It sounded like another aspect of all that was that Del Monte may have partially or wholly roped them in to exclusive supply deals, cutting way down on their ability to deal with other potential canners or whatnot.
When farmer Craig Watts did his exposé on Purdue, it sounded a lot like a share-cropping / coal-mining situation, in which the chicken farmers had little real autonomy, and became super-reliant on Purdue for everything. Doesn’t sound quite as bad in this Del Monte situation, but some similarities hit me.
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.
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.
THIS IS LITERALLY CAPITALISM DUDE
You are so deep in this shit that you can’t even see how it’s coloring everything you’re saying here.
If we lived in a society that didn’t value profit over feeding humans, none of what you said would matter. What would matter would be making sure everyone is fed. Even if that means someone has to do work that isn’t “profitable”.
No, that’s a free market, as I explained before you stopped reading.
You’re the only one talking about profit. I never have. Oh wait, I bet you don’t understand what profit is, either. That’s wealth gained above and beyond the value of the labor input, because the consumer price is higher than it needs to be and/or labor is being undercompensated for their work. Profit is what the ownership class takes from labor without adding any real value. Yes, that’s capitalism. Profit isn’t "I have this thing which is a manifestation of my labor, and I will exchange it with you fairly for something you have which is a manifestation of your labor. We might even use an agreed-upon third carrier of value (currency) to make our exchange simpler and fairer, and make it so that lots of things are readily exchanged between all sorts of people. That makes the fair distribution of wealth more efficient (ideally).
This will all make more sense when you’re out of your mom’s basement.
The US government had several programs to buy farming surpluses, ensuring the farmers were adequately paid and food was not wasted, before the corporate farms lobbied them out of existence. You’re talking down to someone while not seeing the connection in your own statement between profit and cost.
I’m not sure about your living situation, but after reading that back and forth, I gotta say, you haven’t metaphorically left your mom’s basement. Capitalism has a specific meaning, and capitalism is when markets exists is not it.
Oversupply needs diversion of that supply to other uses - not destruction of established production.
It takes years to establish a productive fruit tree. If the land is really more valuable producing plums or apricots instead of peaches, then, sure, migrate it over slowly. Wholesale destruction with the assumption “the land will be put to better use” is the kind of bullshit that (all too rarely) gets laws and regulations passed to stop it.
If there are too many peaches for local markets, export. If the whole world is drowning in whole peaches, juice 'em.
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.
The human and logical thing to do would be offer these fruits to people to pick for free.
This measure is capitalist because they’d rather throw away food than giving away something without profit or even damaging to other producer’s margin.
This is all kinds of fucked up and is totally related to capitalism incentives.
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 hate this capitalist shit-hole.
Oversupply would make them more expensive to harvest than they’re worth, I’d bet. That’s economics not capitalism.
Don’t you dare stop hating capitalism though.
It sounded like another aspect of all that was that Del Monte may have partially or wholly roped them in to exclusive supply deals, cutting way down on their ability to deal with other potential canners or whatnot.
When farmer Craig Watts did his exposé on Purdue, it sounded a lot like a share-cropping / coal-mining situation, in which the chicken farmers had little real autonomy, and became super-reliant on Purdue for everything. Doesn’t sound quite as bad in this Del Monte situation, but some similarities hit me.
You are absolutely correct, and I should have considered that aspect.
Yeah, no, that’s literally capitalism.
As soon as you start worrying about profits with respect to feeding people, you’re talking about capitalism.
“More expensive than their worth” here means “I can’t sell them for enough of a profit.”
That’s purely capitalism. If we only cared about making sure everyone’s need for food is met, the sentence above would be complete nonsense.
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.
THIS IS LITERALLY CAPITALISM DUDE
You are so deep in this shit that you can’t even see how it’s coloring everything you’re saying here.
If we lived in a society that didn’t value profit over feeding humans, none of what you said would matter. What would matter would be making sure everyone is fed. Even if that means someone has to do work that isn’t “profitable”.
No, that’s a free market, as I explained before you stopped reading.
You’re the only one talking about profit. I never have. Oh wait, I bet you don’t understand what profit is, either. That’s wealth gained above and beyond the value of the labor input, because the consumer price is higher than it needs to be and/or labor is being undercompensated for their work. Profit is what the ownership class takes from labor without adding any real value. Yes, that’s capitalism. Profit isn’t "I have this thing which is a manifestation of my labor, and I will exchange it with you fairly for something you have which is a manifestation of your labor. We might even use an agreed-upon third carrier of value (currency) to make our exchange simpler and fairer, and make it so that lots of things are readily exchanged between all sorts of people. That makes the fair distribution of wealth more efficient (ideally).
This will all make more sense when you’re out of your mom’s basement.
The US government had several programs to buy farming surpluses, ensuring the farmers were adequately paid and food was not wasted, before the corporate farms lobbied them out of existence. You’re talking down to someone while not seeing the connection in your own statement between profit and cost.
Gotta be one of my favorite attempts at an insult because you better be right or else it just doesn’t hit at all.
Sorry bud. Better luck next time.
I’m not sure about your living situation, but after reading that back and forth, I gotta say, you haven’t metaphorically left your mom’s basement. Capitalism has a specific meaning, and capitalism is when markets exists is not it.
Ok guy. Nice strawman.
Harvest it. Turned it into canned peaches. Finish the harvest. Export it to places where peaches aren’t that common. ???. Profit.
The cannery closed. That’s why this is happening.
Uh huh, and that had nothing to do with capitalism or profits, right?
🎵 Peaches come from a can
🎵 They were put there by a man
Peaches came from a can
They were put there by a man
But the factoryyyyy is no mooooore
God, i hate canned peaches.
I like canned goods, because they last longer, and don’t go bad as quick. They are usually cheap, and affordable.
Do you know what’s worse? Destroying tons of peaches while millions go hungry simply because they couldn’t make the right amount of profit from it.
Oversupply needs diversion of that supply to other uses - not destruction of established production.
It takes years to establish a productive fruit tree. If the land is really more valuable producing plums or apricots instead of peaches, then, sure, migrate it over slowly. Wholesale destruction with the assumption “the land will be put to better use” is the kind of bullshit that (all too rarely) gets laws and regulations passed to stop it.
If there are too many peaches for local markets, export. If the whole world is drowning in whole peaches, juice 'em.
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.
It must be the Presidents of the United States…
you take that back i got a peach ranch up offa 505 that’ll knock your socks off (/false offense)
🍑Envy!🍑
The human and logical thing to do would be offer these fruits to people to pick for free.
This measure is capitalist because they’d rather throw away food than giving away something without profit or even damaging to other producer’s margin.
This is all kinds of fucked up and is totally related to capitalism incentives.
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.