Adam's (Smith) apple

"Like farmers in the bigger apple-producing states, they are increasingly anxious that China could flood the U.S. market with its fresh apples - an event many believe is inevitable, even if it could be years away.

China's advantage is its cheap labor. A picker makes about 28 cents an hour, or $2 a day, according to the U.S. Apple Association. In 2005, workers in Pennsylvania made about $9 to $10 per hour, and those in Washington State about $14 per hour, the association said.

To gain access to the U.S. market, China must prove that it meets U.S. standards for pest and disease control. The U.S. Apple Association said the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sent a list of more than 300 insects and diseases of concern to the quarantine inspection agency of the Chinese government in 2003. Beijing responded the next year, and then Washington asked for information on 52 pests from the list.

Most apples already carry the labeling, but Mark Barrett, a grower in Yakima Valley in Washington, said full implementation was the best way to help U.S. apple growers.
"I believe if we had country-of-origin labeling that the consumers would buy U.S. all the time," Barrett said."