist paid $100,000 a year
or a volunteer citizen who is already overworked and underpaid?
Unless the answer is the volunteer citizen, our planet is in
a great deal of trouble. So I guess its easy to support wine
grape research. (wine grape research deserves support too) Just
smoke more cigarettes and drink more alcohol. To support fruit
research you will have to give money or write letters.
I better get back to work providing you with quality fruit trees
and berry bushes. That’s what you pay me for. Order some, please
and please support fruit tree research so we can keep the wonderful
varieties coming!
Sam Benowitz
Owner Raintree Nursery
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