Discussion: Washington Farmers Leaving $95M Worth Of Extra Apples To Rot Outside

TPM Article Topics
1

Discussion for article #236920

2

Wait a minute, wait a minute -

you mean that these apples couldn’t have been:

  • donated to charities/food banks in the immediate area despite being very ripe, they
    might have been consumed immediately;
  • donated to various zoos/animal sanctuaries where I think at least one organization
    would have used their own transportation to pick up the very ripe apples (FYI, goats will
    eat most anything)
    just about anything
2 Likes
3

What an unimaginable waste of food, not to mention the water and energy needed to grow $100M of apples . . .

1 Like
4

Should’ve confiscated Travolta’s private jet and flown them all to Africa…or something…

Only in Amurikkka would this kind of waste take place while our own children go hungry. Fucking. Nuts.

5

And THEN, on top of it, to blame the port slowdown. Everyone knew that the strike was going to go on for a while. They had time to prepare for planning how to handle the eventual excess. This is just the Washington Apple Commission being assh*les about it.

6

Utter nonsense.

These apples could be put in storage or processed locally. In the perverted industry that agriculture has become, we export much of our finest fruit (think cherries), but import apples to make juice and apple sauce.

http://usapple.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=179&Itemid=285

Approximately one out of every four fresh apples grown in the United States is exported. Fresh exports from the 2012 U.S. apple crop totaled a record 46.7 million bushels. The value of U.S. fresh-apple exports from the 2012 crop also set a record at $1,157.9 million. The top ten export markets for U.S. grown apples in 2012 were:

• Mexico
• Canada
• Taiwan
• Indonesia
• India
• Hong Kong
• United Arab Emirates
• Thailand
• Columbia
• Saudi Arabia

The United States also imports fresh apples, predominately from the Southern Hemisphere, to keep grocery store shelves stocked from March to July. Approximately six percent of fresh apples consumed in the U.S. are imported. The top sources of imports are

• Chile
• New Zealand
• Canada