tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/fruit-industry-5692/articlesFruit industry – The Conversation2023-06-07T12:23:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2068442023-06-07T12:23:43Z2023-06-07T12:23:43ZPeaches are a minor part of Georgia’s economy, but they’re central to its mythology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529633/original/file-20230601-27-qeid50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C16%2C5351%2C3567&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Peach Drop celebration marks the new year in Atlanta on Jan. 1, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/general-view-of-the-peach-drop-during-the-peach-drop-2023-news-photo/1453573488">Paras Griffin/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2023 Georgia peach harvest is looking bad, although the details are sketchy. By some accounts, it’s the <a href="https://www.wabe.org/georgia-peach-crop-decimated-by-bad-weather-warming-climate/">worst since 1955</a>. Or maybe <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/worst-peach-season-in-georgia-since-2017-experts-say/vi-AA1bqnPy">since 2017</a>. There are estimates that a mild winter and late spring frost have cost Georgia growers <a href="https://www.foxweather.com/lifestyle/peach-price-hike-georgia-south-carolina-2023">50% of their crop</a>. Or <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/weather/georgia-mcdonough-peaches-freeze-inflation">perhaps 60%</a>, or <a href="https://www.wabe.org/georgia-peach-crop-decimated-by-bad-weather-warming-climate/">85% to 95%</a>. Consumers, say the growers, should expect less fruit, though what’s produced may be “<a href="https://www.wabe.org/georgia-peach-crop-decimated-by-bad-weather-warming-climate/">fantastic and huge and sweet</a>.” And they should expect to <a href="https://thetakeout.com/peaches-facing-crisis-bad-harvest-2023-grower-shortage-1850372985">pay quite a bit more</a>. </p>
<p>As ominous as this may sound, the unpredictability of Georgia’s peach harvest has been predictable since the industry’s earliest days. So has public hand-wringing about it. It can be hard to say what a “normal” year is. In 1909, growers produced just over 826,000 bushels. In 1919, it was up to 3.5 million, then 4.4 million in 1924, then back down to 1 million in 1929. </p>
<p>There may be plenty of peaches on Georgia license plates, but according to the University of Georgia’s <a href="https://caed.uga.edu/publications/farm-gate-value.html">2021 Georgia Farm Gate Value Report</a>, the state makes more money from pine straw, blueberries and deer-hunting leases. It has 1.21 million acres planted with cotton, compared with 11,582 acres of peach orchards. Georgia’s annual production of broiler chickens is worth almost 50 times as much as its peaches. </p>
<p>Why do Georgia peaches loom so large when they account for only <a href="https://caed.uga.edu/publications/farm-gate-value.html">0.58% of the state’s agricultural economy</a>, and Georgia produces <a href="https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/">only between 3% and 5%</a> of the U.S. peach crop? The answer is that the Georgia peach is a cultural icon as well as an agricultural commodity. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/the-georgia-peach/714FA4E59376F142CD71F9E2742E6C61">As I have documented</a>, its story tells us much about the relationship between environmental uncertainty and commercial agriculture.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Georgia peach farmer Lee Dickey explains why 2023 is shaping up as a disastrous harvest year.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Easy to grow, hard to protect</h2>
<p>Peaches (<em>Prunus persica</em>) were introduced to North America by Spanish monks around St. Augustine, Florida, in the mid-1500s. By 1607 they were widespread around Jamestown, Virginia. The trees grow readily from seed, and peach pits are easy to preserve and transport. </p>
<p>Observing that peaches in the Carolinas germinated easily and fruited heavily, English explorer and naturalist John Lawson <a href="http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lawson/lawson.html">wrote in 1700</a> that “they make our Land a Wilderness of Peach-Trees.” Even today, feral <em>Prunus persica</em> is surprisingly common, appearing along roadsides and fence rows, in suburban backyards and old fields throughout the Southeast and beyond. </p>
<p>Yet for such a hardy fruit, the commercial crop can seem remarkably fragile. This year’s heavy loss is unusual, but public concern about the crop is an annual ritual. It begins in February and March, when the trees start blooming and are at significant risk if temperatures drop below freezing. Larger orchards heat trees with smudge pots, or use <a href="http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1057-B/index2.tmpl">helicopters and wind machines</a> to stir up the air on particularly frigid nights. </p>
<p>The Southern environment can seem unfriendly to the fruit in other ways, too. In the 1890s many smaller growers struggled to afford expensive and elaborate controls to combat pests such as <a href="https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef204">San Jose scale</a> and <a href="http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/insects/beetles/plum-curculio.aspx">plum curculio</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs1T3LEssjr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\u0026igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>In the early 1900s, large quantities of fruit were condemned and discarded when market inspectors found entire car lots infected with <a href="http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/diseases/fruit-spots/brown-rot-of-stone-fruits.aspx">brown rot</a>, a fungal disease that can devastate stone fruit crops. In the 1960s, the commercial peach industry in Georgia and South Carolina nearly ground to a halt because of a syndrome known as <a href="https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/peach-diseases/">peach tree short life</a>, which caused trees to suddenly wither and die in their first year or two of bearing fruit. </p>
<p>In short, growing <em>Prunus persica</em> is easy. But producing large, unblemished fruit that can be shipped thousands of miles away, and doing so reliably, year after year, demands an intimate environmental knowledge that has developed slowly over the past century and a half of commercial peach production. </p>
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<h2>From windfall to icon</h2>
<p>Up through the mid-19th century, peaches were primarily a kind of feral resource for Southern farmers. A few distilled the fruit into brandy; many ran their half-wild hogs in the orchards to forage on fallen fruit. Some slave owners used the peach harvest as a kind of festival for their chattel, and runaways provisioned their secret journeys in untended orchards. </p>
<p>In the 1850s, in a determined effort to create a fruit industry for the Southeast, horticulturists began a selective breeding campaign for peaches and other fruits, including wine grapes, pears, apples and gooseberries. Its most famous yield was <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=S85WDgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false">the Elberta peach</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530169/original/file-20230605-27-scuw76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Watercolor image of whole and half Elberta peach." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530169/original/file-20230605-27-scuw76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530169/original/file-20230605-27-scuw76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530169/original/file-20230605-27-scuw76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530169/original/file-20230605-27-scuw76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530169/original/file-20230605-27-scuw76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530169/original/file-20230605-27-scuw76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530169/original/file-20230605-27-scuw76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘Prunus Persica Elberta,’ by Roy Charles Steadman (1926), from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/POM00005227">USDA, Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Introduced by Samuel Henry Rumph in the 1870s, the Elberta became one of the most successful fruit varieties of all time. Other fruits flourished for brief periods, but southern peaches boomed: the number of trees increased more than fivefold between 1889 and 1924.</p>
<p>Increasingly, growers and boosters near the heart of the industry in Fort Valley, Georgia, sought to tell “the story” of the Georgia peach. They did so in peach blossom festivals from 1922 to 1926 – annual events that dramatized the prosperity of the peach belt. Each festival featured a parade of floats, speeches by governors and members of Congress, a massive barbecue and an elaborate pageant directed by a professional dramatist and sometimes involving up to one-fourth of the town’s population. </p>
<p>Festivalgoers came from all across the United States, with attendance reportedly reaching 20,000 or more – a remarkable feat for a town of roughly 4,000 people. In 1924 the queen of the festival wore a US$32,000 pearl-encrusted gown belonging to silent film star Mary Pickford. In 1925, <a href="http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/history/rarely-seen-photos-national-geographic-archive/8/">as documented by National Geographic</a>, the pageant included a live camel. </p>
