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Planet Money · August 28, 2026 · 33m

Branded fruit: How produce got “Honeycrisp-ified"

Dan Pashman, Kenny Malone, Miguel Gomez
Show Notes

The produce aisle is changing. Once filled with generic fruits and vegetables, it's now dominated by branded, trademarked products like Honeycrisp apples and Cotton Candy grapes. Planet Money teams up with Dan Pashman of The Sporkful to explore this trend, visiting Rutgers University to taste a new grape tomato variety and speaking with agricultural economist Miguel Gomez about the risk of market saturation.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Highlights

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The “Honeycrisp-ification” of the Produce Aisle
Fruits and vegetables that were once generic commodities are now being bred, branded, and sold with trademark protections and premium prices, much like the famous Honeycrisp apple.
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Rutgers’ Scarlet Sunrise: Inside a New Tomato’s Development
Hosts Kenny Malone and Dan Pashman visit Rutgers University’s agricultural program to taste a new grape tomato variety called Scarlet Sunrise and learn about the process of creating branded produce.
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Is the Branded Produce Market Reaching Saturation?
Cornell agricultural economist Miguel Gomez raises the question of whether the explosion of branded fruits and vegetables might lead to market saturation, where too many options compete for shelf space and consumer attention.
ClaudeChatGPTGemini

Misc

✧Correction: The Cosmic Crisp apple was developed by Washington State University, not the University of Washington.
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