Saturday Speaker Series: Big Apples, Big Business: How Washington Became the Apple State

Why do so many apples in the grocery store look the same? And why do so many come from Washington?

In this talk, explore how Washington became the top apple-producing state in the country, and how, in the process, it transformed apples into an industrialized commodity. Many regions in the West attempted to grow apples, but in Washington, big apples became big business thanks to the work of scientists, investors, irrigators, railroad corporations, marketers, and apple growers. How does the history of Washington apples reflect larger changes happening in the American food system—changes that continue to affect our environment and the way we eat today?