<p>The pageants varied from year to year but in general told a story of the peach, personified as a young maiden and searching the world for a husband and a home: from China, to Persia, to Spain, to Mexico, and finally to Georgia, her true and eternal home. The peach, these productions insisted, belonged to Georgia. More specifically, it belonged to Fort Valley, which was in the midst of a campaign to be designated as the seat of a new, progressive “Peach County.”</p>
<p>That campaign was surprisingly bitter, but Fort Valley got its county – the 161st and last county in Georgia – and, through the festivals, helped to consolidate the iconography of the Georgia peach. The story they told of Georgia as the “natural” home of the peach was as enduring as it was inaccurate. It obscured the importance of horticulturists’ environmental knowledge in creating the industry, and the political connections and manual labor that kept it afloat. </p>
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<h2>Politics and work</h2>
<p>As the 20th century wore on, it became increasingly hard for peach growers to ignore politics and labor. That was particularly clear in the 1950s and 1960s, when growers successfully lobbied for a new peach laboratory in Byron, Georgia, to help combat peach tree short life. </p>
<p>Their chief ally was <a href="http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/richard-b-russell-jr-1897-1971">U.S. Sen. Richard B. Russell Jr.</a>, one of the most powerful members of Congress in the 20th century and, at the time, chair of the Subcommittee on Agricultural Appropriations. The growers claimed that an expansion of federal research would shore up the peach industry; provide new crops for the South – jujube, pomegranate and persimmons, to name a few; and provide jobs for Black Southerners who would, the growers maintained, otherwise join the “already crowded offices of our welfare agencies.”</p>
<p>Russell pushed the proposal through the Senate, and – after what he later described as the most difficult negotiations of his 30-year career – through the House as well. In time, the laboratory would play a crucial role in supplying new varieties necessary to maintain the peach industry in the South. </p>
<p>At the same time, Russell was also engaged in a passionate and futile defense of segregation against the African American civil rights movement. African Americans’ growing demand for equal rights, along with the massive postwar migration of rural Southerners to urban areas, laid bare the Southern peach industry’s dependence on a labor system that relied on systemic discrimination. </p>
<p>Peach labor has always been – and for the foreseeable future will remain – hand labor. Unlike cotton, which was almost entirely mechanized in the Southeast by the 1970s, peaches were too delicate and ripeness too difficult to judge for mechanization to be a viable option. As the rural working class left Southern fields in waves, first in the 1910s and ‘20s and again in the 1940s and '50s, growers found it increasingly difficult to find cheap and readily available labor. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529646/original/file-20230601-18228-rw2791.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="African American men and women sitting and standing on the back of a truck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529646/original/file-20230601-18228-rw2791.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529646/original/file-20230601-18228-rw2791.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=630&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529646/original/file-20230601-18228-rw2791.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=630&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529646/original/file-20230601-18228-rw2791.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=630&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529646/original/file-20230601-18228-rw2791.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529646/original/file-20230601-18228-rw2791.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529646/original/file-20230601-18228-rw2791.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Peach pickers being driven to the orchards in Muscella, Ga., in 1936. The workers earned 75 cents per day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/peach-pickers-being-driven-to-the-orchards-they-earn-news-photo/1400608997">Dorothea Lange, Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>For a few decades they used dwindling local crews, supplemented by migrants and schoolchildren. In the 1990s they leveraged their political connections once more to move their undocumented Mexican workers onto the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-2a-temporary-agricultural-workers">federal H-2A guest worker program</a>. </p>
<h2>Not so peachy</h2>
<p>Climate and weather clearly play important roles in peach production. But the more interesting story is not just about the changing climate, but how growers of specialty crops like peaches have navigated that unpredictability, with help from government programs like H-2A and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/">Agricultural Research Service</a>. </p>
<p>At times, producers have actually welcomed that unpredictability. Good harvest years can produce market gluts that make it hard to turn a profit. A bad harvest year generally can be a good financial year for individual growers because they can charge more for whatever peaches they produce.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/ripley-clements-and-katharine-ball-ripley/">Clement and Katharine Ball Ripley</a>, moderately well-known authors in the 1930s, tried peach growing in North Carolina in the 1920s. In a memoir about their experience, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Sand_in_My_Shoes.html?id=uoftPQAACAAJ">Sand in My Shoes</a>,” Katharine reflected that although they had been unsuccessful as farmers, they had learned “to gamble, the pleasantist life in the world.”</p>
<p>Variable weather and environmental conditions make the Georgia peach possible. They also threaten its existence. But the Georgia peach also teaches us how important it is that we learn to tell fuller stories of the food we eat – stories that take into account not just rain patterns and nutritional content, but history, culture and political power. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-georgia-peach-may-be-vanishing-but-its-mythology-is-alive-and-well-80262">article</a> originally published July 20, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206844/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Thomas Okie has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Social Sciences Research Council. His father W. R. Okie III was a USDA peach breeder from 1980 to 2011. </span></em></p>A 90% crop loss in the Peach State may sound like a disaster, but Georgia isn’t actually the Big Apple of peach production that it claims to be.William Thomas Okie, Professor of History and History Education, Kennesaw State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1340512020-03-18T14:32:40Z2020-03-18T14:32:40ZPasha 58: South Africa’s fruit industry and the opportunities it presents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321270/original/file-20200318-37419-10eztje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s fruit industry has tremendous potential. The industry is already a global player, thanks to its citrus exports. But there is scope for other fruit such as berries and avocados.</p>
<p>It’s important to tap into this potential, given that fruit exports have the ability to create jobs. To do this, a few things need to be addressed, such as bottlenecks at the ports and an increase in research and development.</p>
<p>In today’s episode of Pasha, Shingie Chisoro-Dube, economist and researcher at the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development at the University of Johannesburg, discusses what heights the fruit export market can reach and how South Africa can get there. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-is-missing-out-on-fresh-fruit-export-growth-what-it-needs-to-do-124391">South Africa is missing out on fresh fruit export growth. What it needs to do</a>
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<p><strong>Photo:</strong>
By Frank Oosthuizen – Soft Citrus, South Africa. <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/soft-citrus-south-africa-1104767201">Shutterstock</a></p>
<p><strong>Music</strong>
“Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p>
<p>“Music box and sunshine” by Daniel Birch, found on <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Daniel_Birch/Ambient_Vol3/Music_Box__Sunshine">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Attribution-non commercial License.</a></p>
<p><strong>Sounds</strong>
“Fruit and vegetable market (covered), Pecs, large and echoey, with speech, footsteps, bangs, distant traffic” found on <a href="http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?q=fruit">BBC sound effects</a> <a href="https://github.com/bbcarchdev/Remarc/blob/master/doc/2016.09.27_RemArc_Content%20licence_Terms%20of%20Use_final.pdf">licensed under RemArc Licence</a></p>
<p>“Joburg Market Day focuses on Agro-processing business opportunities, supporting entrepreneurs - Ruby Mathang speech” by CreamerMedia found on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBBv8Yx1-d8">YouTube</a> licensed under <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797468?hl=en">Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134051/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
