If you think apple picking, you might think New England - cider, scarves, boots, leaves changing colors. The apples themselves and maybe apple cider donuts. Dunkin probably has an apple cider offering, right? (Research confirms a donut.)
Most U.S. apples, though, grow in Washington, and the apple originally came from Asia. Minnesota’s famous for its cultivars, including Honeycrisp. New England? Nothing much to speak of but the cider (and the donut). I recently went apple picking in Watsonville, an agricultural area. It was hot, sunny, dusty and at least 80 degrees. I was wearing shorts and sandals (a bad, or at least dirty, move). I paid $20 for not that many apples.
Given its origins, the apple, in a sense, is an invasive species--wholesome, beloved, adoptedly American, but not native to this area. American as apple pie? Chaucer was apparently the first to publish a recipe for the treat, getting the jump on Johnny Appleseed by centuries. It’s not the only way in which America is a lie.
Apples originally came from the Tian Shan, the heavenly mountains in China. In the Bible, Eve ate the apple, told to by the serpent; humanity then fell into sin. (At least the apples, cider and donuts are still tasty.) These days, apples are propagated instead of grown from seed, because apples grown from seeds end up very different from their parents. Propagation enables consistency, an attribute humans appreciate.
If one is to Google apple and sustainability one gets, not surprisingly, information about the computer company’s commitment to sustainability. Some of this appears to be genuine: supply chain analysis and the like. Carbon neutrality by 2030. But are we better off with iPads than Macintoshes?
Apple, too, has its problems, most recently firing multiple workers exposing discrimination and misconduct within the organization through the #AppleToo movement. When it’s not possible to speak freely, any Apple becomes not so sweet; the only solace might be in the money, which chafes the soul a bit when one spends it or merely watches the stock price tick up. It’s a crunchy dilemma.
As it does: named for one of the world’s most popular fruits, Apple is now the world’s most valuable company, in part for making devices that help us connect. Apples themselves allow us to connect: over picking, over cider, over pies, over the Honeycrisp that two sad singles grab simultaneously in the grocery store one Saturday night in a meet-cute memorialized in a rom com called, perhaps, Apple Picking, or Pick the Right One, or Sweet as Apple Pie? (I need a better pun.)
The word apple can be used to refer to any fruit. A manzana is a city block. Apples take us through the world. Many, perhaps most, people in the developed world might use an Apple product every day, perhaps more often than they eat apples.
Sustainable apple cultivation requires protection from pests and monitoring of water use. Sustainable lifestyles require--what, exactly? Companies with ambitious sustainability goals that still use of conflict minerals? That still waste immense amounts of food in employee cafeterias? That fire people who speak out about ill treatment?
It’s hard to say where I’m going here. Apples are good to eat. It’s hard not to use Apple products. You can have your iPhone and eat apples too. Organic ones, though, and maybe email Tim cook about 3TG sometime. Using your iPhone, while apple picking, of course.
Another aspect of apple picking is its status as 1) performative labor that 2) allows you to pay to do something that someone else would have been paid to do. I’m no economist, but that seems like big profits for apple growers. Still, it also seems like most apple picking places are small farms that probably aren’t raking in the dough, anyway. Myself, I paid $20 for apples that made some applesauce and let us snack for two weeks--probably not a great financial deal, though they were a little bit extra delicious (but not red).
Is it funny or sad that people will pay to experience the life of people we chronically underpay and mistreat? Here in Santa Cruz, south county is filled with agriculture and with undocumented workers who had to continue working during the COVID-19 pandemic and were disproportionately affected by COVID. I see bumper stickers all the time that say “Have food? Thank a farmworker.” But do we ever really thank them, and how? Certainly not with wages, and not with citizenship. But by paying to do their jobs for them, diverting money from their pockets? Of course!
So: professionals can apparently pick 12,000 pounds of apples in a day; an apple apparently weighs about a third of a pound and thus people must pick 36,000 (!!!) apples a day. According to my rudimentary calculations, that’s 50 apples a minute for a 12-hour day, which doesn’t take into account time spent climbing ladders or moving between trees, and frankly I can’t fathom how many trees it would take to grow 36,000 apples anyway. I don’t think I do anything 50 times a minute at my job except maybe breathe. Maybe type, if inspired. I picked about 10 pounds of apples in two hours, making me an extremely subpar picker who would likely get fired fast.
Is it good to pick apples? Is it sustainable to raise apples? Is it good or sustainable to work at Apple or any major company? It seems that both can be done in sustainable ways. It seems that picking, if you’re good at it, can pay reasonably well, if perhaps not enough to support a family (and certainly not as much as working at Apple). It depends what kind of family you want. It depends what kind of a(A)pple you prefer. It depends on being performative or purposeful.
Crunch.