If we are aiming for the tough, often floury, over-sweet kinds of apples that are on the market today, hard strawberries whose flavour is as distinctive as a choko's then we are not serving members of future generations well. I swear I now never buy apricots, nectarines or peaches because I was raised in Adelaide with a backyard full of those fruits and there are no stone fruits available on the north coast that taste anything like they should. The first principle is we should conserve as broad a range of cultivars as possible in a broad range of growing conditions. Biodiversity within each crop is important, not just for current production, but for future breeding for changes in weather, in taste and in pests and diseases.
Economic returns are implicit here.
As growers of cultivated plants we cannot forget the importance of their origins. The apricot grower must recognise the significance of that wild, weedy, small and possibly bitter fruited varieties in the Hindu Kush. On a global scale we cannot underestimate the importance of conserving habitat. There is increasing research into new foods and other useful crops. There is potential in unprospected forests in the Amazon basin for fruits, nuts and medicines and the Australian bush for varieties of bush foods.