Apple Industry Update part 3
Apple Industry Update Part 3. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.
Last week we started a conversation with Nancy Foster, President & CEO of US Apple about how the industry is faring with all the changes going on in
FOSTER: We took the fresh fruit and vegetable snack program nationwide where fresh fruit and vegetables are offered in the schools – really they’re low income students, some of these kids have never even tasted cherries before and these kids love it. It’s a way to promote more produce in the schools and they go home and they ask their parents for it.
Of course US Apple is really working hard on the labor issue.
FOSTER: I think it is a better Congress for that and a better administration but they’re dealing with these huge issues like a stimulus package, cutting the budget and they want to pass healthcare reform and global climate change and they’re got all these kinds of issues ahead of them and labor is a hard issue because some conservatives who just really, really don’t want any path to lead to legal status to those that are here without documentation.
And Foster says they have been working with Labor on getting the necessary changes made.
FOSTER: We have a coalition with United Farm Workers in agriculture labor that also supports this and we are the one sector of the economy that has an agreement with organized labor on a labor reform package and so for that reason we feel much more optimistic for a solution for agriculture at this point than an overall reform effort.
That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
