Apples ( Malus domestica )

1. Apples(Malusdomestica) By Monica Sweeney

2. Origins and History • Highly debated • Originated in Asia • SE Asia • Caucasus • Kazakhstan • Georgia • Neolithic (9500-4500 BCE) • 6500 BCE: Anatolia (Turkey) • 1300 BCE: Egypt • 700 BCE: Greece • 44 BCE: England and France • Followed Christianity throughout Europe • Brought to North America and Australia by colonizers • Spread across North American continent by settlers

3. Sociocultural Links • Found in some of the oldest writings • Myths and folklore • Greek legends • Biblical stories • Medieval Germany folklore • Customs • Symbols • Sayings • Games • Company trademarks

4. Demographic Variances • The “American fruit” – Ralph Waldo Emerson • Popular and widespread • Moderately priced • Mostly grown in more industrialized countries • Historically • Were rare and expensive in ancient Greece • 1600s: Grow by kings and the wealthy and powerful

5. Colonial America • Apples important part of colonial life • Grown in almost any climate • Spread across continent • Provided: wood, apple vinegar, food for winter, and CIDER • Cider • Safer than water • Exempt from the Prohibition at first • Sign of settlement • Ohio land grants: plant 50 apple or pear trees • Kept settlers there • Sweet apples were a treat • Johnny Appleseed

6. The Global Economy • 2nd most popular fruit • One of most widely grown • Global production • Grown in about 90 countries (2004) • 13 million acres (2004) • Over 140 billion lbs/yr (2005) • Apple exports: 8.5 million apples (2007) • US production • Grown in over 35 states • Almost 400 thousand acres (2004) • 10.1 billion lbs/yr (2004) • Apple industry worth: $176 billion (2004)

7. Cloning • Heterozygous: high variability • No seed will grow up to be like parent tree • Allows for diversity and survival in diverse environments

8. Causes problems for human cultivators • Grafting • High susceptibility to pests and disease

9. Pesticide Use • Need more pesticides than any other food crop • 100s of insects feed on them • Numerous diseases • Excessive pesticide use due to poor risk assessment • Severe consequences • Pest resistance • Killing of natural predators • Decrease in biodiversity • Ingested by humans

10. Genetic Modification • Allows apples to: • Grow in harsher climates • Be pest, disease, or herbicide resistant • Produce more fruit • Hybridization • Negative effects • Patent protection • Harm or kill non-target species • Unknown effects on human consumers • Scare away consumers

11. Land Use and Environmental Effects • Initial land clearing • Habitat loss • Decreased biodiversity • Exotic species • Pesticides and fertilizers • Effect ecosystem • Farm workers • Get into soil and groundwater

12. The Apple Industry • 1900s: Marketing as wholesome, healthy food • Research into apple’s health benefits • Growing only a few varieties • Turn of the century: 1000s of varieties sold • 1976: 13 varieties, 90% of market • Refrigeration • National market possible • Corporations • Control through patents • Apple market • 55-60% Fresh apples • 12-15% Canned • 2-3% Dried • 2-3% Frozen • 20-25% Juice, cider, applesauce, vinegar, etc.

13. Alternative Strategies • Organic, local, sustainable apples possible! • Hurtles: • Susceptibility to pests and disease • Natural pesticides • Natural predators • Diversity • GM apples • Use of fertilizers • Nitrogen fixing cover crops • Storage and preservation • Paraffin wax coating • Controlled Atmosphere (CA) Storage

14. Bibliography 2010 An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away, Vol. 2010: Vegetarians in Paradise. 2007 Controlled Atmosphere Storage (CA), Vol. 2010. Wenatchee, WA: Washington Apples. 1998 Encyclopedia Americana: International Edition, Vol. 2. Danbury, CT: Grolier Incorporated. 2003 The Complete Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs. E. Wasson, ed. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press. Dickson, Elizabeth E., Stephen Kresovich, and Norman F. Weeden 1991 Isozymes in North American Malus (Rosaceae): Hybridization and Species Differentiation. Systematic Botany 16(2):363-375. Elzebroek, A.T.G., and K. Wind 2008 Guide to Cultivated Plants: CAB International. Fishel, Sean 2010 The U.S. Ranks 5th in Apple Exports, Vol. 2010. Pollan, Michael 2001 The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World. New York, NY: Random House. Flachowsky, Henryk, et al. 2010 Transgenic apple plants overexpressing the Lc gene of maize show an altered growth habit and increased resistance to apple scab and fire blight. Planta 231(3):623-635. Heron, Richard Le, and Michael Roche 1996 Globalization, Sustainability, and Apple Orcharding, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Economic Geography 72(4):416-432.

15. Bibliography Continued Kohn, Bernice 1976 Apple: A Bushel of Fun & Facts: Parents' Magazine Press. Novotorova, Nadezhda K., and Michael A. Mazzocco 2008 Consumer Preferences and Trade-Offs for Locally Grown and Genetically Modified Apples: A Conjoint Analysis Approach. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review 11(4). Pingali, Prabhu L., and Gerald A. Carlson 1985 Human Capital, Adjustments in Subjective Probabilities, and the Demand for Pest Controls. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 67(4):853-861. Rieger, Mark 2006 Apple - Malusdomestica, Vol. 2010. Schertz, Lois 1993 The U.S. Apple Industry: Econometric Model and Projections. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 22(2). Shiva, Vandana 2000 Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. Vogler, Ute, et al. 2010 Comparison between volatile emissions from transgenic apples and from two representative classically bred apple cultivars. Transgenic Research 19(1):77-89.