Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
As a kid, I was a fan of Golden Delicious, while others criticised it for being too mealy. That wasn't my experience, at least at first. Eventually I encountered increasingly mealy Golden "Delicious", and started favouring other apples. Even the cheapest apples here, like Elstar and Jonagold, are pretty good in comparison.I wonder if it's the fate of any breed to eventually be bred for looks instead of taste. If you see two apples (or any other fruit or vegetable) of the same name, aren't you more likely to pick the tastier looking one? You can't taste them in the shop, but you can compare by looks. So eventually, that's what they end up being bred for.I'd expect the only way to protect an apple from that fate, would be to trademark the name, and the rightsholder only licenses the name to apples from cultivars that breed for taste and don't sacrifice taste for looks.This might be a case where IP rights might be used for good.