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nafex - Re: [nafex] the evils of grafting

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  • From: Douglas Hinds <cedecor@gmx.net>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] the evils of grafting
  • Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:37:08 -0600

On 11/13/2012 11:57 AM, Alan Haigh wrote:
with all due respect, the idea that eating fruit from
grafted clones instead of seedlings is somehow compromising to the health
qualities of said fruit seems a little off the beaten path of logic to me.
That is accurate description of this issue: *_No one_* (neither growers, nor distributors, consumers, researchers and / or communicators) has questioned the validity of grafting fruit trees, and no comprehensive (or even limited) research has been ever realized showing that grafting is an innocuous practice. In fact, all you've got (other than the supposition that it must be OK because everyone does it - like cigarettes and DDT used to be at one time), is ME! Douglas Hinds. A guy that pops out of nowhere and says: I (as distinct from you and practically everyone else) have walked both paths and can safely say they're not the same. If you made me a present of all the grafted fruit I could eat for the rest of my life, I wouldn't eat a single one. I wouldn't even give it away because I'd be committing a fraud. It looks like one thing but in fact ISN'T at all what it looks like.

Here's an example: Mangoes have become quite popular in the USA, and 95% of them come from Mexico, but the BEST mangoes by far are NEVER SENT. I repeat: The mangoes that fetch the highest price and sell the quickest don't go to the USA. And guess what: They're all seedling. They have less meat but what they have is ALIVE with taste. (And no one here will mention that they're seedling because consumers aren't aware of it.

Of course the idea seems out of bounds to you - you've had no contact with high quality seedling fruit to speak of. In other words, you (and the rest) have had neither a choice or a basis for comparison. People think that seedling apples are tart (sure they are, if they're crab apples) and that seedling oranges are sour (and they ARE, if that's where the seed came from). Planting Trees using Selected Seed is is simple a technology that hasn't been used because an assumption was made (based on incomplete knowledge) that it was necessary (I believed the same thing years ago about eating meat - haven't missed it since 1966).
I would say the opposite is more likely true if varieties were selected for
more nutritious qualities- Calville Blanc, for instance, has many times the
vitamin C content of most apple varieties and judging from the flat taste
of most seedling apples, I suspect seedlings are often nearly devoid of
this important nutrient. Without grafting, Calville Blanc would have
disappeared hundreds of years ago when the original tree died.
Not if Calville Blanc seed had been planted
Because of the huge genetic diversity of apples, CB's seedling offspring
would mostly
be without this attribute and you would have to wait at least 8 years to
have any idea of the quality of each tree.
I guess you've never heard of marker assisted breeding.
The idea of starting with a premise and then trying to find corroborating
research is not science even when couched in the vocabulary of science.
I DIDN'T begin with a premise. I was forced to ACCOUNT for negative reactions that were eliminated immediately after being given access to the University of Arizona's groves south of Phoenix, where each tree has a metallic tag on a cable around it's trunk, telling you what the variety and the rootstock . You haven't read my article, either. All I'm getting from you is conjecture and irrelevant analogies.
More like scientology, but I guess that word's taken.

Was Henry David Thoreau a Scientologist? Are you comparing him to Ron Hubbert? Was Johnny Appleseed Chapman a shyster? Which of us has personal experience to back up his claims? Which of us worked with John Martin Reinecke and Bob O. Berg (UCR)? Which of has actually EATEN (and grown) seedling fruit since 1967 Which of us is has submitted research proposals to his local Biological, Agricultural, Environmental and Animal Science Faculty (that have already been accepted in principle)? It wasn't you, Alan!

It was me.

Douglas




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