South Africa is already an established player in global fruit exports, especially citrus. But it has failed to take full advantage of the rise in demand for other fruits.Ozayr Patel, Digital EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1285632020-01-28T13:46:30Z2020-01-28T13:46:30ZHow sensors and big data can help cut food wastage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311375/original/file-20200122-117943-1fbk7vg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Modern farming has evolved by adopting technical advances such as machines for ploughing and harvesting, controlled irrigation, fertilisers, pesticides, crop breeding and genetics research. These have helped farmers to produce large crops of a good quality in a fairly predictable way.</p>
<p>But there’s still progress to be made in getting the best possible yields from different kinds of soils. And big losses still occur – especially during and after harvest – where monitoring and handling of produce isn’t done well. The industry needs smart and precise solutions and these are becoming available through new technology. </p>
<p>Smart farming aims to use modern technology to improve yield and product quality. One example is precision agriculture, a site specific crop management concept that uses a decision support system based on monitoring, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops. This allows farmers to optimise their returns and preserve resources. Such monitoring solutions can be achieved by integrating electronic sensing devices that record data in soil, the environment or crops. The data can then provide useful information for decision-making, through a process called data analytics. </p>
<p>The goal is to make the best possible use of soil in a particular field, control crop care and make informed decisions about handling produce after harvest. </p>
<p>We’ve been involved in the development and use of sensors to help establish the quality of a wide range of horticultural products, including fruits. We used computer intelligence methods to detect defects and predict the quality of fruit. </p>
<p>Our latest <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1537511019308864">research</a> found that data-driven solutions have a number of benefits. For instance, they can help reduce the loss of fruit and vegetables along the supply chain from farm to being consumed.</p>
<h2>The problem</h2>
<p>Fruits and vegetables can be damaged before, during and after harvest as well as in storage. This is wasteful. Some decay and spoilage is caused by viruses, fungi, bacteria or microbial pathogens. Products that are tightly packed or bruised are more vulnerable to infections and don’t last as long.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/en/">United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation</a>, around 14% of the world’s food is lost after harvest and before reaching shops and markets. And about one-third of the world’s food is lost or wasted. Minimising food loss and waste is critical to creating a <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-2-zero-hunger.html">Zero Hunger</a> world where more than 821 million people are already suffering from hunger. </p>
<p>Our research involved reviewing the role that data analytics can play in the detection of defects in fruit and vegetables. We found that machine learning – the ability of computers to find patterns in data, make predictions and propose decisions without being explicitly programmed – far surpasses traditional methods for classifying produce. </p>
<p>Machine learning has made great achievements in detecting plant <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2018.04.002">diseases</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/s16081222">fruit</a>. These could be extended to monitoring the quality of fruit and other foods. Sensors can be used to detect insects and diseases in fruits and vegetables, acting as electronic noses or tongues and measuring chemical composition. They can also measure physical properties, such as firmness and acidity, to determine product quality. </p>
<p>The products’ acceptability depends on colour, shape, size, sweetness, and not having defects such as bruises and insect infestations. This is important for customer satisfaction and for the returns that producers and suppliers make. </p>
<p>Sensing devices can supply data about these characteristics to computer algorithms for analysis. These new developments in machine learning allow for fast and effective quality determination and prediction in fresh produce. </p>
<p>For example, imaging techniques have been coupled with machine learning algorithms to detect bruises, cold injury and browning in fruit such as apples, pears and citrus, and to detect various defects in tomatoes. Smartphone-based applications are being developed for use in quality recognition for small berry fruits.</p>
<h2>Machine learning reduces losses</h2>
<p>There’s a current global <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1537511019308864">research trend</a> aimed at integrating sensing devices along the food chain to continuously monitor and control the quality indicators. We reviewed this research and found stages where such solutions are used in the food chain. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Crop monitoring</li>
</ul>
<p>Sensors can be used to measure properties of fruit and vegetables while they are growing, such as colour, size and shape. Such information helps control the growth conditions, such as water supply, and accurately determines the best harvest date. This reduces losses at harvest. For example, some smallholder farmers in <a href="https://youtu.be/89tULyOLLWU">Germany</a> have been using smartphones to check the quality of their crops by sending crop images to be processed by experts through machine learning models; feedback is then sent to the farmers. Companies are developing models to track environmental factors such as weather changes and predict how these factors affect crop yield. This kind of support is aimed particularly at farmers in <a href="https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/ai-agriculture-present-applications-impact/">developing countries</a>. </p>
<ul>
<li>Post-harvest quality monitoring</li>
</ul>
<p>In packhouses, products must be graded and sorted according to quality standards to determine their suitability for different consumer destinations. Export products need to keep well during long distance transport and on the shelf. </p>
<p>For local markets, where travel time is shorter, the quality requirements could be of a different standard. To determine whether a product is suitable for animal feed or human consumption, specialised sensors take measurements and generate data to classify, grade and sort the products into categories.</p>
<ul>
<li>Market quality monitoring </li>
</ul>
<p>Sensors can even be integrated into packaging materials that continuously monitor and report on the status of the product in real time. These sensors can be enabled to communicate and send data to a centre of command. Monitoring, detecting and segregating food products like fresh fruit to classify and remove unsafe products to meet market demand is crucial to ensure profitability and maintain market share. </p>
<p>With the increasing world population, which is expected to exceed <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html">9 billion by 2050</a>, food and nutrition security is set to become an even bigger challenge, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Data-driven automation can contribute to the solution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Frederic Isingizwe Nturambirwe receives funding from National Research Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Umezuruike Linus Opara receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>Advancements in data analytics can prevent food wastage and save farmers from significant losses along the fresh produce value chain.Frederic Isingizwe, Postdoctoral research fellow at the Research Laboratory for Postharvest Technology / SARChI, Stellenbosch UniversityUmezuruike Linus Opara, Distinguished Professor and DST-NRF South African Chair in Postharvest Technology, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/802622017-07-21T00:53:10Z2017-07-21T00:53:10ZThe Georgia peach may be vanishing, but its mythology is alive and well<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178909/original/file-20170719-13534-1kau56n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/fresh-peach-tree-335479286?src=8Q9Hmp2eR7VzvdMTvnHdUw-1-9">Anton Wattman/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This is a tough year for the Georgia peach. In February, growers <a href="http://news.wabe.org/post/georgia-peach-crop-may-suffer-due-warmer-winter">fretted about warm winter temperatures</a>, which prevented some fruit from developing properly. They were more <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/georgia/articles/2017-03-20/deep-south-freeze-means-fewer-blueberries-and-peaches">discouraged in March</a> after a late freeze damaged many of the remaining fruit. By May they were predicting an <a href="http://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/georgia-peaches-percent-state-crop-lost/ZOIDYaf6B2QFW4EPcnOIqO/">80 percent crop loss</a>. Now in July they are lamenting one of the <a href="http://www.macon.com/news/local/community/houston-peach/article159043294.html">worst years in living memory</a>. </p>
