Washington Apple Study Finds Organic Growing Is Best

Washington State horticulture professor Kathleen Willemsen said she found the study highly credible but, like Smith, worries that a switch to organic methods would not necessarily revive the apple industry. Washington apple farmers are particularly vulnerable now, she said. What used to be a billion-dollar industry is now generating about $750 million. The state's more than 6,000 farms have dwindled to 4,500, with 900 more failures anticipated.

The problems faced by farmers, according to Willemsen and Smith, include an influx of fruit from the southern hemisphere, the fall of the Asian economy in 1996, and a domestic market controlled by a small group of supermarkets.

"People don't know that the apples that they buy for $1 a pound were purchased for 15 cents a pound and that the grower got 6 cents a pound," Smith said.

But Reganold's study projects a brighter financial future for organic farmers. In two models involving different weather conditions and blemished and unblemished apples, organic orchards reached break-even points two to six years faster than those with integrated harvests, and three to eight years faster than conventional ones.

Both sets of calculations were done on the assumption that organic apples will retain their current 50% price premium.

The projections sound reasonable to at least one Yakima Valley organic apple farmer. Archie den Hoed, who did not participate in the study, began conversion of his 71-acre farm to organic three years ago. Even as the market has fallen, den Hoed said, he expects to make 50% more than he did with his conventional apples.

Reganold stressed that if society factored in the environmental costs of conventional farming, the benefits of organic would be even more dramatic. Washington apple farmers spray their crops one to four times a season with organo-phosphate pesticides, which also kill beneficial insects and are difficult for crop workers to handle safely.

But extension officer Smith doesn't want to see his clients even think about giving up what might be a crop-saver. "You can't get rid of your last effective tool for control of your key pest without replacing it," he said.

For Reganold, the key to a better apple is improved soil. He estimated that of 170,000 acres devoted to apple orchards, almost all of the soil is malnourished. It is fed with chemical nitrogen fertilizers rather than with what Reganold regards as wholesome organic amendments of green matter and composted manure.