August 2008 NHC NEWS A Monthly Bulletin of the Northwest Horticultural Council GRADES & STANDARDS Grades and standards have been intertwined with the commercial tree fruit business for ages: they aid in the orderly marketing of fresh produce when buyers and sellers are separated by long distances.  Such commercial regulations were often first sought by small farmers desiring enforceable rules to help them deal with rapacious big city buyers. Before the Internet and camcorders came into existence, when information flowed more slowly, rules setting clear grades and standards—such  as for a specific variety of fruit’s proper size and color or a shipping container’s size—were  especially helpful.  However these same grades and standards could—and can be—misused to restrict entry to markets and prevent fair competition. At present, our industry is working to ensure proposed international apple grade standards, now under slow and difficult consideration by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, end up helpful and not harmful. This is a prosaic area of policy work, but not without occasional flashes of interest.  For example, in 1977 Washington’s attorney general Slade Gorton argued for his state’s apple growers in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission (432 U.S. 333).  The issue involved grade markings required by North Carolina on apples being shipped into that state.  In essence, North Carolina did not want to allow Washington state growers to use their own state grade, viewed by customers as superior.  They wanted all imported apple cartons to be marked with the appropriate USDA grade.  Chief Justice Warren Burger, in a unanimous decision, found North Carolina ’s standard was an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce and, thus, violated the Commerce Clause.  This holding is still good Constitutional law. Reaching further back into time, when Franklin Roosevelt in 1912 ran for state-wide office in New York he needed the countryside voters.  The tale of how he achieved this is told by Jean Edward Smith in his magisterial biography “FDR” (2007): “…To win the farm vote, Howe [FDR’s campaign manager] devised a scheme to protect farmers from New York City commission merchants, the middlemen who pocketed the difference between what the farmer got for his crop and what the consumer paid.  Howe pointed out that if reelected, Roosevelt would become chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.  There he would ensure passage of an agricultural marketing act with real teeth in it.  Howe mailed hundreds of personal letters over FDR’s signature informing farmers of the proposal.  Each letter contained a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the farmer’s reply.  Similar letters promised apple growers that Franklin would introduce a bill to standardize the size of barrels, another sore spot for farmers whose apples were often measured in oversized barrels.” Washington state’s Attorney General Gorton went on to serve three terms in the United States Senate, while New York State Senator Roosevelt became a four-term President of the United Sates.   ¨    NHC   Over the past few months two new trustees have joined the nine person governing board of the Northwest Horticultural Council.  The Washington Apple Commission appointed Brian Alegria of CPC International Apple Company, while the Oregon Sweet Cherry Commission appointed Harry Noah of Yaquina Bay Fruit Processors.   ¨   Travel   Christian Schlect August 20-24 – USApple’s 2008 Apple Crop Outlook and Marketing Conference and meetings of the United States Apple Export Council and the board of directors of the United States Apple Association, Chicago, Illinois. Deborah Carter August 26-28 – United Fresh Produce Association’s Training for a Recall/Crisis Management classes, Yakima , Washington . That August time it was delight To watch the red moons wane to white ‘Twixt grey seamed stems of apple-trees;…’ Algernon Charles Swinburne August 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