<p>With relatively few Georgia peaches this season, we might wonder where we would be without any Georgia peaches at all. One response to that question, surprisingly, is a shrug. </p>
<p>Georgia peaches account for only 0.38 percent of the state’s agricultural economy, and the state produces <a href="https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/">only between 3 and 5 percent</a> of the national peach crop. Another region would make up the loss in production if demand were sufficient. A peach is a peach. Who cares about Georgia peaches? </p>
<p>But the Georgia peach’s imperiled future is not a simple matter of costs and profits. As a crop and a cultural icon, Georgia peaches are a product of history. And <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/the-georgia-peach/714FA4E59376F142CD71F9E2742E6C61">as I have documented</a>, its story tells us much about agriculture, the environment, politics and labor in the American South.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178898/original/file-20170719-13534-i1sezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178898/original/file-20170719-13534-i1sezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178898/original/file-20170719-13534-i1sezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178898/original/file-20170719-13534-i1sezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178898/original/file-20170719-13534-i1sezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178898/original/file-20170719-13534-i1sezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178898/original/file-20170719-13534-i1sezm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peach orchard at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fruit and Tree Nut Research Laboratory, Byron, Georgia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Thomas Okie</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Easy to grow, hard to protect</h2>
<p>Peaches (<em>Prunus persica</em>) were introduced to North America by Spanish monks around St. Augustine, Florida in the mid-1500s. By 1607 they were widespread around Jamestown, Virginia. The trees grow readily from seed, and peach pits are easy to preserve and transport. </p>
<p>Observing that peaches in the Carolinas germinated easily and fruited heavily, English explorer and naturalist John Lawson <a href="http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lawson/lawson.html">wrote in 1700</a> that “they make our Land a Wilderness of Peach-Trees.” Even today feral <em>Prunus persica</em> is surprisingly common, appearing along roadsides and fence rows, in suburban backyards and old fields throughout the Southeast and beyond. </p>
<p>Yet for such a hardy fruit, the commercial crop can seem remarkably fragile. This year’s 80 percent loss is unusual, but public concern about the crop is an annual ritual. It begins in February and March, when the trees start blooming and are at significant risk if temperatures drop below freezing. Larger orchards <a href="http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1057-B/index2.tmpl">heat trees with smudge pots or use helicopters and wind machines</a> to stir up the air on particularly frigid nights. </p>
<p>The southern environment can seem unfriendly to the fruit in other ways, too. In the 1890s many smaller growers struggled to afford expensive and elaborate controls to combat pests such as <a href="https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef204">San Jose scale</a> and <a href="http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/insects/beetles/plum-curculio.aspx">plum curculio</a>. In the early 1900s large quantities of fruit were condemned and discarded when market inspectors found entire car lots infected with <a href="http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/diseases/fruit-spots/brown-rot-of-stone-fruits.aspx">brown rot</a>, a fungal disease that can devastate stone fruit crops. In the 1960s the commercial peach industry in Georgia and South Carolina nearly ground to a halt due to a syndrome known as <a href="https://sites.aces.edu/group/commhort/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=4206d93f-559b-47b1-a67e-efe319997b4a&ID=103&Web=a01cb228-31e0-4468-8e80-f44a93c1d947">peach tree short life</a>, which caused trees to suddenly wither and die in their first year or two of bearing fruit. </p>
<p>In short, growing <em>Prunus persica</em> is easy. But producing large, unblemished fruit that can be shipped thousands of miles away, and doing so reliably, year after year, demands an intimate environmental knowledge that has developed slowly over the last century and a half of commercial peach production. </p>
<h2>From windfall to icon</h2>
<p>Up through the mid-19th century, peaches were primarily a kind of feral resource for southern farmers. A few distilled the fruit into brandy; many ran their half-wild hogs in the orchards to forage on fallen fruit. Some slave owners used the peach harvest as a kind of festival for their chattel, and runaways provisioned their secret journeys in untended orchards. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178903/original/file-20170719-13545-n9hm10.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178903/original/file-20170719-13545-n9hm10.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178903/original/file-20170719-13545-n9hm10.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178903/original/file-20170719-13545-n9hm10.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178903/original/file-20170719-13545-n9hm10.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178903/original/file-20170719-13545-n9hm10.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178903/original/file-20170719-13545-n9hm10.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deborah Griscom Passmore, Elberta peach (1896), from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Maryland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://usdawatercolors.nal.usda.gov/pom/catalog.xhtml?id=POM00005230&start=0&searchText=Elberta+peach&searchField=All+Fields&sortField=">USDA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1850s, in a determined effort to create a fruit industry for the Southeast, horticulturists began a selective breeding campaign for peaches and other fruits, including wine grapes, pears, apples and gooseberries. Its most famous yield was <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=S85WDgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false">the Elberta peach</a>. Introduced by Samuel Henry Rumph in the 1870s, the Elberta became one of the most successful fruit varieties of all time. Other fruits flourished for brief periods, but southern peaches boomed: the number of trees increased more than fivefold between 1889 and 1924.</p>
<p>Increasingly, growers and boosters near the heart of the industry in Fort Valley, Georgia sought to tell “the story” of the Georgia peach. They did so in peach blossom festivals from 1922 to 1926 – annual events that dramatized the prosperity of the peach belt. Each festival featured a parade of floats, speeches by governors and members of Congress, a massive barbecue and an elaborate pageant directed by a professional dramatist and sometimes involving up to one-fourth of the town’s population. </p>
<p>Festival-goers came from all across the United States, with attendance reportedly reaching 20,000 or more – a remarkable feat for a town of roughly 4,000 people. In 1924 the queen of the festival wore a US$32,000, pearl-encrusted gown belonging to silent film star Mary Pickford. In 1925, <a href="http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/history/rarely-seen-photos-national-geographic-archive/8/">as documented by National Geographic</a>, the pageant included a live camel. </p>
<p>The pageants varied from year to year, but in general told a story of the peach, personified as a young maiden and searching the world for a husband and a home: from China, to Persia, to Spain, to Mexico, and finally to Georgia, her true and eternal home. The peach, these productions insisted, belonged to Georgia. More specifically, it belonged to Fort Valley, which was in the midst of a campaign to be designated as the seat of a new, progressive “Peach County.”</p>
<p>That campaign was surprisingly bitter, but Fort Valley got its county – the 161st and last county in Georgia – and, through the festivals, helped to consolidate the iconography of the Georgia peach. The story they told of Georgia as the “natural” home of the peach was as enduring as it was inaccurate. It obscured the importance of horticulturists’ environmental knowledge in creating the industry, and the political connections and manual labor that kept it afloat. </p>
<h2>Politics and work</h2>
<p>As the 20th century wore on, it became increasingly hard for peach growers to ignore politics and labor. This was particularly clear in the 1950s and ‘60’s, when growers successfully lobbied for a new peach laboratory in Byron, Georgia to help combat peach tree short life. Their chief ally was <a href="http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/richard-b-russell-jr-1897-1971">U.S. Senator Richard B. Russell Jr.</a>, one of the most powerful members of Congress in the 20th century and, at the time, chair of the Subcommittee on Agricultural Appropriations. The growers claimed that an expansion of federal research would shore up the peach industry; provide new crops for the South (jujube, pomegranate and persimmons, to name a few); and provide jobs for black southerners who would, the growers maintained, otherwise join the “already crowded offices of our welfare agencies.”</p>
