Clean Your Apples Pt 1
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Under a seemingly constant barrage of accusations from activist groups, agriculture groups stay plenty busy countering the attacks.U.S. Apple Association president Jim Bair says you don’t have to look too far another ‘naughty list’ …
BAIR … “It is, and we have, we pick up either through our website or through social media, it’s almost a daily thing and somebody’s taking a shot at our products.”
Bair says their motives are usually pretty obvious …
BAIR … “Most of it is fundraising. If you go to the websites of some of these activist groups that are constantly attacking U.S. agriculture, you know, it’s all about raising money for their operations.”
So, like their recent response to the pesticide residue list, Bair says, we won’t sit back and just take it …
BAIR … “We’re going to be much more direct in our response to those people. In fact, we started this year and when the ‘Dirty Dozen’ report came out that always says that apples are in the top one, two, three of the so-called fruits and vegetables that are not safe because of pesticide residues and it’s unfortunate there are lazy reporters who just picked that story up because they read about it and they have to fill out content for their publication or they’ve got to find something to put on the air, radio or TV. And so, they’re very, sadly, very willing to swallow that nonsense hook line and sinker.”
Listen tomorrow for more on the ‘Clean Your Apples’ scare and how quick, factual responses are working to protect the apple’s squeaky-clean reputation.