I guess maybe I'm slow, but I don't see what's so ghastly about this. Strawberries have to be packed in dry ice and shipped to market in refrigerated containers, usually by air instead of truck. It's VERY expensive, especially relative to less perishable crops. And if the farmers are going to lose money--probably a LOT of money--shipping a product to market that isn't going to bring in enough per bushel to cover even their cost, what benefit is there in that, other than possibly driving them out of business?
It reminds me of my parents' tales of Depression days, when farmers ended up slaughtering entire herds of mutton, swine, and cattle--thousands upon thousands of animals--because they basically couldn't afford to feed them any longer. Unemployment was over 25%, and people were starving all over the country; there was a lot of shrieking that those animals could have fed hundreds, and in all likelihood, they could have. But whose responsibility should it have been to feed those animals (let alone move them from isolated farms to the areas where the hungry people were)? Should the farmers have beggared themselves, ruined their families, and likely lost their farms (their only livelihood) in the interest of aiding strangers?
Farming is a hard, hard, HARD business, with razor-thin margins and the chance of absolute ruin staring you in the face with every storm, every drought, every freeze. I know; I come from a loooong line of farmers. My mom and mother-in-law both grew up on farms, dirt-poor. My uncle and cousins still farm. And sometimes a decision like this is just a farmer cutting bait before the cost imbalance becomes too damaging. Greed? Maybe in a few cases. But I assure you that most farmers, ESPECIALLY family farmers, aren't rich, and they work harder than anybody else in the world. It's one of the most dangerous, thankless jobs on earth.
Now the groundwater thing I do take issue with. But that's a sign of poor watershed management on the government's part more than anything else. Georgia, Florida, and Alabama have been in a spiteful water war for decades now, and I don't see that resolving anytime soon; the politics surrounding water use in those states is just plain UGLY. Likewise, I don't see the leaders of any of those three states pulling their heads out and making wise water regulations to best use their resources, either. :P
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branchandroot
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Date: Monday, March 29th, 2010 11:13 am (UTC)It reminds me of my parents' tales of Depression days, when farmers ended up slaughtering entire herds of mutton, swine, and cattle--thousands upon thousands of animals--because they basically couldn't afford to feed them any longer. Unemployment was over 25%, and people were starving all over the country; there was a lot of shrieking that those animals could have fed hundreds, and in all likelihood, they could have. But whose responsibility should it have been to feed those animals (let alone move them from isolated farms to the areas where the hungry people were)? Should the farmers have beggared themselves, ruined their families, and likely lost their farms (their only livelihood) in the interest of aiding strangers?
Farming is a hard, hard, HARD business, with razor-thin margins and the chance of absolute ruin staring you in the face with every storm, every drought, every freeze. I know; I come from a loooong line of farmers. My mom and mother-in-law both grew up on farms, dirt-poor. My uncle and cousins still farm. And sometimes a decision like this is just a farmer cutting bait before the cost imbalance becomes too damaging. Greed? Maybe in a few cases. But I assure you that most farmers, ESPECIALLY family farmers, aren't rich, and they work harder than anybody else in the world. It's one of the most dangerous, thankless jobs on earth.
Now the groundwater thing I do take issue with. But that's a sign of poor watershed management on the government's part more than anything else. Georgia, Florida, and Alabama have been in a spiteful water war for decades now, and I don't see that resolving anytime soon; the politics surrounding water use in those states is just plain UGLY. Likewise, I don't see the leaders of any of those three states pulling their heads out and making wise water regulations to best use their resources, either. :P