For immediate release:
Contact: Rich Pirog, (515) 294-3711
RELEASED: November 1999
APPLES TO APPLES: A PERSPECTIVE ON
LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS
AMES, IOWA--Once a top apple-producing state, Iowa
now provides a fraction of the fresh apples eaten by
Iowans annually. More information about changes in
Iowa's apple industry, and potential for local sales today, is
now available in a report on the Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture's World Wide Web site
(http://www.leopold.iastate.edu).
Authored by Education program coordinator Rich Pirog
and intern John Tyndall, the paper is a vehicle for exploring
the potential for local food systems to augment Iowa farm
income. Market studies show a growing interested in local
food systems, where local farmers sell their products to
nearby consumers. The authors estimates that about 15
percent of the 1.3 million bushels of fresh apples consumed
by Iowans each year are Iowa-grown.
While a typical Iowa-grown apple is sold within one day to
two months of picking, apples grown in Washington can be
kept for eight months or longer in controlled atmosphere
storage before sale, allowing nearly year-round availability
in the nation?s grocery stores.
Some Iowans may not know that the Delicious variety was
discovered as a chance seedling by Madison County
farmer Jesse Hiatt, nor that Iowa was once a top
apple-producing state, producing a peak 9.5 million
bushels in 1911. The Iowa apple industry was devastated
in 1940, however, by the infamous Armistice Day freeze
which killed many apple trees. Today, Iowa ranks 31st
among the 36 states that grow apples commercially.
Washington state ranks first in U.S. apple production,
growing more than half of the nation's fresh apples.
Graphics depicting the pathways taken by Iowa- and
Washington-grown apples are included with the paper, as
well as suggestions for increasing the potential for local
food systems in Iowa, using apples as an example. Printed
copies of the paper are also available by contacting the
Leopold Center, 209 Curtiss Hall, ISU, Ames, IA
50011-1050; phone (515) 294-3711; e-mail
leocenter@iastate.edu.
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