~a column by Colleen O’Brien
I just read the weirdest thing:
“We know that in a convenience-driven world, a whole apple is too big of a commitment.”
Wow.
The quote comes from Neal Carter, an apple grower in British Columbia, Canada. His company is called Okanagan Specialty Fruits, or OSF. He’s marketing pieces of apples rather than whole apples for those of us who have apple commitment issues.
He genetically alters apples so they don’t get brown; I suppose so he can cut them up not only for our convenience but for our apparent hatred of browning apples once they’ve been bitten into. He believes that we consumers do not like apples that get brown and that this is a reason why apple sales are off at a time when people are so into fruit they relish a blue specimen called a blueberry that is pretty tasteless, if you ask me.
Mr Carter also believes, from what he says is his research, that once consumers know just how an apple is genetically modified, those buyers will readily buy the “Arctic Apple,” his non-browning showcase pomme. He explains all this in many pages on his website. If you are scientifically savvy, you might understand these arguments, which, by the way come with lots of exclamation points in the question and answer section (as in “Thank you for that question!”).
Mr Carter does make fun of his own 10-year-long research to produce a non-browning apple. He says, “Even non-browning apples, which at first glance might seem a little superficial” [ya think?] “are important. Apple slices left on a plate for more than a few minutes turn brown and don’t get eaten.”
I don’t know who his mother was, but mine brooked no nonsense about brown apple slices. Consequently, I’ve never had a problem with a browned apple slice; I just eat it while I read my book, pretty much unaware that it might be turning brown. I can even take up a half-eaten apple after an hour. Or longer. I would have to say that I do commit to apples, whatever their shade.
But, Mr Carter has pursued his dream for a long time, so he must know plenty of browned-apple avoiders wasting a lot of apples or perhaps just avoiding all apples in case the fruit might turn brown between bites.
This whole business may be important, even though I can’t seem to get it. I keep laughing . . . and crying: think of the value of apples, browning or not, to undernourished families and children across the country or the world. What is the value of such a scientific project to society at large? Do you find this as dispiriting a model of our entrepreneurial values as I do?
I am just happy that we have a normal apple grower in Jerald Deal. And that for once it’s a Canadian doing something this trivial rather than an American.
