09/12/05 He`s trying to help tree fruit growers

Essie Fallahi's fulltime job at the University of Idaho's Parma Center involves research. He's growing different kinds of apples, peaches, pears, pluots, nectarines, grapes and he grows them under different conditions. Fallahi helped to get the wine and table grape industries started and he helped growers find alternatives to apples. Fallahi says it's the political climate around the world that forces Idaho and other Northwest growers to always rethink what they're doing. FALLAHI "Because in some countries they subsidize and there's no way in the world they can compete with those countries." This Iranian native who has called the US his home for the last 30 years says Americans have different consumption habits than most of the rest of the world. FALLAHI "In the Middle East, Europe if you go to airport, you see apples. For weddings, funerals, just about everything, fruit is before dinner, after dinner, fruit it there. But in here, guess what. We go for donuts, we go for soda. The habit of consumption in this country is low." Fallahi is hoping the political climate will improve to the point where he can get trees from his family's ranch in Iran where he says the tree fruit industry thrives in a winter climate much colder than Idaho. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott