No local apples at KGH
To the editor:
I recently was discharged from Kelowna General Hospital after close to three months of care as a result of a water ski fall July 16 on Okanagan Lake.
My family and I were all taken back by the fact that my apples on my food tray had New Zealand stickers on them.
For a period of seven weeks they had New Zealand stickers on them, two weeks with Chile stickers and in the remaining weeks U.S. stickers.
The apples are hard and lack freshness. I had difficultly eating them.
Our family grow a few apples ourselves and pick most others from Kempf Orchards. In the off-season, we purchase our apples from the B.C. growers here in Kelowna.
The B.C. apples in all seasons are far more favourable and better quality than the imports.
New Zealand is on the opposite side of the world and Chile is not much closer.
The transportation effort to get these apples from Chile or New Zealand to my food tray in KGH is hard to believe.
I wish our public health system would support our local agricultural industry as opposed to the world’s transportation systems.
As for me, “a B.C. apple a day keeps the doctor away” should have been my original medical treatment plan.
John B. Van Andel,
Kelowna
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