Sure. I'll discuss this with you further if you'd like, but I don't want to lose sight of the apples here.
Both apples and potatoes are excellent durable crops, but are best suited to different growing regions.
Within good apple growing regions, choice of variety should take many factors into account -things like resilience to present climate conditions, staggering harvest timing, maintaining genetic diversity, providing fruit for different uses (eating, cooking, juicing, fermenting, etc.), and good storage/shipping durability. Whether these factors are prioritized by individual growers in a market or by some central planning authority, I argue that durability should not be undervalued. Red delicious apples really are amazing in their rot resistance, and should be celebrated as such.
I am optimistic that in our lifetimes we will see new better tasting apple varieties eclipse the red delicious as a durable, long-storing staple fruit. We should not have to choose between variety and abundance, but we should also be realistic about our agricultural capabilities. In my estimation, capitalism is a huge hinderance to the development and widespread adoption of new apple varieties. The university breeding projects are often underfunded, and when they do produce promising scions/rootstocks, the legal right to grow and market them is restricted by unnecessary and counterproductive intellectual property claims. I dream of a communist future with greater apple abundance and variety for all people in every season of the year. Will you join me, comrade?
This is the kind of thinking I think we should often scaffold our thoughts with. I like this new framing, bringing forward the virtues of red delicious without downplaying the honeycrisp, and hoping for a beautiful symthesis
Do you have any thoughts about the substance of my comment?
Sure. I'll discuss this with you further if you'd like, but I don't want to lose sight of the apples here.
Both apples and potatoes are excellent durable crops, but are best suited to different growing regions.
Within good apple growing regions, choice of variety should take many factors into account -things like resilience to present climate conditions, staggering harvest timing, maintaining genetic diversity, providing fruit for different uses (eating, cooking, juicing, fermenting, etc.), and good storage/shipping durability. Whether these factors are prioritized by individual growers in a market or by some central planning authority, I argue that durability should not be undervalued. Red delicious apples really are amazing in their rot resistance, and should be celebrated as such.
I am optimistic that in our lifetimes we will see new better tasting apple varieties eclipse the red delicious as a durable, long-storing staple fruit. We should not have to choose between variety and abundance, but we should also be realistic about our agricultural capabilities. In my estimation, capitalism is a huge hinderance to the development and widespread adoption of new apple varieties. The university breeding projects are often underfunded, and when they do produce promising scions/rootstocks, the legal right to grow and market them is restricted by unnecessary and counterproductive intellectual property claims. I dream of a communist future with greater apple abundance and variety for all people in every season of the year. Will you join me, comrade?
This is the kind of thinking I think we should often scaffold our thoughts with. I like this new framing, bringing forward the virtues of red delicious without downplaying the honeycrisp, and hoping for a beautiful symthesis