Live data from Hacker News

From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

bloomberg.com

131–140 of 589 posts

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it takes actual work to grow, harvest, and distribute crops. I look forward to the test of "Europeans don't want to do _____ work" when the shit-pay factor is removed.

do you also look forward to the 10x grocery shit-bill you will be stuck with?

Sure if it means people are being paid a fair wage. I should pay more for things where I'm exploiting labor tbh.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it takes actual work to grow, harvest, and distribute crops. I look forward to the test of "Europeans don't want to do _____ work" when the shit-pay factor is removed.

do you also look forward to the 10x grocery shit-bill you will be stuck with?

Tomatoes are not very expensive to begin with. While rents have gone up significantly, food hasn't as much. People spend a much smaller proportion of their income for groceries nowadays than a few decades ago. Maybe this will change.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#133
post #60

> From Huelva to Hamburg and Newcastle to Naples, Europe’s farmers are struggling to find people to bring in rapidly ripening fruits and vegetables, which frequently must be hand-picked, usually within a window of just a few days. They typically rely on seasonal workers from eastern Europe or northern Africa, but fears of the coronavirus are keeping hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers from leaving home, and con…

I am up for doing some fruit picking if it can be organized correctly. The strategy of allowing in migrant labour would be a political fiasco.

My experience organizing groups for picking tells me this feel good effort doesn't work.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest advertising some fruit-picking jobs at a guaranteed $50/hour to test your theory that Americans don't want them at any pay rate.

At that pay rate, your grocery bill will rise 5x-10x and while that might not bother you, there are several people from whom that's a death knell.

Not a chance. When you're paying a couple bucks a pound for fresh ______, it didn't take 15 minutes of a migrant worker's time to plant/pick/care/pack that pound.

My guess is that the migrant worker proportion of retail cost is edit:

> What would happen to consumer food costs if farm wages rose and the extra costs were passed on to consumers? The average earnings of field workers were $9.78 an hour in 2008, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of farm employers, and a 40 percent increase would raise them to $13.69 an hour. If this wage increase were passed on to consumers, the 10 cent farm labor cost of a $1 pound of apples would rise to 14 cents, and the retail price would only rise to $1.04.

https://www.prb.org/usfarmworkersfoodprices/

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can grow a surprising amount on even 0.1 acres. Here's a video where a family grows 6000 pounds on about 4000 square feet. https://youtu.be/NCmTJkZy0rM Granted, they have the whole family pitching in with the labor and it's a full-time job for them.

Is there a good resource for a reasonably educated individual on the theory of farming. That is the theory about growing any foodstuff or useful growable product (livestock,plants,edible mushrooms, even houseplants and pets) and selling those products. Managing the economics, top soil, automation, machine repair and maintenance.

Look for Storey's guides for things like basic country skills and small-scale animal husbandry (rabbit, goat, etc.) There is also probably an entire aisle of urban homesteading books to look through at the local bookstore.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#136

Another more UK-centric Guardian article that may be of interest: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/28/fruit-an...

Why aren't they just raising wages? There are many people who can work and need jobs simply a matter of finding the clearing price and passing it on to us consumers which I'm very happy to bear.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it takes actual work to grow, harvest, and distribute crops. I look forward to the test of "Europeans don't want to do _____ work" when the shit-pay factor is removed.

do you also look forward to the 10x grocery shit-bill you will be stuck with?

Related, tfw you pay the one remaining person running Prime Now deliveries a $100 tip in the hopes that they keep working because there's fucking nobody left even though Amazon said it'll pay associates an extra $2/hour. xDD

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it takes actual work to grow, harvest, and distribute crops. I look forward to the test of "Europeans don't want to do _____ work" when the shit-pay factor is removed.

do you also look forward to the 10x grocery shit-bill you will be stuck with?

The labor during harvest is significant, but not that significant. Even at a 40% hike for harvest labor costs, you wouldn't see a 40% increase in price. And it would actually be good for the local economy, but bad for the workers from Eastern Europe, they depend on harvest season.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#139
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you also look forward to the 10x grocery shit-bill you will be stuck with?

Sure if it means people are being paid a fair wage. I should pay more for things where I'm exploiting labor tbh.

Somehow I think your keyboard bravado will vanish once you start paying 60-70% of salary for just basic necessities. And even if I were to concede that you - presumably high paid tech workers - were willing & able, imagine the fate of the pensioners, bus drivers, retail workers...they barely make ends meet as it is.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#140
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 20 USD/hour I think you would be able to fill these jobs. But if you want to make that salary picking fruit, then we'll have to pay more for it -- or you'll need to have some automation to increase productivity. I doubt we'll want to pay more, consumers would rather buy imports instead.

Everything I have ever read indicates that white Americans don't want farm labor jobs even if you pay $20/hour.

That's because they would never be able to afford basic things like:

- college education ($30K-$75K/year, preceded by purchasing a shack for $800K in a good-school town)

- health care ($25K/year for a high-deductible family plan)

What's the point?

Or do we consider education or healthcare luxury now?

Post reply on HN