China's Apple Production

USA Today Ran a story that outlined the coming onslaught of Apples From China. I did not know this but according to the story fifteen years ago, China grew fewer apples than the United States. Today, China grows five times as many apples, almost half the apples grown on the entire planet.

Beyond that, harvest workers make an average of $.28 per hour, or $2.00 per day while those that harvest apples in the U.S. make between $9.00 and $14.00 per hour; depending on where the apples are grown; according to the story.

This is nothing new I suppose, we've seen many industries move production to countries where labor is cheap. In my mind though this is different. Apple growers in the U.S. can not just close down shop in the U.S. and build some manufacturing plant in China, or locate all customer service to India like so many other industries do. If China is allowed to import apples to the U.S. at prices that reflect a $2.00 per day labor rate, then we have a huge problem. We're talking about our food supply here. Not cars, or trucks or memory chips, but FOOD. In my mind we simply can not let any country, especially a Communist regiem like China, replace, or displace any part of our domestic food production. The ramifications are too far reaching. It's one thing to compete in an open and fair market. It is another to compete in a market where one side employs virtual slave labor.

If there is something good in this, it is that today's apple growers are looking at ways to bring a new level of efficiency to their operations, looking at ways to cut costs, and increase productivity. After all, that is the American Way, not to mention that necessity is indeed the mother of all invention.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?