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California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

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Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#81

Post by modeless »

bix6 wrote: post #73
modeless wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but this is completely wrong. California canning peach farmers are organized and crop prices are set by industry-wide bargaining with processors every year. Additionally, now that Del Monte is out of the business, the only remaining operating canneries are owned by a grower cooperative. It didn't save the industry. In fact, it may have led to the irrational planting of these trees that now need to be pulle…

He saw demand falling or what? What did he swap to?

He saw demand falling, exports falling due to the strong dollar and increased productivity in international farming, mismanagement at the canneries with executives cashing out using leveraged buyouts and saddling the companies with unsustainable debt, and trouble finding enough labor (peaches are harvested by hand, almost entirely by migrant workers from Mexico because no native Californian is willing to climb up and down ladders all day in 110 degree heat and 100% humidity, and it's hard to ensure legality).

He switched to almonds and walnuts, which are less labor intensive and have better management on the processing side. But they are an export-heavy market and have also been hammered by the strong dollar. Inflation-adjusted crop prices are near all time lows while costs are at all-time highs. Farming is a hard business!

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#82

Post by quotz »

dylan604 wrote: post #64
clarionbell wrote: post #20

People underestimate how difficult it is to seek buyers for the amount of produce we are talking about here. Farmers are specialists at growing things, not at moving them across great distances, marketing them to dozens small buyers and or starting up packing plants from scratch. They don't have enough trucks, people or packaging machines to move them around. Maybe, they can take some portion for local use. But the r…

> and call it great injustice. The great injustice is very much me paying however much per pound of peaches when the supply is so great that they should be much cheaper. However, if these are the trees that grow rock hard peaches that never soften as they ripen with no flavor, then bulldoze them all and say good riddance. Hell, might as well take of and nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

When I moved to the US from southern Europe I was so horrified by the lack of taste of any fruit I tried, particularly the peaches and plums. I moved back to Europe and not a small factor was the lack of good produce and food in general. Its just mind boggling how Americans dont revolt against this, stop buying shit produce and suppliers will notice.

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#83

Post by pc86 »

hnthrow0287345 wrote: post #69
hluska wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh yeah, this was Del Monte’s business model. The issue is that the company that owns the canning plants (Del Monte) went bankrupt. There is no canning capacity available to do this. How did you possibly miss the point by this far? It’s like trying to drive to Los Angeles and ending up on Pluto.

The government would step in and take over operations. This is why we don't need profit-driven companies responsible for food supply. By all means let Del Monte's managers try their hand in some other industry if they couldn't make it work (or not, because they couldn't make it work).

What makes you think the government is remotely qualified to run a canning operation, a logistics operation, a warehousing operation, an HR operation, and a finance operation for peaches?

Also which government? Because there are at least 3-5 relevant ones here, maybe more.

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#84

Post by sudhirc »

clarionbell wrote: post #20

People underestimate how difficult it is to seek buyers for the amount of produce we are talking about here. Farmers are specialists at growing things, not at moving them across great distances, marketing them to dozens small buyers and or starting up packing plants from scratch. They don't have enough trucks, people or packaging machines to move them around. Maybe, they can take some portion for local use. But the r…

[dead]

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#85

Post by doubled112 »

quotz wrote: post #82
dylan604 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and call it great injustice. The great injustice is very much me paying however much per pound of peaches when the supply is so great that they should be much cheaper. However, if these are the trees that grow rock hard peaches that never soften as they ripen with no flavor, then bulldoze them all and say good riddance. Hell, might as well take of and nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

When I moved to the US from southern Europe I was so horrified by the lack of taste of any fruit I tried, particularly the peaches and plums. I moved back to Europe and not a small factor was the lack of good produce and food in general. Its just mind boggling how Americans dont revolt against this, stop buying shit produce and suppliers will notice.

My understanding is that it's all bred to be easier and faster to grow. Flavour isn't first in the value equation.

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#86

Post by acheron »

busterarm wrote: post #42
Bichote wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Millions of peaches, peaches for m̶e̶ no-one -> https://youtu.be/3GCrzjVdmSg

Peaches come from a can. They were put there by a man.

Probably the factory shouldn’t have been downtown, it should have been closer to the farms to minimize transport costs.

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#87

Post by kstrauser »

quotz wrote: post #82
dylan604 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and call it great injustice. The great injustice is very much me paying however much per pound of peaches when the supply is so great that they should be much cheaper. However, if these are the trees that grow rock hard peaches that never soften as they ripen with no flavor, then bulldoze them all and say good riddance. Hell, might as well take of and nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

When I moved to the US from southern Europe I was so horrified by the lack of taste of any fruit I tried, particularly the peaches and plums. I moved back to Europe and not a small factor was the lack of good produce and food in general. Its just mind boggling how Americans dont revolt against this, stop buying shit produce and suppliers will notice.

That's so odd to me. You can buy cheap, cost-optimized fruit in the US. You can also buy amazing produce that would blow your mind. My wife and I look forward to our annual road trip to Monterey partly because of the fruit stands we pass along the way where we'll get cherries so dark they're nearly black, and strawberries the size of my fist (no, really, I have pictures) that are sweet as sugar and incredibly delicious.

The existence of Subway doesn't mean you can't get phenomenal deli sandwiches. It does mean you probably need to look around a little more and don't settle for the first sandwich place you see.

Edit: This is my wife holding one of those strawberries. We took that picture from the sheer absurdity of it. The pack of berries hardly survived the rest of the drive. We'd eaten almost all of them by the time we arrived at the B&B. https://share.icloud.com/photos/0ebgyxOMT9LpyjhfKuLQWD0kw

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#88

Post by HoldOnAMinute »

Aurornis wrote: post #57
clarionbell wrote: post #20

People underestimate how difficult it is to seek buyers for the amount of produce we are talking about here. Farmers are specialists at growing things, not at moving them across great distances, marketing them to dozens small buyers and or starting up packing plants from scratch. They don't have enough trucks, people or packaging machines to move them around. Maybe, they can take some portion for local use. But the r…

A situation like this bring out many comments that reveal a very low understanding of basic economics (and a low rate of reading the article). Del Monte went out of business because there wasn't enough demand for the peaches. The company that purchased their assets is continuing to buy 24,000 tons of peaches, but the previous unsustainable business was buying a lot more. It's the excess fields that need to be repurpo…

The new crop will be grapes of wrath

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#89

Post by bix6 »

hparadiz wrote: post #63
fred_is_fred wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Significantly reduced water usage for one. The water is the limiting factor.

It's really not. https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ California is not in any drought right now and our reservoirs last 10 years in the absolute worst case. Most of our water goes into the ocean. I have no dog in the race in terms of what trees there are but if you take them down it'll be invasive South American pepper trees or mustard grass. As long as it's used and sequestering carbon it's all gravy.

10 years? Says who? I’ve heard 2 years in a worst case.

Re: California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy

#90

Post by hnthrow0287345 »

tracker1 wrote: post #75
hnthrow0287345 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a less profit driven world, we might stockpile these in cans and then later throw them away once they spoil, taking over the canning facilities and paying for the wages via taxes on things not needed for survival. We don't maximize food security though, we prefer profit, up to and including choosing not to feed people.

That's how we got mountain bunkers filled with cheese over the course of decades. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvLMH0wb_0k

Of course if they did then what's about to happen with the peach trees, you'd end up killing the dairy cows, which I'm guessing the people in this thread would have a problem with.
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