You realize that the farmers produce the peaches, right? And that if it costs more to harvest them that the peaches are worth, you don't harvest them. Then you have a giant pile of rotten peaches anyway that has to be cleaned up, so maybe you harvest them anyway and take the loss yourself. Fine.

Now you - the farmer - have a surplus of peach trees that will grow new peaches, and those new peaches won't sell either. You'll take loss year after year this way. No, the best thing to do is to repurpose the land for something else, and that means uprooting the peach trees. It's a good thing there's federal grant money to absorb some of that cost.

Capitalism is where there's an ownership class that contributes essentially nothing and a labor class that produces the value, and the former exploits the latter. This situation is not that; the farmer is (ideally) the labor (unless factory farms, or unfair compensation otherwise). The peaches having more or less worth due to market conditions is because of a free market, which is distinct from capitalism.

Growing crops is work. Harvesting crops is work. Transporting, processing, inspecting, warehousing, inventorying, packaging, retailing - all work. People - workers - expend effort to create the value of cans of peaches in pantries, and each person should be compensated fairly for the value their effort produces.

Never anywhere in my commentary did I refer to profits. If the peaches are worth less than they cost to harvest, the value of the labor already invested is lost, and the farm as a whole is at risk. Especially for the remaining family farms, this means that corporate farm companies will buy the land and consolidate their power. It's a good thing there's federal grant money to absorb some of the cost of retooling.

I'm as anti-capitalist as they come, and there's parts of this situation to be justifiably pissed about. The fact that a single cannery closing results in this is one. The fact that the corporation that ran that cannery may well have closed it for profit reasons is another. But getting pissed about repurposing land for something more useful? Seems ill informed.

Yes! I was looking for this comment. I live smack in California central valley. Farms here flex continuously with a multitude of crops. Strawberry, walnuts, cherry, and almond are top long-runners. There are also so many unexpected other high value crops here; like blueberry, spinach, sugar beet, olives, garlic, pistachios, etc.

Del Monte was only one processor. But every one of their factories continues on doing something else that's currently in abundance here.

If local market isn't demanding, one final attempt is the export market. We are currently doing this with alfalfa (hay), rice, and wine.

And on a final fruit note, pears are slowly following the fate of peaches. Dont know why. Currently Brazil and Mexico just make 'em better.

no juice, can. can.

oh dude, i'm having generational ptsd flashbacks to the 70s. i didn't even work the strawberry fields myself and i can see them. my hands stained red. fuck.

I can absolutely guarantee you the peaches would mostly just rot in that approach.

Their problem is that people just flat out aren't interested/need as many peaches we are growing. So it totally makes sense to change much of that land to do another crop. Peaches are not necessarily the most efficient, or healthy nutritious option that the land could possible support.

The people who might be in need of that fruit are likely no where near the orchards. So the direct approach is right out.

Now this is where organizations like food banks can and do step in as able. They have people who are intrinsically dedicated to make it work out for people to have food even if the capitalist concerns don't make sense. Sure, they can take over logistics when no one else wants them (my family has volunteered and dealt with all sorts of farmer surplus, including separating rot from viable food). Ultimately even they wouldn't want an oversupply of any particular crop, as the hungry need diverse nutrition, not just a ton of peaches. As it stands a fair amount of the food is ruined before it can be distributed even with food bank efforts already.

You are absolutely correct, and I should have considered that aspect.

The cannery closed. That's why this is happening.

🎵 Peaches come from a can

🎵 They were put there by a man

God, i hate canned peaches.