<p>Russell pushed the proposal through the Senate, and – after what he later described as the most difficult negotiations of his 30-year career – through the House as well. In time, the laboratory would play a crucial role in supplying new varieties necessary to maintain the peach industry in the South. </p>
<p>At the same time, Russell was also engaged in a passionate and futile defense of segregation against the African-American civil rights movement. African-Americans’ growing demand for equal rights, along with the massive postwar migration of rural southerners to urban areas, laid bare the southern peach industry’s dependence on a labor system that relied on systemic discrimination. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178905/original/file-20170719-13545-196ud5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178905/original/file-20170719-13545-196ud5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178905/original/file-20170719-13545-196ud5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178905/original/file-20170719-13545-196ud5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178905/original/file-20170719-13545-196ud5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178905/original/file-20170719-13545-196ud5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178905/original/file-20170719-13545-196ud5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178905/original/file-20170719-13545-196ud5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peach pickers being driven to the orchards, Muscella, Georgia, 1936, photographed by Dorothea Lange (click to zoom).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/fsa.8b29655/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Peach labor has always been – and for the foreseeable future will remain – hand labor. Unlike cotton, which was almost entirely mechanized in the Southeast by the 1970s, peaches were too delicate and ripeness too difficult to judge for mechanization to be a viable option. As the rural working class left southern fields in waves, first in the 1910s and ‘20’s and again in the 1940s and '50’s, growers found it increasingly difficult to find cheap and readily available labor. </p>
<p>For a few decades they used dwindling local crews, supplemented by migrants and schoolchildren. In the 1990s they leveraged their political connections once more to move their undocumented Mexican workers onto the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-2a-temporary-agricultural-workers">federal H-2A guest worker program</a>. </p>
<h2>Not so peachy</h2>
<p>“Evr'ything is peaches down in Georgia,” a New York songwriting trio <a href="https://archive.org/details/78_everything-is-peaches-down-in-georgie_sterling-trio-ager-meyer_gbia0004234b">wrote in 1918</a>, “paradise is waiting down there for you.” But of course everything was and is not peaches down in Georgia, either figuratively or literally. </p>
<p>Georgia itself doesn’t depend on the fruit. There may be plenty of peaches on Georgia license plates, but according to the University of Georgia’s <a href="http://caes2.caes.uga.edu/center/caed/pubs/documents/2014UGACAEDFGVR_FINAL.pdf">2014 Georgia Farm Gate Value Report</a>, the state makes more money from pine straw, blueberries, deer hunting leases and cabbages. It has 1.38 million acres planted with cotton, compared to 11,816 acres of peach orchards. Georgia’s annual production of broiler chickens is worth more than 84 times the value of the typical peach crop. </p>
<p>Variable weather and environmental conditions make the Georgia peach possible. They also threaten its existence. But the Georgia peach also teaches us how important it is that we learn to tell fuller stories of the food we eat – stories that take into account not just rain patterns and nutritional content, but history, culture and political power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80262/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Thomas Okie has received research funding from the Social Science Research Council and the University of Georgia. </span></em></p>The peach looms large in Georgia history and lore. Today the Georgia peach crop is dwindling, but its history remains deeply entwined with Southern history, politics and culture.William Thomas Okie, Assistant Professor of History and History Education, Kennesaw State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/515922016-01-11T04:34:09Z2016-01-11T04:34:09ZWhy managing the health risks posed by pesticides is fraught with problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103845/original/image-20151201-26585-1r0td7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pesticides have harmful effects on those using them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Haig</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Are pesticides really dangerous? </p>
<p>Surely the government wouldn’t register anything that is highly hazardous to humans?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>People outside the scientific community, particularly in low-and middle-income countries, often raise these questions. Understanding the difference between hazards and risks of pesticides, how they are regulated, and how these hazards and risks are communicated, is key to answering them.</p>
<p>In Africa pesticide hazards are not communicated in a way that promotes risk prevention. Many people still assume pesticides are “safe”.</p>
<h2>State of play</h2>
<p>Regulators and researchers are concerned about more than just the toxicity of pesticides. They are also <a href="http://ocfp.on.ca/docs/pesticides-paper/2012-systematic-review-of-pesticide.pdf">concerned</a> about the damage that pesticides can cause to people’s health, including causing cancer, allergies and infertility or even leading to death.</p>
<p>But measuring this is difficult because the context of where a pesticide is used, how much is used, how often and by whom is far less controllable outside a laboratory than inside one.</p>
<p>The known acute and chronic effects of pesticides are set out in the World Health Organisation’s <a href="http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/pesticides_hazard_2009.pdf">acute hazard classifications</a> and the <a href="http://www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/ghs_rev06/06files_e.html">Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals</a>. </p>
<p>But there are a number of challenges linked to risk assessments. These include that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>they are expensive, time consuming and context dependent;</p></li>
<li><p>many are conducted by transnational pesticide companies that are trying to register a pesticide in a particular country. This raises questions around the efficacy of the assessments;</p></li>
<li><p>data extrapolated for human risk modelling is often based on a healthy European male weighing at least 85 kg. Most people living in low-and middle-income countries like South Africa do not have this profile; and</p></li>
<li><p>human testing is unethical and not an option.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Pesticides do not discriminate</h2>
<p>Pesticides are inherently toxic; they kill, repel or control the <a href="http://psep.cce.cornell.edu/Tutorials/core-tutorial/module04/index.aspx">pest</a>. But they are not indiscriminate. They do not know which species is the target species. </p>
<p>Pesticides are extensively used in low- and middle-income <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/resinf/opm/2015/00000026/00000002/art00005">countries</a>, often under the assumption that the highest risk of exposures occurs in the agricultural sector and predominately for agricultural workers. </p>
<p>But everyone is exposed to multiple pesticides in a <a href="http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication_article/m_samj_v102_n6_a52">variety of contexts</a>, including homes, gardens, parks, road verges, supermarkets, office buildings, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, inside commercial airplanes, timber, the bottom of boats, pets, shampoo for lice, and food.</p>
<p>Pesticides are often used in Africa without the required personal protective equipment. There are several factors that lead to <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935115001747">poor compliance</a>. For example, workers are given inadequate protective gear such as dust masks. These provide very little protection and may increase exposures. </p>
<p>Also, workers are expected to apply pesticides in the heat of the day which increases inhalation of fast-evaporating pesticides or heat stress compounded by protective equipment. </p>
<p>Also, some consumers use <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3138025/">endocrine-disrupting pesticides</a> to control lice in their children’s hair, despite lindane being banned for agricultural uses. This chemical is <a href="http://www.panna.org/press-release/fda-fails-ban-neurotoxic-lindane">known</a> to increase the risk of reproductive impacts and has neurotoxic effects.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103846/original/image-20151201-26574-sa5dv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103846/original/image-20151201-26574-sa5dv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103846/original/image-20151201-26574-sa5dv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103846/original/image-20151201-26574-sa5dv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103846/original/image-20151201-26574-sa5dv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103846/original/image-20151201-26574-sa5dv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103846/original/image-20151201-26574-sa5dv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103846/original/image-20151201-26574-sa5dv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People don’t have adequate protection when using pesticides.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Haig</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A further complexity with the high pesticide use in Africa is the lack of diagnosis of pesticide poisonings or exposure effects. There are hundreds of different pesticides and, in South Africa, the training on pesticide health effects is limited, despite pesticide poisoning being a <a href="http://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication_article/m_samj_v102_n6_a52">medical notifiable condition</a>.</p>
