Waste not....

I read an article today about some strawberry farmers in Florida that are destroying 1/2 of their own crops due to having a bumper crop this season. Apparently because of the cold weather conditions in January, many more strawberries than usual are ripe now and the price the farmer can get for them has gone from $1.00/lb to .25/lb. The farmers claim it is cheaper for them to destroy some of the crops than to pay to have them picked and delivered to market.

WHAT?? Why not donate the excess fruit? Why not let food pantries and soup kitchens come and take what they want of the surplus? How can anyone in good conscience destroy food knowing there are starving people within a 10 mile radius? The article did say that a couple of farmers were allowing others to pick whatever they wanted of the surplus strawberries themselves. The main concern farmers have about having strangers on the farmland is liability. If someone gets hurt while picking strawberries on the farmland, the farmer is liable.

What makes this situation even more exasperating is that back in January when temperatures in Florida were hovering around the freezing point, these same farmers took to watering these same strawberry crops around the clock to prevent them from freezing. The result of doing this? The people that live in the towns that surround the strawberry farms saw such a drastic drop in the water table from the farmers using so much water, that some residents were without water for weeks and some saw large sinkholes open up on their properties causing damage and destruction!!! And now those overly watered strawberries are being plowed under because they won't bring in enough money to make it worth the farmer's time and labor to harvest them.

This whole scenario makes no sense at all. They are throwing perfectly good fruit away! Fruit that people should be eating! Fruit that should be included in school lunches, and on the plates of every consumer in America! Think about all of the smoothies, daiquiris, margaritas, shortcakes, jam, frozen pops that these strawberries could make! I love strawberries! (Can you tell?)

All the farmers need to do is to make people sign a liability waiver and let them then pick the fruit. Imagine how happy a food pantry patron would be coming to receive the usual canned and boxed goods and being given a fresh package of strawberries, ripe and sweet. That would be a wonderful addition to the dreary cans and boxes and it would solve the surplus problem. And then imagine how nice it would be for a person to come to a soup kitchen and see some lovely strawberries put out with the daily soup and meal.

I can't understand how this can happen in America. We have starving people, we have malnourished people, we have people eating loads and loads of junk food because it is usually cheaper to eat than wholesome fruits and veggies. There has to be a better way here!
Anybody?