When the leaves began to turn from greens to the oranges and reds, and the weather gets chilly, I know the Apple Harvest Festival is upon us. Although I went last year, I anxiously awaited the weekend where you could go down to Ithaca Commons and be greeted by the large crowds of people lugging around their bags of apples and enjoying the surprising varieties of food that could be made with apple, such as the apple pizza, apple mac n’ cheese and numerous baked goods. If you would prefer to stick to apples in their initial form, there were countless vendors selling many types of apples from the well-known Honeycrisp to those newer club varieties. Cornell’s Society of Horticulture were even offering samples of these club varieties, some lacking names and only having identifiers. Of course with the cold weather, first I started with Hot Spiced Apple Cider. This is one of the main reasons I looked forward to this weekend.

But this year before we went down, Professor Blalock told us about the apple business. As with most things, us humans have found a way to engineer apples so they can have our desired texture and flavor. For example, Honeycrisp, which is now over 20 years old, is adored due to its crunch and sweetness. But for this apple, the procedure was slightly different. One the patent ended, everyone was able to grow Honeycrisps. But nowadays, if there is a patented apple, you have to be part of a specific group of farmers to go it. If you are not part of that group, you will not be able to grow it. I personally disliked this way of managing the patent. While I understand that engineering these apples takes much time and effort, I think it is unfair to exclude the farmers who could benefit by growing this crop. Especially, when the clubs are limited to a certain region. Wouldn’t it be nice for people in regions different than those from the club apple to still be able to also get local fresh club apples?