2 ms·

This is already starting to happen to an extent. Apples are one of the fruits that that had strong naming/branding of varieties early on. They also had pretty,

by netcan 11y ago

This is already starting to happen to an extent. Apples are one of the fruits that that had strong naming/branding of varieties early on. They also had pretty, resilient, cheap fruit that tasted terrible (looking at you red delicious!) early on. Growers' consortiums invested in marketing varieties from their regions pretty successfully (pink lady, gala). Regional consortiums have sometimes had success with these kinds branding exorcises, either citing the region or the breeds. Anyway, you can't copyright a breed but you can keep all the trees to yourself (for a while) and you can trademark the name. These two things are allowing producers to create produce "brands" that taste good and command a premium. http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/11/10/358530280/want-to-grow-these-apples-youll-have-to-join-the-club http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/11/10/358530280/wan... All that said, shelf life and cultivation ease are huge money savers. "Real tomatoes" could cost three or four times the price of those anemic supermarket tomatoes just because of spoilage. "Cultivation ease" is a basket of traits, ripening all at once (terrible for taste and nutrition), plant height, disease/pest resistance, pesticide tolerance (Monsanto's world famous "roundup ready" crops) etc. They can add up to a lot. How much of a premium would people pay for worse looking tomatoes that need to be eaten by tomorrow? Ultimately demand drives these things.

bsznjyewgd 11y ago
What's wrong with Red Delicious? I usually peel them (thick skin), but otherwise they are crispy and sweet (rather than tart), pretty much exactly how I expect my apples.
- digikata 11y ago
  What I've noticed with different specialized lines of fruit is that early-on, varieties tend to show up in small niches where they succeed because they taste great. As their popularity increases, more growers and larger buyers start to become involved at which point the exceptional taste of the fruit variety often gets diluted. I'm sure this is partially because of the harvesting process for larger tonnage buy volumes. But, I'm also guessing that 'tweaks' to that fruit also start getting applied for yield/producability etc. In my area, Red Delicious was mostly a bad mealy/bland texture, Fuji's started out great but are now are sometimes good/bad. It will be interesting to see if a controlling interest in the 'brand name' of a fruit variety ends up managing the quality of a fruit.

by netcan 11y ago

bsznjyewgd 11y ago

What's wrong with Red Delicious? I usually peel them (thick skin), but otherwise they are crispy and sweet (rather than tart), pretty much exactly how I expect my apples.

digikata 11y ago
What I've noticed with different specialized lines of fruit is that early-on, varieties tend to show up in small niches where they succeed because they taste great. As their popularity increases, more growers and larger buyers start to become involved at which point the exceptional taste of the fruit variety often gets diluted. I'm sure this is partially because of the harvesting process for larger tonnage buy volumes. But, I'm also guessing that 'tweaks' to that fruit also start getting applied for yield/producability etc. In my area, Red Delicious was mostly a bad mealy/bland texture, Fuji's started out great but are now are sometimes good/bad. It will be interesting to see if a controlling interest in the 'brand name' of a fruit variety ends up managing the quality of a fruit.