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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

#171

Post by colechristensen »

boringg wrote: post #123
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 destru…

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

Bankrupt everyone who grows peaches then?

There are actual costs in growing, harvesting, and delivering produce to market you know.

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

#173

Post by throwaway7783 »

baggy_trough wrote: post #79
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.

I don't know what you mean by 'injustice' - it seems to be a proxy for 'I don't like it when trees die'. Is there more?

By that logic, all "injustice" is "I don't like it when X happens" - there is nothing more.

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

#174

Post by Legend2440 »

ryandrake wrote: post #54
jandrewrogers wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is common in agriculture that there is no existing market in which the price would cover the cost of moving the crop to that market. Destroying the crop minimizes the loss to the farmer.

Reminds me of Steinbeck: “The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges,…

Not what's happening here. They are not destroying the trees to limit supply and jack up prices, but rather because no one wants them.

Nor are we destroying food while people go hungry; we produce more food than we eat by a considerable margin. What hunger remains in the world is a distribution problem, not a supply problem.

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

#175

Post by JumpCrisscross »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #66
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.

Farmers are literally subsidized to over-produce for food security.

> for food security

They overproduce for votes. Countries without farmer blocks swinging elections stockpile non-perishables for food security.

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

#176

Post by buildsjets »

spockz wrote: post #162
msarrel wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the…

Wow. What a powerful text. Where is it from?

The Grapes of Wrath.

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

#177

Post by squeaky-clean »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #70
GenerocUsername wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree in principle that reuse is the best imaginable outcome... but You underestimate the labor and cost of machines. I bet it costs $200 to pluck a single tree let alone ship it somewhere else usable.

Why would they pay to ship it anywhere? Set the auction date and mandate the buyer brings a flatbed. All sales final. The work to remove the dead tree stump isn't going to be cheaper.

If they're shuttering this farm because peaches are no longer profitable, why would someone else pay for these trees?

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

#178

Post by mpyne »

heathrow83829 wrote: post #111
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 enviro…

You're assuming that the customer growing their own fruit could do it at lower overall cost. Logistics are fairly inexpensive all things considered, if they really represent 90% of the total cost of fruit it says a lot for how low agribusiness has driven down the cost of the other 10%.

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

#179

Post by quotz »

kstrauser wrote: post #156
quotz wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you’re downvoted. The bigger the fruit the less sugars / nutrition it has per gram. A big reason why wild strawberries are so tasty is because theyre so small. I’ve had the fortune to forage for wild mountain strawberries in my native country in the balkans and their taste is nothing comparable to the farmed ones. Its like two different fruits. Once you try wild strawberries you will remember that experi…

I’m glad we don’t have to decided between fat, bland berries and small, tasty ones. The fist-sized berry was as good as I’ve ever had anywhere.

I dont know if where you live you have access to areas where wild berries grow by themselves, not with agriculture. But I highly suggest to try to find something nearby, go for a hike, and specifically go looking for the berries and forage. Theyre so delicious its honestly not even anyhow comparable to the ones us humans grow. Its insane how delicious they are. Like doesnt even come close.

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

#180

Post by realo »

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.

Exactly. I can see a lot of US apple juice bottles that contain a liquid resembling piss.

It's disgusting.

Real apple juice is dark brown and tastes nothing like the golden liquid mentioned above.

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