Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

sfgate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 473 posts

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

#121

Post by hamdingers »

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

And how we ended up feeding roughly a third of US-grown corn to cars.

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

#122

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

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.

>However, if these are the trees that grow rock hard peaches that never soften as they ripen with no flavor, t

That's not even how trees work. If they wanted, those same trees could grow plums within 2 years, or almonds, or pretty much any stonefruit except cherries (which tend to be incompatible).

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

#123

Post by boringg »

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…

I mean you are destroying an entire forest that grows food, of course people are incensed, they are funding the destruction with money paid from taxes. Food is already bananas expensive. And it feels so terribly inefficient to just rip and replace.

I fully understand that there is processing and logistics problems. This is not a misunderstanding of economics - its a wild misallocation of resources, and massive destruction of crop.

Have a banner year of peach sales in California for super cheap... market corrects for its past mistakes.

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

#124

Post by dylan604 »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #122
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.

>However, if these are the trees that grow rock hard peaches that never soften as they ripen with no flavor, t That's not even how trees work. If they wanted, those same trees could grow plums within 2 years, or almonds, or pretty much any stonefruit except cherries (which tend to be incompatible).

Then please explain to me how trees work.

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

#125

Post by dragonwriter »

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.

> 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.

But its not, because the supply and competing demands for motor fuel and all the other things that are required between the orchard are involved, not just the supply of peaches at the orchard.

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

#126

Post by boringg »

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.

This is a funny statement in that California has probably the best agricultural produce on the planet. If you were in say Texas or Georgia - you could be forgiven for your statement.

Bay area produce is unparalleled - Tomatoes, peaches, figs, strawberries, etc.

More organic growers if thats what you care about - high quality growers. There is also massive commercial growers doing high volume low cost but you do need to know where to look.

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

#127

Post by _DeadFred_ »

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?

There used to be an amazing upick organic strawberry farm just past La Selva. I saw exactly what they put in them. Eating huge strawberries perfectly ripe, picked a half hour ago from there was incredible.

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

#128

Post by oldsecondhand »

modeless wrote: post #65
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 problem isn't that the trees are in the wrong place. The problem is that there are more trees than demand for canned peaches. It's a failure of planning on the part of Del Monte and peach growers.

Covid boosted the sale of canned food, but people avoid the sugary syrup of canned fruits in non emergency situations.

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

#129

Post by fckgw »

Cakez0r wrote: post #120

It seems that del monte proper is not actually declaring bankruptcy, so how is it that the American tax payer is left picking up the check on this one? Privatized profits, socialized losses!

The money isn't going to Del Monte, it's going to their suppliers. The ones who lost money when Del Monte closed.

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

#130

Post by ghastmaster »

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…

> Maybe, they can take some portion for local use. But the rest will spoil, and rest of the land will be effectively unused, and a burden. The best option is to cut that as much as possible, and plant something else that actually sells.

A negative of the subsidy is that the farmland is not going to hit the market at a much lower rate. That raises the bar for entry into farming or at least keeps the bar at some level higher than the market would have had it.

Post reply on HN