The geography of Washingtonʹs world apple: global expressions in a local landscape

This article explores how the globalization of food and agriculture is linked to local processes of agrarian transformation in the case of the apple industry in the United States. The local, regional history concerning environmental, technological and social change in the apple industry reveals the ways in which the local landscape has changed as this agro-industry has developed and globalized over the last century. Our focus embraces three themes: the social construction of value in fresh apples, the changing structure of the apple industry, and the changing social relations of production as they concern transnational wageworkers. The social constructions of value ascribed to apples in the industryʹs advertisements aimed at national and international consumers exist in sharp contrast with the local level intensification of farming practices. Changes in farm structure, production technology, labor process and relations, and the composition and settlement patterns of farm labor reflect both the industryʹs regional development as well as how the globalized apple industry is manifested in the regionʹs development history and geography.