Apple art made us pick of the world: [2 All-round First Edition]
Matthew Denholm, John Stapleton. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 29 Oct 2005: 9.
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Abstract
Vibrant and distinctively designed labels on apple crates helped drive Australian apples into Europe and Asia from 1914 to the 1960s, giving this country an edge in one of its most important export industries of early last century.
Labels on fresh food will make a comeback of sorts after a meeting of Australian health ministers in Sydney endorsed new guidelines to enforce country-of-origin labelling of all fresh fruit, vegetables seafood, nuts, ham and bacon.
Food council chairman Chris Pyne said the enactment of country- of-origin standards was good news for consumers. Many people who bought fresh fruit and vegetables thought they were supporting Australian farmers, when in fact the produce came from overseas.
AS the nation's politicians consider expanding new country-of- origin food labelling laws, they could learn much from a lost Australianartform.
Vibrant and distinctively designed labels on apple crates helped drive Australian apples into Europe and Asia from 1914 to the 1960s, giving this country an edge in one of its most important export industries of early last century.
In some cases, the colourful labels, which often identified individual orchards and orchardist families as well as the country and state of origin, were the first images Europeans and Asians saw of Australia.
The labels are now increasingly recognised as a lost artform, with collectors -- particularly in the US -- paying thousands of dollars for a single rare example.
Today, the results of 15 years of research into the industrial art of apple branding will be released in Hobart in the form of a landmark history and catalogue of apple box labels by authors Christopher Cowles and David Walker.
Their exhaustive research, drawn from dusty orchard sheds and collectors' basements around the nation, uncovered more than 300 lost apple box label designs, a 40per cent increase on those previously documented.
"Reputations were won or lost on the basis of these labels -- that label represented the best quality and would attract the premium price," Cowles told The Weekend Australian.
Labels on fresh food will make a comeback of sorts after a meeting of Australian health ministers in Sydney endorsed new guidelines to enforce country-of-origin labelling of all fresh fruit, vegetables seafood, nuts, ham and bacon.
Food council chairman Chris Pyne said the enactment of country- of-origin standards was good news for consumers. Many people who bought fresh fruit and vegetables thought they were supporting Australian farmers, when in fact the produce came from overseas.
"There has been a growing feeling among consumers that they want to know the country of origin of their food," he said.
The decision follows a campaign by Tasmanian farmers earlier this year after McDonald's moved to buy french fries from New Zealand factories rather than from Tasmanian potato growers.
The Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council also ordered an investigation into extending the new regime to packaged fruit and vegetables.
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