<p>Medical students receive little training on symptom <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/pesticide-worker-safety/recognition-and-management-pesticide-poisonings">diagnosis</a> linked to the different pesticides and generally only know about organophosphate poisonings. This results in misdiagnosis or <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/pesticide-worker-safety/recognition-and-management-pesticide-poisonings">under-diagnosis</a>.</p>
<h2>Labels as communicators</h2>
<p>The main vehicle for communicating pesticide health and environmental hazards and risks to the end-user is the label. </p>
<p>In most African countries, <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/2520">labels</a> contain pictograms for advice, precautions and protective equipment required, as well as hazard toxicity colour codes based on the World Health Organisation classification. But <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935108001485">less than 50%</a> of trained South African farmer workers could correctly define and apply the meaning of the label pictograms and colour codes. </p>
<p>The general public, health professionals and exposed workers generally are unable to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>identify the four toxicity colour codes; and </p></li>
<li><p>use them in a manner that reduces exposure risks.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161813X14000345">Research</a> shows that communicating pesticides risks requires different mechanisms depending on the target audience.</p>
<p>So is the label a viable tool? Do people read a pesticide label before use, particularly for health effects? Can they understand the implications on the label?</p>
<p>Research suggests the answers to these questions is “no”. In effect, the pesticide label – a legally binding document in South Africa – protects the industry from liability rather than the end-user from potential health risks.</p>
<h2>Coming to grips with what ‘safe’ means</h2>
<p>The United Nations is encouraging and supporting countries to identify highly hazardous pesticides based on <a href="http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/thematic-sitemap/theme/pests/code/hhp/en/">eight criteria</a>. This is based on the recognition that in low- and middle-income countries, the use of pesticides poses too high a risk for workers and the general population.</p>
<p>But even these eight criteria are not a panacea. </p>
<p>This is because the very definition of “safe” is problematic. If defining safe means no risk at all, then pesticides are not – they are all intrinsically hazardous. </p>
<p>There is immense complexity behind the concept of assuming there are “safe” pesticides. Hazard assessments of pesticides are on a single active ingredient and sometimes the formulated product. In reality, we are all have multiple exposures to pesticides, sometimes without our knowledge. But conducting <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512008186">research</a> on the <a href="http://www.inra.fr/en/Scientists-Students/Food-and-nutrition/All-reports/Cocktail-effects-of-toxic-substances/The-cocktail-effect-of-pesticides">cocktail effect</a> is difficult. </p>
<p>And there is the issue of who has conducted the research – industry or non-industry linked scientists – and when the research was conducted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hanna-Andrea Rother received funding through the Urban Environmental Management Programme from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) in cooperation with the South African National Department of Health, as well as the South African Medical Research Council.. </span></em></p>Understanding the hazards and risks of pesticides is vital for people using them on crops.Andrea Rother, Head of the Environmental Health Division & Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/431262015-06-19T04:22:16Z2015-06-19T04:22:16ZWaste to wealth: the hidden potential of waste from fruit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85382/original/image-20150617-23263-px0kti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Using fruit waste in a sustainable manner can have economic benefits for industries.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paulo Whitaker/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa produces millions of <a href="http://www.postharvestinnovation.org.za/industry-information/">tonnes of fruit</a> each year that are exported, consumed locally, or processed into value-added products such as juice, canned fruit or wine. </p>
<p>During the processing of fruit, thousands of tonnes of solid and liquid waste are produced. Solid waste is generated in the form of skins, pips and stalks, and liquid waste from water used to wash fruit or clean equipment. But <a href="http://www.sajs.co.za/fruit-waste-streams-south-africa-and-their-potential-role-developing-bio-economy/nuraan-khan-marilize-le-roes-hill-pamela-j-welz-kerry-grandin-tukayi-kudanga-j-susan-van-dyk-colin">research</a> shows that this waste is not being put to use. </p>
<p>This has two major consequences. The first is environmental. Solid waste disposed to landfill adds to the burden already placed on these sites. Liquid waste disposal adds excessive nutrients to aquatic environments. This causes a nutrient imbalance, overgrowth of algae, loss of oxygen and the death of animals (crustaceans, amphibians, and fish). Secondly, there is a theoretical economic loss because the untapped potential of the fruit waste is not being exploited. </p>
<p>With climate change and global warming becoming <a href="http://www.wwf.org.za/what_we_do/climate_change/">more topical</a>, there is a global move towards more <a href="http://www.enviropaedia.com/topic/default.php?topic_id=342">sustainable economic strategies</a>. This includes methods of farming, manufacturing and other industrial processes, energy generation, and water usage. In line with this, farming and agricultural industry methods and practices are constantly being re-evaluated.</p>
<h2>Reduce, reuse, recycle</h2>
<p>Citrus crops are South Africa’s <a href="http://www.nda.agric.za/docs/AMCP/Cmvp2012.pdf">most abundant fruit</a>, followed by apples and grapes. The olive industry is also <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/business/investing/opportunities/olives-130313.htm#.VXqOYfmqqko">growing rapidly.</a> Sadly, the principles behind the slogan <a href="https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Solidwaste2/Pages/ReduceReuseRecycle.aspx">“reduce, reuse, recycle”</a> have not been widely implemented.</p>
<p>Solid fruit waste is typically <a href="https://archive.org/stream/production_fruit_waste_utilisation/fruit_waste_utilisation_djvu.txt">discarded</a>, composted or used for animal fodder. Liquid waste is released to the environment or used for irrigation, sometimes after treatment to comply with legislative requirements. This is particularly problematic because water is a <a href="http://thewaterproject.org/water-in-crisis-south-africa">scarce commodity</a> in South Africa. </p>
<p>Over the last two decades there have been signs of progress and the terms beneficiation and <a href="http://www.nrel.gov/biomass/biorefinery.html">biorefinery</a> have become popular in South Africa. Beneficiation refers to the conversion of waste to more valuable products. This can be achieved at fruit processing sites or at a biorefinery. </p>
<p>Research initially focused on using fruit waste for the production of <a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/bioenergy/tech.html">bio-energy.</a> An example of this is the generation of bio-gas and bioethanol from wastewater. </p>
<p>Subsequently, further uses of fruit waste have been explored. This includes accessing dietary nutrients and antioxidants from selected fruit types. This is just the tip of the iceberg because international studies have shown that there is huge potential trapped in <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3430235/">fruit waste.</a></p>
<h2>Untapped ‘rich pickings’ from fruit waste</h2>
<p>There are a myriad of ways in which waste from the fruit sector can be reused and recycled. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>As a source of flavour or aroma compounds, antioxidants, natural colourants and dietary nutrients.</p></li>
<li><p>Depending on the type of fruit, as a source of starch, pectin and cellulose that can be used in baking or for the generation of <a href="http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/02-03/biofuels/what_bioethanol.htm">bio-ethanol</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>As a source of fibre and pulp for the production of composite materials, textiles and paper.</p></li>
<li><p>For the removal of heavy metals and dyes from wastewater.</p></li>
<li><p>For processing into bricks used in boilers or domestic fireplaces.</p></li>
