International Fruit Tree Association Action Always Best Viewed up Close
March 22, 2023 
Industry experts take part in a panel discussion on ag tech (from left): Dan Zemaitis, Jamie Kober, Liz Pauls, and Anna Wallis during the 2023 annual meeting of the International Fruit Tree Association.
Photo by Thomas Skernivitz
The annual meeting of the International Fruit Tree Association (IFTA) will always be one of my favorite conferences. And not just because it mercifully signals the end of a trade show gauntlet that, in this industry, runs full-throttle December through February.
Of significance, the 2020 IFTA event was my first on behalf of this magazine. Thanks to the pandemic and its lockdowns, which kicked in a month later, it was also my last business trip until the 2021 Great Lakes Expo.
Both of those meetings took place in Grand Rapids, MI. I’d tell you more about my appreciation of the underrated city, which I’ve suddenly visited four times now, but I already did so in this space a few months ago.
Needless to say, I was glad to be back for IFTA. And for the second time in three months, it was unseasonably warm — a far cry from my first two trips to Grand Rapids. Of course, I’ve long since reprogrammed myself to realize 50-degree temperatures in the middle of winter in Michigan aren’t cause for celebration in a hotel filled with fruit growers and researchers who know a thing or two about killing frosts. Still, I didn’t miss the blizzards and temps in the teens.
What caught my eye this year? Coincidentally, some of the same things that had done so three years earlier inside the Amway Grand Plaza.
For starters, there was Terence Robinson. If you don’t know who the Cornell University Professor is — and I presume most in the tree fruit industry do — he’s a larger-than-life personality that commands the room … and the orchard. He had done so in 2020. And he was back in 2023 to do likewise, in what came across more or less as a cameo.
Terence Robinson
Not in attendance the first two days — the second of which took place in the field, where he’s been known to challenge a grower’s technique on occasion — Robinson arrived for the third and final day of the event. In what was the 30th of 31 scheduled talks, he took to the podium to address his favorite topic — precision apple crop load management, or PACMAN.
As passionate as ever at the age of 67, he held the audience’s attention for more than 20 minutes. And at the end of his presentation, he grabbed it even more.
“I’m almost at the end of my career. In fact, this might be the last talk I ever give at IFTA personally. It’s been a wonderful ride,” he said, “and I hope that this kind of technology makes you all a lot of money. Thank you very much.”
With that, Robinson left the stage to a standing ovation by the 200 or so individuals in attendance.
Only a few minutes later, with Michigan State University (MSU) researcher Anna Wallis wrapping up a panel discussion on crop load technology, Robinson boomed from the front row, “How are you going to make money off a heat map!?”
And just like that, everyone was reminded how much Terence Robinson would be missed if, in fact, this was his last hurrah at IFTA.
Speaking of departures, Wallis has since left MSU to return to Cornell, where she will serve as the Fruit IPM Coordinator with New York State Integrated Pest Management (NYSIPM). She was the first person I had met at that first IFTA meeting in 2020, and it’s been inspiring ever since to watch how hard she has worked for MSU. She was a rock star at the last two Great Lakes conferences, as a presenter and moderator, not to mention all of the posters she helped author.
Not to be forgotten, UMass researcher and American Fruit Grower advisor Jon Clements served the final year of his term on the IFTA board. With Robinson bypassing the orchard tour this year, Clements did an admirable job in relief, asking some of the pointed questions that would have made Robinson proud.
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