RSN Fundraising Banner
FB Share
Email This Page
add comment
Print

Excerpts: "In Wisconsin and Ohio, farmers are dumping thousands of gallons of fresh milk into lagoons and manure pits."

A field of onions in Idaho waiting to be buried. Americans eat many more vegetables when meals are prepared for them in restaurants than when they cook for themselves. (photo: Joseph Haeberle/NYT)
A field of onions in Idaho waiting to be buried. Americans eat many more vegetables when meals are prepared for them in restaurants than when they cook for themselves. (photo: Joseph Haeberle/NYT)


US Farmers Are Destroying Large Amounts of Food They Can No Longer Sell

By David Yaffe-Bellany and Michael Corkery, The New York Times

13 April 20


With restaurants, hotels and schools closed, many of the nation's largest farms are destroying millions of pounds of fresh goods that they can no longer sell.

n Wisconsin and Ohio, farmers are dumping thousands of gallons of fresh milk into lagoons and manure pits. An Idaho farmer has dug huge ditches to bury 1 million pounds of onions. And in South Florida, a region that supplies much of the Eastern half of the United States with produce, tractors are crisscrossing bean and cabbage fields, plowing perfectly ripe vegetables back into the soil.

After weeks of concern about shortages in grocery stores and mad scrambles to find the last box of pasta or toilet paper roll, many of the nation’s largest farms are struggling with another ghastly effect of the pandemic. They are being forced to destroy tens of millions of pounds of fresh food that they can no longer sell.

The closing of restaurants, hotels and schools has left some farmers with no buyers for more than half their crops. And even as retailers see spikes in food sales to Americans who are now eating nearly every meal at home, the increases are not enough to absorb all of the perishable food that was planted weeks ago and intended for schools and businesses.

READ MORE

e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
Email This Page

 

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.

RSNRSN