<li><p>As a growth substrate for the cultivation of fungi and bacteria. These organisms can produce value-added products during growth such as enzymes used in the production of biofuel or fine chemicals.</p></li>
<li><p>As a source of organic acids typically used in food, natural biocontrol agents such as natural pesticides, and bioplastics for the manufacture of bio-degradable containers.</p></li>
<li><p>Biomass can also be used for growing edible mushrooms, micro-algal growth for biofuel production and fungal/bacterial biomass for composting or biofuel.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Far too few of these options are being explored in South Africa. There are, however, some notable exceptions.</p>
<p>One success story is a <a href="http://www.brenn-o-kem.co.za/">company</a> that processes seeds, skins and lees generated by the wine industry. Value-added products include cream of tartar, grape wine spirits, grape seed oil and grape skin byproducts. Any remaining waste is compacted and used as fuel in its factory boilers. The waste left over after the extraction and burning are then mixed into compost. This is much more degradable than the original waste from the winery. </p>
<h2>Academics, farmers and government</h2>
<p>There are many areas of research that still need to be explored. One example is to examine bio-based processes in line with the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/consultations/bioeconomy/bio-based-economy-for-europe-part2.pdf">bio-economy approach</a>.</p>
<p>However, multi- and trans-disciplinary approaches are needed to overcome the gap between what is happening in the laboratory and what industry requires. A close <a href="http://www.epa.gov/foodrecovery/fd-reduce.htm">relationship</a> with industry needs to be developed to ensure success.</p>
<p>Government also has a role to play. It can provide financial or other incentives to industries wishing to establish biorefineries and adopt beneficiation practices as the <a href="http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/laws/BIOD/US">US is doing</a>.</p>
<p>If companies succeed in reducing their carbon footprint they should be rewarded by government. This will serve as an incentive to other companies to adopt similar strategies. </p>
<p>The transformation from current practices to sustainable practices will not be quick and easy. It will be a gradual process that will only be achieved if everyone, including researchers, funding agencies, governments and communities work together and support each other in the development of a true bio-economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marilize Le Roes-Hill receives funding from the Water Research Commission of South Africa, the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pamela J Welz receives funding from The Water Research Commission, The National Research Foundation and The Cape Peninsula University of Technology.</span></em></p>Using waste from fruit has many benefits to industries.Marilize Le Roes-Hill, Senior Researcher, Head of Biocatalysis and Technical Biology Research Group, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyPamela J Welz, Researcher in Biotechnology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225872014-02-06T03:19:51Z2014-02-06T03:19:51ZThe next move for SPC Ardmona: rethinking the business model?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40748/original/ywwy6g36-1391574074.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The future is uncertain for SPC Ardmona, but alternate models provide food for thought.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The failure of Victorian fruit cannery SPC Ardmona (SPCA) to secure A$25 million from the federal government has led to <a href="http://www.stockandland.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/sour-taste-for-shepparton/2686504.aspx?storypage=0">heightened fears</a> about the future of the company and the Goulburn Valley fruit growers who supply it. </p>
<p>The response from SPCA’s parent company, <a href="http://ccamatil.com/InvestorRelations/ASX/2014/SPCA%20announcement.pdf">Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA)</a> to last Thursday’s decision is that it “will necessitate a material review of SPCA’s carrying value, and a write down of its assets including brands and goodwill”.</p>
<p>For the growers, this illustrates the risks of depending on markets controlled by large and remote corporate interests that are exposed to global competition. The federal government’s position, applied consistently in this case, is that if your product can’t compete then you need to do something else – your problem.</p>
<p>So what if SPCA does close? The major market channels for fresh fruit are fully supplied and demand is static. Export, the traditional solution for Australian farmers facing this situation, <a href="http://www.depi.vic.gov.au/agriculture-and-food/horticulture/fruit-and-nuts/fruit-industry-profile">is certainly possible</a>, but competition is stiff.</p>
<p>Or orchard land could be used for something else. The dairy industry is keen for more product, but that would represent a loss of economic and skills diversity in the region. Besides, not every fruit grower wants to milk cows, <a href="http://www.stockandland.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/sour-taste-for-shepparton/2686504.aspx?storypage=0">nor are their farm sizes or infrastructure suitable</a>, so there would be social dislocation with this option too.</p>
<h2>Innovating the food system</h2>
<p>If we have passionate growers who want to keep growing, and passionate eaters interested in more than the price of food, can they be connected in new ways?</p>
<p>The <a href="http://gvfoodcoop.com.au/">Goulburn Valley Food Co-op</a> (GVFC) has been exploring this idea for the last two years. It arose from the closure of the Heinz tomato factory in Girgarre in 2011 and despite several <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/never-say-die-20130706-2pj60.html">setbacks</a> it brought two products successfully to market in 2013: a pasta and tomato sauce meal, and a <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/executive-living/pear-shaped/story-e6frg9zo-1226809371000">pear cider</a>. </p>
<p>GVFC has pioneered the concept of “virtual factories”. Rather than developing their own processing facilities they have contracted with existing underutilised factories to produce products that are branded by their producers, but then marketed via GVFC networks, and with its imprimatur. The regional provenance and community values that GVFC represents are something that some consumers value and are prepared to pay for.</p>
<h2>Scaling up</h2>
<p>GVFC is part of a much wider set of experiments in “alternative food networks” that aim to provide new options for growers and consumers. Farmers’ markets and <a href="http://www.foodhubs.org.au/">food hubs</a> are other examples. The standard criticism is that they constitute tiny and finite “niches” in the market. This is a valid and important point. SPCA is expecting to process 150,000 tonnes of produce in 2014, whereas GVFC has so far managed to process and sell less than 100 tonnes.</p>
<p>GVFC’s public officer Les Cameron recognises the challenge, but doesn’t believe it is insurmountable: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We’ve shown that a market does exist for credible and superior quality regionally-branded products. I don’t think we should pre-judge what the ultimate size of that market could become. If we move to distribute the cider nationally we’d scale up into the thousands of tonnes pretty quickly.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Back to the future?</h2>
<p>A GVFC media release this week states that “If Australia is to have a viable food processing industry, we need SPCA”. But Les is clear that their business model needs to change: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They’ve continued basically with a ‘grower-forward’ model. The fruit arrives, you put it in cans, and wait for someone to buy it. What is needed now is a customer-driven model where you can move nimbly to make new products that people want. We got our cider from concept to bottle in six weeks.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The investment in retooling and innovation that the federal government funding was to support is needed to reconfigure the factory for this change. But perhaps the money can come from elsewhere. Les Cameron again: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The good news is that raising $25 million is a straightforward task. When negotiating with Heinz we were offered well over $18 million from various investors provided we were taking the Girgarre tomato plant over as a going concern. SPCA is a light year ahead of where Heinz was at that stage.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>GVFC is interested in exploring possibilities for “a new form of private public partnership” with SPCA and CCA, that might see the Goulburn Valley community own a stake in the factory again, as in its <a href="http://spcardmona.com.au/about-us/our-rich-history">earliest days</a>. GVFC says a number of conditions would need to be in place for such a venture to succeed, including community representation on the board, and an on-going commitment to innovative and short-run products.</p>
<p>Cameron says action is needed from the federal government too: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The Abbott government has said they will be "getting the regulatory settings right so that industry can succeed”. The first effort must be to change the “country of origin” labelling laws so that food labelled “Made in Australia” means what ordinary consumers think it should mean – food that is grown here and processed here.“</p>
