Savvy farmers all over the country have discovered a practice that might not work as a nationwide agricultural policy, but that has allowed some economically inefficient orchards to thrive: Encourage yuppies and their progeny to come pick your fruit they'll pay handsomely for the privilege, buy more than they'd ordinarily consume, and then shell out for all sorts of other value-added products. Instead of paying workers to pick their fruit, they should try another strategy: making customers...

Enriching wine with sugar costs about a third as much as using concentrated grape "musts" and this helps explain why many producers are opposed to any move to outlaw the use of sugar in the fermentation process. In the cooler parts of Europe, winemakers use sucrose from beet or sugar cane to bring up the alcohol levels in their products. Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU's agriculture commissioner wants to outlaw this practice and oblige winemakers to use unfermented grape juice instead....

To be eligible for the grant program, applicants must own, or be a co-applicant with the owner, of at least 5 acres where agriculture is permitted by local and state regulations. The state has launched a program that pays farmers to grow the grapes needed to produce more made-in-Maryland bottles of cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot and other wines. A vineyard could produce 3 to 10 tons of grapes per acre, said Fiore, who also is the viticulture representative on the Maryland...

In case you'd like to stop the worm's depredations, consider some of the more promising, new controls available to home orchardists: The wormholes I'm talking about were typically a twosome -- one opening in the shoulder, the other at the calyx, or blossom end, of the fruit. Commercial orchardists use sprays and other controls to ensure that supermarket apples don't have "eat around" holes. If you were a kid who swiped apples from neighbors' unsprayed trees, you probably ate around a lot...

The ministers said, "Canada is disappointed with the USDA's decision to proceed we stand by our position that this rule should be withdrawn, as Canadian agricultural exports continue to be low risk. In an interim rule published August 25, 2006, APHIS announced that it would remove the inspection exemption for Canadian-grown fruits and vegetables and the user fee exemption for commercial vessels, trucks, railroad cars and aircraft, as well as international passengers entering the United...