December 2011 NHC NEWS A Monthly Bulletin of the Northwest Horticultural Council CORPORATE APPLES People who enjoy the elegant movement of information and music were saddened in October by the death of Steve Jobs. Like The Beatles in 1968 with Apple Records, Mr. Jobs had adopted the apple for use as his technology company’s name. How did this come about?  According to an Associated Press news article on Walter Isaacson’s timely biography of the Silicon Valley innovator: “As a teenager, Jobs exhibited some odd behaviors—he began to try various diets, eating just fruits and vegetables for a time… Later, on the naming of Apple, Jobs told Issacson he was ‘on one of my fruitarian diets.’  He’d just come back from an apple farm, and he thought the name sounded ‘fun, spirited and not intimidating.’” And whence the name of The Beatle’s company?  According to Paul McCartney, it was inspired by a painting of a green apple, entitled “Le jeu de mourre” by René Magritte, the Belgium surrealist painter who lived from 1898 to 1967. ¨ RUSSIA Eighteen years of complex diplomatic negotiations will draw to a close if, as generally expected, Russia is invited this month to join the Geneva, Switzerland-based World Trade Organization. The aim of this new WTO membership is to further integrate and anchor Russia, with a population of 140 million, into the world’s economic system.  Of commercial importance to our growers and shippers is the fact that Russia, while currently a minor export market for the United States’ tree fruit industry, is the world’s leading importer of apples and pears. Under its WTO accession agreement, Russian tariff rates on imported fruits will be reduced, perhaps by fifty percent.     Once a full member, will Russia honor its commitment to abide by the WTO’s Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures?  Two examples: 1) will unreasonable plant health regulations in Vladivostok now imposed on fresh fruit imports be remedied, and 2) will Russia establish pesticide maximum residue levels on produce that facilitate—rather  than unfairly hinder—cross  border trade?  If our tree fruit growers and other United States suppliers are going to benefit from Russia’s WTO accession, Congress must first vote to cancel the Jackson-Vanik Amendment contained in the Trade Act of 1974.  Originally co-sponsored by Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D/Washington), this relic of the Cold War-era denies most favored nation status to nonmarket economies and those that restrict freedoms of emigration and human rights.  Such a cancellation vote may be delayed indefinitely, even though such a vote is supported by President Obama, since many in Congress have doubts whether Russia will faithfully implement its various WTO commitments.             ¨ December 7 – NHC trustees meeting, Wenatchee, Washington. Travel Christian Schlect December 5-7 – Washington State Horticultural Association’s 107th Annual Meeting and Trade Show and meeting of the Washington Apple Commission, Wenatchee, Washington. December 14-15 – Meeting of the Washington State Fruit Commission, Cle Elum, Washington. Mike Willett December 5-7 – Washington State Horticultural Association’s 107th Annual Meeting and Trade Show, Wenatchee, Washington. December 14-15 – Meeting of the Washington State Fruit Commission, Cle Elum, Washington. Mark Powers December 7 – Washington State Horticultural Association’s 107th Annual Meeting and Trade Show, Wenatchee, Washington. December 11-13 – Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission meeting, Pullman, Washington. December 14-15 – Meeting of the Washington State Fruit Commission, Cle Elum, Washington. Deborah Carter December 5-7 – Washington State Horticultural Association’s 107th Annual Meeting and Trade Show, Wenatchee, Washington. He sat at her bedside when she was ill with angina, ‘beside himself…sitting around her bed for hours, drawing her little pictures in colored crayon…the one was especially pretty, a head of the Madonna with averted eyes and with cheeks, soft as pears’. Tales of Imperial Russia: The Life and Times of Sergei Witte, 1849-1915 Francis W. Wcislo Northwest Horticultural Council 105 South 18th Street, Suite 105 Yakima, Washington 98901, USA Voice: (509) 453-3193, Fax: (509) 457-7615 E-mail general@nwhort.org