</blockquote>
<p>CCA and SPCA haven’t yet responded to the community buy-in idea, and why should they? What’s in it for them? That depends how much value they see in the ethical and socially-embedded innovation, branding and marketing reach that GVFC has demonstrated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22587/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Santhanam-Martin is a member-supporter of the Goulburn Valley Food Co-op, but is not active in the organisation and receives no financial returns from it.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Ballantyne-Brodie operates a design studio called Sustainable Everyday and consults on designing local food systems. She receives scholarship funding for her research from Queensland University of Technology (QUT). </span></em></p>The failure of Victorian fruit cannery SPC Ardmona (SPCA) to secure A$25 million from the federal government has led to heightened fears about the future of the company and the Goulburn Valley fruit growers…Michael Santhanam-Martin, PhD Candidate, The University of MelbourneEmily Ballantyne-Brodie, PhD Candidate in Design and Health & Food Systems Designer , Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140842013-05-28T04:43:29Z2013-05-28T04:43:29ZAre we allowing our fruit industry to wither?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/24519/original/6gds5b69-1369713071.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our fruit industry is struggling against cheap imports - but should we be doing more to protect our "food bowl to Asia"?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The sight of Victorian fruit farmers bulldozing surplus trees due to the loss of supply contracts is a dramatic way to illustrate the quandary facing both Australian industry and growers.</p>
<p>In April Victorian fruit processor SPC Ardmona, owned by Coca-Cola Amatil, announced it was dramatically cutting its requirements for locally-grown fruit.</p>
<p>More than half of the 150 current peach and pear suppliers were told none of their crop will be required in 2014. Growers are now looking for Federal Government assistance to <a href="http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2013/05/01/568486_horticulture.html">bulldoze 750,000 surplus trees</a>, while SPC Ardmona has <a href="http://spcardmona.com.au/en/media-room/whats-new?article=/SPC-Ardmona-seeks-support-for-growers">called on the government to impose emergency tariffs</a> on imports to protect the local industry. </p>
<p>SPC Ardmona <a href="http://spcardmona.com.au/en/media-room/whats-new?article=/SPC-Ardmona-seeks-support-for-growers">partially blames a high Australian dollar</a> which has <a href="https://www.tai.org.au/file.php?file=/media_releases/PB%2047%20Still%20beating%20around%20the%20bush.pdf">hit rural markets hard</a>. </p>
<p>But also says it cannot compete against the supermarkets’ overseas-sourced “private label” products. “We are competing against products from countries that have considerably lower labour and production costs and arguably lower quality standards than we have in Australia,” Managing Director Peter Kelly said. </p>
<p>There has been <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-012-9410-x">increasing recognition</a> that supermarkets have become the most powerful actors in the global food trade.</p>
<p><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-012-9409-3">Jane Dixon and Bronwyn Isaac’s research</a> explores in detail the problematic and paradoxical role of supermarkets in the Goulburn Valley’s food economy. </p>
<p>While the use of <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-012-9407-5">imported produce in supermarkets’ home brand products</a> benefits consumers through lower prices, they destabilise the regional agricultural economy and undermine a sense of community by displacing locally owned grocers and butchers.</p>
<p>Part of the issue facing Goulburn Valley growers is historical. Simply, an industry that formerly blossomed under protectionist and interventionist agricultural policies is now facing the realities of global free trade and competition.</p>
<p>The first fruit growers association was formed in the Goulburn Valley in 1891, with the Shepparton Fruit Preserving Company (SPC) established in 1917. In 2002 it merged with the Ardmona Fruit Products Co-Op Ltd to become SPC Ardmona and was acquired by Coca-Cola Amatil in 2005.</p>
<p>Up until the 1980s, the industry was cushioned by protectionist policies; but slowly, Goulburn Valley growers have been put under increasing pressure by international markets. </p>
<p>But the market forces argument ignores several factors. </p>
<p>There is the problem of what happens to the families and communities whose livelihoods have been underpinned by this industry for a century or so. </p>
<p>Johanna’s current PhD research with Victorian orchardists identifies a widespread sense of pessimism and frustration in a system that is dominated by supermarkets and in which growers are constantly under pressure to adhere to stringent quality assurance guidelines over which they have little control. </p>
<p>City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Jenny Houlihan <a href="http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/shepparton/rallying-behind-spc-ardmona-1.49107">said at a recent community rally</a> “SPC Ardmona is vitally important to our local economy, and it is also part of our identity”. </p>
<p>In our view the growers are there as a result of previous public policy decisions, and so the public, via the apparatus of Government, is to some extent accountable for what happens to them. </p>
<p>Also, we are regularly told we are moving into an era of global food scarcity, with Australia <a href="http://asiancentury.dpmc.gov.au/white-paper">well-placed to benefit</a> by supplying high-quality food to our neighbours. Perhaps the Goulburn Valley situation lends weight to the argument that we are actually [poorly prepared to become Asia’s food bowl](http://www.stockjournal.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/food-bowl-reality-check/2656704.aspx?storypage=2 “).</p>
<p>It seems curious that we would allow this industry to wither. The existing complex system of skills, knowledge, infrastructure and supply chain relationships will be much harder to recreate in the future if they are permitted to unravel now.</p>
<p>The challenge is to navigate a path forward whereby the assets of the Goulburn Valley orchard industry are protected, and deployed into an economically viable future. So who should be doing what, if this is to be achieved?</p>
<p>Johanna’s current research indicates growers fare better when they produce multiple products, including a range of both different crops and different varieties, and when they supply multiple buyers and markets, including beyond the dominant retail supply chain. That is a strategy that warrants further investigation from growers and their industry bodies.</p>
<p>SPCA has been vigorously pursuing an innovation and diversification strategy to try to find profitable products and markets, as <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-012-9407-5">documented by Libby Hattersley and colleagues</a>, and this needs to continue. This has included developing world-first new packaging technology such as single-serve plastic cups, and resealable plastic jars, as innovations on traditional canning technology. They have also established partnership agreements with overseas companies in order to gain access to new sources of supply and new markets.</p>
<p>There is a good case for Victorian Government involvement given its aim to <a href="http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/3915-coalition-aims-to-double-food-and-fibre-production.html">double Victoria’s agricultural production</a>, and the priority strategies identified in the Goulburn Valley Subregional Plan, part of Regional Development Victoria’s <a href="http://www.rdv.vic.gov.au/victorian-regions/hume">Hume Strategy for Sustainable Communities</a>. </p>
<p>There is also a case for Federal Government involvement, in particular on moderating the power of the supermarkets. We watch keenly the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/supermarkets-face-lifechanging-decision-on-code-of-conduct-20130502-2ivv6.html">current negotiations</a> between the supermarkets and the Australian Food and Grocery Council.</p>
<p>Growers, communities, industry and government all have a role to play in charting a way forward for this industry. Let’s get on with it.</p>
<p><em>This story has been altered since publication to correct an error in the first par which mentioned citrus farmers. Crops affected are peaches and pears. The mistake was made by an editor.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/14084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Dixon's research was funded by the ARC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johanna Christensen and Michael Santhanam-Martin do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The sight of Victorian fruit farmers bulldozing surplus trees due to the loss of supply contracts is a dramatic way to illustrate the quandary facing both Australian industry and growers. In April Victorian…Michael Santhanam-Martin, PhD Candidate, The University of MelbourneJane Dixon, Senior Fellow, Australian National UniversityJohanna Christensen, PhD candidate , The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.