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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

#111

Post by heathrow83829 »

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…

the difficulty of bringing produce to market is reflected in the cost structure. 90% of a food dollar goes towards all the efforts required to get food to the customer (transportation, packaging, warehousing, marketing, retail, etc).

this is why I think the solution is to have people grow their own fruits in their own backyards and front yards. customers will save a huge amount of money and it's better for the environment too.

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

#112

Post by yonaguska »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #92
kstrauser wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 delicio…

Strawberries are not the size of fists. Ever wonder what they put in those?

I've had a similar experience when shopping at a gas station store that bought produce from a local strawberry patch. Unfortunately, it was on a road trip.

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

#113

Post by tengbretson »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #16

I wonder why they cannot be moved. There are machines that simply pluck them from the dirt and have them ready to go. They could auction them off for $1/each and still make a profit. https://interestingengineering.com/lists/7-mighty-machines-f...

The land is the thing that is actually valuable here, so filling that land with a perfect grid of 6 foot craters in exchange for a few dollars is probably a bad call.

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

#114

Post by testfoobar »

zabzonk wrote: post #99
kstrauser wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 delicio…

> strawberries the size of my fist No thanks. The most wonderful strawberries I ever tasted were wild ones picked on a disused Welsh railway line, probably a centimetre or so in size.

No doubt they were delicious - fruit picked while walking is always special.

But here in California, we have tremendous strawberries in our markets: Camarosa, Albion, Gaviota. Each is different in size, texture, flavor-profile.

I usually buy a "flat" of strawberries from the local farmer's market during peak season every weekend. They go in my oatmeal, my smoothies and in my lunches.

E.g: https://www.ocregister.com/2024/07/13/farmers-market-pops-up...

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

#115

Post by oldsecondhand »

PowerElectronix wrote: post #59
munk-a wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the tree destruction is a perfectly rationale reaction - but it is still an injustice. This quantity of waste is not free and not fully priced into the cost to produce the fruit. I think the emotional misalignment most people will feel at this announcement is a signal that there's a large missed externality that allowed margins on this produce to get too thin.

They will be replaced with something else, don't feel bad for the trees, they had a good run.

Did they? How long have they been around?

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

#116

Post by tracker1 »

hnthrow0287345 wrote: post #94
tracker1 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really want a world without any fast food or snack foods? I mean, I think we consume way too much as a society, but I'd rather not have the government decide what I'm allowed to eat. Have a conversation with someone who grew up in communist USSR/Russia sometime... It definitely isn't cool. If we had govt controlled food supply, we'd never have the likes of hot sauce (sriracha, pace, etc) and would likely never…

>but I'd rather not have the government decide what I'm allowed to eat. I don't know how it'd get to that if we had even more supply. I'm saying we'd be better off dealing with the problems of overproduction rather than the problems of unprofitable businesses and killing production capacity because it isn't profitable in the short-term. I also never said you couldn't have non/not-for-profit food production, just that…

It's difficult because a lot of the margins have been pressed out, and capital funding is often done in a way that doesn't allow for a market to shrink and respond to over-production or a reduction in demand.

If the government was responsible for running the farms, we would not have near the variety we have today... and for that matter, it would be much closer to soviet communism. I'm absolutely opposed to that.

And how do you know we would be better off? What would you do with oversupply? We had mountains full of cheese for decades from oversupply.. and that's a single product. Canned fruit doesn't even last that long before breaking down. The alternative is waste year after year, vs. cutting back and planting something else, which is what is happening... part of the market was allowed to fail (Del Monte) and part is being bailed out (farms) in defense of being able to have ongoing production, even if the product is different.

That seems far better than having mountains full of rotten peaches in cans.

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

#117

Post by BrenBarn »

modeless wrote: post #71
munk-a wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the tree destruction is a perfectly rationale reaction - but it is still an injustice. This quantity of waste is not free and not fully priced into the cost to produce the fruit. I think the emotional misalignment most people will feel at this announcement is a signal that there's a large missed externality that allowed margins on this produce to get too thin.

A big part of the problem here is that Del Monte was the victim of several leveraged buyouts that had executives walking away with millions while the company was saddled with debt.

Exactly. That is what is missing in this discussion. If you want to cut down the trees, fine, but those people who profited should pay for it.

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

#118

Post by TimorousBestie »

bix6 wrote: post #76
TimorousBestie wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Christopher Alexander figured this one out in A Pattern Language: https://www.patternlanguageindex.com/patterns/city-country-f...

Why didn’t we do this? Seems cool.

To be fair, Alexander was writing in the seventies, long after automobiles and the suburb had killed any hope of humane urban planning in the States.

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

#119

Post by uncletammy »

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.

It's hard to vote with your dollar when market economics are such that only a handful of (massive) firms sell almost all of thing you're protesting. What leverage does one have in the age of oligopolistic enshittification?
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