Apples

Wolves, bears, frogs and other wild things aren't the only sorts of endangered species. Rare breeds of domestic animals such as Red Wattle pigs and Narragansett turkeys are also threatened with extinction. So are thousands of varieties of vegetables and fruits. Just as wild plants and animals have their environmental champions, so foodies are seeking to preserve the biodiversity of cultivated species and rescue rare delicacies such as California's Sebastopol Gravenstein apple.

Former Army reservist Lynndie R. England is suing the biographer who wrote the book she hoped would tell her side of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and salvage her image. England claims writer Gary S. Winkler seized control of what was intended to be a shared copyright by abruptly resigning in July from A Few Bad Apples LLC, a West Virginia company set up to handle finances, and forming his own Virginia-based publishing company, Bad Apple Books LLC. Winkler denies any wrongdoing and said he welcomed a Sept.

This is about apples. And kids. Apparently, the two don't mix. I say this with authority, because as a member of the Hot Lunch Committee at my son Joseph's elementary school, I'm on the front lines in the Kid-Nutrition Wars. We're losing the battle. Saint James' School is in the heart of the mid-Wilshire district. Every Wednesday morning I assume a defensive position in the schoolyard, awaiting the onslaught of 309 hungry elementary school kids.

Japanese health rules on imported U.S. apples that include a 545-yard buffer zone around orchards and regular inspections are illegal under international trade law, the World Trade Organization said. A panel of trade experts found that Japan's measures -- designed to protect its own apple trees from fire blight -- are not based on scientific evidence. The ruling was made after a complaint by the United States.

Mexico turned up the heat in a long-running trade dispute Friday, imposing a 40% tariff on U.S. apples and accusing U.S. growers of dumping cheap fruit on its domestic market. If the tariff remains in place for long, it could have serious repercussions for U.S. apple growers, who have seen prices drop sharply in recent years because of overproduction and cheap foreign competition. Since the signing of the free-trade agreement between the U.S.

In "State's Poverty Profile Changes" (Aug. 26) you pointed out that, in California, marriage doesn't have much of an effect on the problem. However, you didn't compare apples with apples. Nowhere in the article was it mentioned what the education level of the people in poverty was. Nor did it mention to what extent people coming into the U.S. illegally from Mexico may have contributed to the problem. I suggest that if you take the illegals out of the numbers and if you compare apples with apples with respect to educational levels, you will find the unemployment rate in California is much lower than the number you are showing.

Wenatchee, Wash. Walk into the gift shop of the Washington State Apple Commission, and you see red. Just about everything carries a Red Delicious motif. There are Red Delicious postcards, Red Delicious doormats, Red Delicious T-shirts, even images of Red Delicious apples erupting out of American flags.

I thoroughly enjoyed your piece on non-delicious apples, "The Temptation Is Back," (Oct. 23). It confirmed what I have long suspected and gave me hope that true apples are making a comeback. Having just returned from Oak Glen, Calif., with two bags of Mutsus, it was good to know that similarly tasty species are returning. Now can you do a similar piece on strawberries? Surely the watery, tasteless monstrosities being marketed today are fruit of the same mind-set -- appearance and keeping qualities over flavor every time.

A six-year study comparing different types of apple production found that organic growing techniques are more profitable and produce better-tasting fruit than conventional farming methods. The study by researchers at Washington State University, published today in the journal Nature, comes at a time when apple growers are desperate for an advantage. Washington state tree fruit specialists say they expect as many as 20% of the state's apple farms to fail in the next 18 months.