Oranges

Sometimes we tend to take the availability of fruit for granted .All types of fruit are now on sale all year round . Its still comparativly cheap . Why some people think it necessary to interfere with growing and processing of one of natures perfectly packaged foods is a bit of a mystery , straight bananas anyone ?...how about cubic apples ?......or shiny- red= beautiful-looking apples , which have no taste ?...no ! again ?
However the economics of fruit production can be very importand .Whether it is really necessary to genetically modify bananas or apples so that they can be packaged more efficently
is argueable .
In the early nineteen -forties in the USA , just after Pearl Harbour , in Clearwater , Florida , in the heart of the orange-producing country , condensed orange juice was a booming industry ,they were exporting to the UK and Russia . Because of the premium placed on space available on board the ships crossing the war-time Atlantic the system was not working very efficiently , however .
So ''Washington'' sent down an agent from the Dept.of Agriculture .The first thing , Dr. Robert James told the hard nose cynical orange growers was '' the economics of the citrus industry is crazy and you know it . '' Basically Dr. James pointed out to the growers that they were producung orange juice alright but they were throwing away , the pulp , the peel , the seeds , the rag and all of these things were worth many times the value of the juice .Dr. James had had experience as research director in Du Pont , among other companies , and over a period of time was able to show the growers that the by-products of orange processing included the following :

from the seeds a dye that could fix any colour in artificial silk ,

also from the seeds a margarine and vegetable fats for cooking ,

from the peel terpenes ( used in paint ) and carotene ,

from the white pulp a substance called pectine ( apparently a gelling agent used in the treatment of deep wounds )

from the balance of the pulp ethyl alcohol ( used in making smokeless powder )

feed yeast for cattle ,

an activated carbon for use in absorbing unpleasant smells ,

an extract for use in dried milk and dried eggs ,

something called alpha cellulose , used in the making of cellophane ,

So Dr. James argued that the growers had been 'throwing away' about 95% of the potantial value of the orange and that the orange juice could almost be described as a by-product of orange processing .

That was over 60 years ago , the mind boggles trying to imagine what by products can be produced from fruit processing , nowadays .