"Fresh" Fruit, from 1000 miles away...

Supermarkets have a supply system designed to be economically efficient, usually meaning dealing with as few suppliers as possible in as large quantities as possible.  That means the big chains ship the same apples across the country. This is incredibly inefficient from an environmental viewpoint, since good quality apples can easily be grown in every province in Canada, and long-haul trucking means apples are often picked unripe - they can be in transit for several days and then be stored for months in altered environments before they are allowed to ripen.  This works if one just cares about "fresh" apples available at any time of the year, but a specific variety will taste the best if allowed to ripen on the tree (like most fruit). Because these storage systems often require specific levels of oxygen and nitrogen, and particularly a specific temperature range, they consume electricity as they sit in storage, unlike many root cellars, which is a great "pioneer" technology that I'd love to use myself... if only my water table was deeper!  I am looking at the possibility of an earth-bag root cellar, though.