Change Is Coming! Why Fruit Growers Need To Embrace It
February 27, 2024 This Californian got caught off guard. After the Washington State Tree Fruit Association’s 119th annual meeting in Kennewick this past December, I had been dropped off by a colleague at a store just a couple miles from my hotel as she headed to the airport. After a few days of meetings, I needed a decent walk, but when I emerged from the store, it was pouring buckets. I was totally unprepared, wearing just a sweater.
For some reason, I was really angry at my predicament. The wind and rain grew fierce, forcing me back indoors and giving me time to think. Of course, I could simply take a Lyft back to my hotel, which sounds obvious, but the last time I was in the Tri-Cities (Pasco and Richland are the others), there was no Lyft, no Uber, and darn few taxis. But times change quickly, which I realized when I regained my senses, contacted Lyft, and found there was a car four minutes away.
My takeaway lesson: Take a moment to step back and assess your situation, realize that new technology is always changing, and keep a positive attitude.
Attitude is everything, or almost. I think Charles Swindoll said it best in a prayer on attitude that is so famous you may have even heard it. If you haven’t, I urge you to look it up. The first line is “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.”
It concludes: “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes.”
If you think this short prayer is too trite to make an impact, I have to disagree. I once worked at a company that was acquired by a larger company, and rumors were running rampant about what might happen, and they were dark. But many turned out unfounded, as I suspected. As a supervisor, albeit a low-level one, I needed to boost morale. I emailed the Swindoll piece along with my thoughts, and I’ve never been so overwhelmed with responses in my life. Several people, including one tough old veteran, actually printed out the prayer and stuck it on the walls of their cubicles.
I have to admit, even I was surprised by the cheerful outlook — and openness to new technology — shown by New Zealand growers in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, which devastated the country’s agriculture one year ago. If you know apples, you likely know Hawke’s Bay, one of New Zealand’s most productive fruit-growing regions, which was among the areas worst hit by Gabrielle.
Agriculture is critical to the local economy; they are focusing on the future of fruit-growing in the region. In reading about the cyclone’s impact, I was struck by one message: It’s an opportunity to do things differently. I found their awesome attitude admirable — and I’m the guy whose favorite saying is, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”
These aren’t pie-in-the-sky opportunities. Replanting will likely be vastly different — not only the varieties, but the type of fruit. For example, climate change has led to fewer frost days in Hawke’s Bay, perhaps making kiwi production untenable. It sounds similar to the problems faced by U.S. farmers, such as cherry growers in California. Growers are also looking at changing the way they grow their crops. In Hawke’s Bay, they will be making the needed mechanization of the future more amenable to their new orchards and vineyards. Covered systems are being explored to protect crops from the elements — just as their fellow growers are doing in Washington.
Growers have more positive attitudes than any profession I know, which is admirable, and they need to be wide open to massive change in the future. It’s coming.
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