California farmers to destroy 420,000 peach trees after Del Monte collapses

[highplainsdem]

Source: Independent

Central California peach farmers are preparing to destroy around 420,000 clingstone peach trees after Del Monte Foods shut down its canneries earlier this year.

Del Monte, the 139-year-old canned fruit and vegetable company, permanently closed its canneries in Modesto and Hughson in April following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last July.

The closures left hundreds of workers without jobs and devastated growers, many of whom lost 20-year contracts with Del Monte and had few alternative buyers for their crops. Farmers could face an estimated $550 million in lost revenue, according to the Sacramento Bee.

In response, Senator Adam Schiff and Reps. Mike Thompson and David Valadao announced last week that affected growers could receive up to $9 million in federal aid to remove up to 420,000 clingstone peach trees before the upcoming harvest season, which typically runs from late May through September.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/california-peach-trees-destroyed-del-monte-closure-b2972246.html

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Better yet, some of our useless billionaires could step in to save those trees and farmers and farm workers, and get that food to schools and food pantries.

[Diamond_Dog]

1. I had better not see imported canned peaches on store shelves.

[maxsolomon]

18. don't look.

[turbinetree]

2. I grew up in the Central Valley.............this is really sad I really like DeL Monte fruits and vegetables..........

[pfitz59]

3. Replacing them with other crops

will take years, and a lot of money.

[Brother Buzz]

22. Not years, but expensive

I live in stone fruit country and witnessed many orchards yanked out and replaced with row crops.

The trees limbs are ground up and used in the wood pulp industry, trunks are bulldozed up and piled up to be burned in place, then they rip the soil to bring up the roots and cleared by hand. This all happens in the winter and is ready for spring planting.

[pfitz59]

4. for peach lovers

&list=RD3GCrzjVdmSg&start_radio=1

[Norrrm]

5. " up to $9 million in federal aid to remove up to 420,000" productive trees

The Trump/republican economy.

[Teacher of the Year]

6. Is that offer due to water?

I hope they have a plan to replant in a way that produces as much food but not from crops that rely so heavily on pumped in water.

[EuterpeThelo]

7. This

makes me unspeakably sad. Our family spaghetti recipe that is now on its fourth generation of being passed down relies on DelMonte tomato sauce.

[lostnfound]

8. $550 million in revenue is a massive amount of peaches

Farms get only a small fraction of end food purchase price. If this is a water shortage problem, I will feel better about it. But if it is just a loss of food production capability for stupid reasons, it’s a tragedy.

(I bet there’s a lot of white peaches in there too, and i love white peaches.)

[Marthe48]

9. More deforesation

It'd be nice if whoever owns the land could get creative with land use. Leave the trees and plant under and around them. But no, they'll tear down the trees, add to the global climate problems by getting rid of vegetation that mitigates the changes humans cause.

[electric_blue68]

19. Sounds like a intelligent solution to me.

But noooo.... 😑

[dave99]

10. Del Monte, the 139-year-old ... Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The old CASH out and pay no one. Bastids

[blue-wave]

11. Don't hold your breath

waiting on those billionaires to do the right thing.

[hvn_nbr_2]

15. "Billionaires step in to save" is not part of any true statement in English. nt

[NNadir]

12. I wish I lived in a world where your suggestion was law.

[senseandsensibility]

13. Really sad.

Cannery Row in Monterey is famous and of course is no longer, but more recently one of the last canneries in San Jose folded. Well, not really that recently. It was the 80's, and a parent of one of my students actually worked there until the last day it operated. She was a union employee, which shows you how far agricultural workers have fallen. She made pretty good money. Now the ones in the Central Valley are closing? Wow. Very sad. Does this mean that Del Monte won't exist anymore at all?

[Exp]

14. It just sounds crazy! eom

[littlemissmartypants]

16. Peach trees are not always easy to maintain. ...

Everything has a season... turn, turn, turn...

I found the individual owners of the purchased bankrupt company interesting upon inspection.

Unfortunately, it does appear that they are not currently in the peaches business.

Fear not, though, because many others still are.

[Buddyzbuddy]

17. I need somebody to explain why we would pay

farmers to remove fruit trees that huge growers have been capitalizing on for decades and receiving subsidies.

They're capitalists and Republican for the most part. If anything, pay the farm workers and Del Monte employees subsidies or for retraining for other employment.

The consumer demand isn't less. It's a corporations monopoly that failed. Let the "corporate farmers" if there are any break up the farms into smaller farms and continue to work the peach trees on a smaller scale to sell as a group or to smaller markets.

I admit, I have no farming experience but I do know it's taken years and resources to grow those trees.
Are these Del Monte farms we're talking about? I know markets now sell their own brands of canned fruit. Why wouldn't growers sell to them?

[JI7]

23. I agree, for all their anti govt talk they totally rely on the govt

to stay in business.

[electric_blue68]

20. The loss of nearly half a million tress! That gets me.

Would rmthe farmers if they take the trees down how fast can they do new plantings/crops.

What a shame.

[dalton99a]

21. Kick

[jmowreader]

24. Why do I smell housing developers?

The development I live in was named after the crop developers plowed under to build this place. I get this weird feeling some HOA-run communities named "Peach Flats" or similar will appear where those trees now stand.