A farm on the western side of Canada has been doing something similar for years:
https://langleyadvancetimes.com/2025/08/09/record-breaking-u...
4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
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Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#42this might cause major financial damage to "traditional local markets"(1) and similar in Berlin and Brandenburg close to it (depending on what kind of potatoes this are, like quality, taste, how the cook (hard, soft), etc.)
(1): Kinda a bit like local farmer markets, but also very different.
the problem isn't the giving away stuff for free part
but the scale of it
I mean giving free stuff to people in need is always grate, irrelevant of scale.
Giving it to people which can easily afford it on small scale is just fine too.
Giving it to people which can easily afford it on gigantic scale and it's only slightly hurting the bottom line of some huge cooperation, then who cares.
But giving away a product people might have bought from smaller local businesses in very larger amounts (more then what such small 1-2 person businesses sell in multiple month), that is where your "charitable" action might cost people their job and you might do far more harm then good.
now Germans are picky about their potato and the chance that 4k Tons of free potato are the kind of potato you find in "local traditional markets" is pretty slim. So this might all just be very hypothetical.
Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#43While this give-away sounds cool...
Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#44These particular potatoes won't be wasted. But other potatoes likely will be. It's not like people are suddenly going to want more potatoes.
There is some elasticity of demand. Some people will eat more potatoes and less bread or rice. Other people will fill up their cupboards; just because the farmer doesn't want to store these for later doesn't mean that individual consumers won't.
Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#45Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#46These particular potatoes won't be wasted. But other potatoes likely will be. It's not like people are suddenly going to want more potatoes.
A lot of people will have a few more potato-heavy meals if they happen to have more potatoes. This means they'll (presumably) buy a little less of other ingredients for a spell, and maybe we'll end up with more of those going to waste, but it's definitely possible for that not to happen. Seems like a ripple of delayed food purchases of dry goods can be absorbed by reduced production far, far down the line.
Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#47This is an interesting example of what happens when the supply and demand curve goes into the extreme ends of the chart: The price of "selling" your product goes negative. It costs money to get rid of it. Negative prices occur from time to time in the electricity market because some types of power plants are slow to ramp up and down. So if demand falls too rapidly, spot electricity prices can negative.
I've recently seen potatoes for 26ct a kilo in a supermarket and wondered how people made money on that, farming, transportation, supermarket margin, &c.
Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
We let people go hungry? This is really not a problem today.
According to non profits, 1 in 7 Americans, 1 in 5 American children: https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america
In the site says “FACT -
100% of Counties -
Hunger exists in everywhere – no community is untouched”
What I pretty much suspected. But that in USA 20% of children don’t get enough? That is a big TIL for my ignorance. A sister comment states some child eat only at school. Boy I thought (in 2 figure percentage) was only 3rd world.
Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#49this might cause major financial damage to "traditional local markets"(1) and similar in Berlin and Brandenburg close to it (depending on what kind of potatoes this are, like quality, taste, how the cook (hard, soft), etc.) (1): Kinda a bit like local farmer markets, but also very different. the problem isn't the giving away stuff for free part but the scale of it I mean giving free stuff to people in need is always…
They are giving this away in portions of 1t, which isn't practical for normal consumers (unless they manage to pool somehow), so this won't have much of an effect on the normal consumer market. It's mostly directed at aid organizations, social stuff etc.
From the original pages FAQ:
> Wie viele Kartoffeln bekomme ich?
> Jede Abnahmestelle erhält ca. 1 Tonne (1.000 kg) Kartoffeln.
Re: 4k tons of potatoes to be given away for free in Berlin
#50When life give you potatoes, make vodka… or?
Vodka is generally made from grains.