A New Year, New Opportunities For Apple Growers
February 23, 2014 
Editor’s note: Look for a Q&A with Jim Bair, new USApple president in the March issue of American Fruit Grower.
Since my late December start as the new president of the U.S. Apple Association, I have been impressed again and again with the depth of passion apple growers have for their industry and their trade association. What a luxury, and honor, to be leading such a terrific organization.
Another luxury is to be supported by, and working alongside, a staff of smart and hard working professionals. One-half of our six-person staff is comprised of loyal long-termers, while the other half has been at USApple less than 10 months. So it’s a nice mix.
A bit about myself – I have spent my entire 31 year career working in agriculture and food. Until now my experiences have been in grain and grain foods sector, but I have been pleasantly surprised with the overlap in many issue areas – food safety and quality, sustainability, trade, biotechnology and others. Let me touch on a couple of other USApple priority topics.
USApple’s top priority – immigration reform – has been languishing for years. We have renewed hope that a deal can be reached that will provide what agriculture needs in a bill that can be passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. That’s heavy lifting, as they say, especially in an election year (or non-election year for that matter). We will keep pushing through coalitions of like-minded organizations and strategic partners.
Like you, we are carefully watching the pending USDA approval of the first apple developed through biotechnology. You’ve probably already read that about 75 percent of the food in the grocery store today has GM content, and there are as many opinions of this as there are apple growers. At the end of the day, this particular GM apple will be approved. In fact, USDA’s long-held position is that so long as the production of a GM plant doesn’t introduce a plant pest into the environment, it has no authority to do anything but approve it. Given that approval – and commercial production in a few years – are likely, USApple is already at work to provide calming, reassuring and accurate information to customers and consumers.
At USApple we realize that every day presents a new opportunity to do something great for the apple industry. A wise boss (my farmer dad) once said “Don’t tell me what you can do, show me what you will do.” That’s something we take very seriously and will be working very hard at.
Best wishes for a successful 2014.
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