Greg Quinn, with the help of several NYS Senators and Assemblypersons, has successfully led the effort to overturn the ban on the commercial cultivation of currants in the U.S. in 2003.
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Black currants, Ribes nigrum were once popular in the United States but they became extremely rare in the 20th Century after currant farming was banned in the early 1900s. This once “forbidden fruit” a dark-colored berry is extremely high in antioxidants such as the polyphenols anthocyanins which have been shown to help prevent various types of degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, as well as slow down the aging process and protect the body’s vision and neurological functions. The black currant has twice the antioxidants of blueberries, four times the amount of vitamin C found in oranges, as well as more potassium than bananas.
The currant ban was enacted when it was discovered that blackcurrants helped to spread the tree disease White Pine Blister Rust, which was thought to threaten the then-booming U.S. lumber industry.[1] Greg Quinn succeeded in demonstrating that currants could be a commercially viable crop and grown safely using the resistant varieties. He started the first major currant farm in New York in 2003 after the ban was lifted. He also created the national market for currants by incorporating The Currant Company, LLC, which develops and distributes currant products for the retail and wholesale trade. The first of these products and the first domestically produced and U.S. nationally available currant product of any kind since 1911 is a line of all natural black currant based nectar marketed under the brand name CurrantC(TM). Quinn says this may be one of the first crops in many decades to provide profitability to struggling farmers. Each year, hundreds of small farms in New York State cease to exist (thousands across the U.S.), and developers quickly snap up open land when farmers sell off their property. The Currant Company’s goal is to bring back black currant farming in the hope of helping to save some of this open space. One of Quinn's stated goals is to help make New York the nation’s top black currant producer once again.
In addition to teaching at the New York Botanical Garden, Quinn has written 8 children's books published by Scholastic Press under the titles; A Gift of a tree,The Garden in Our Yard, and 6 books within the Natural Treasure series, as well as 365 Meditations for Teachers articles for SKY magazine, Good Housekeeping, Fine Gardening and has been "The Garden and Nature Guy" on WHUD and other Pamal Broadcasting radio stations as well as FOX 5 television, WNYW out of New York City. He has also cooked for a restaurant in Bavaria.