Written by Michael Palomba
In more terrible news resulting from appalling Democratic policies, 22 percent of people in Fresno County couldn’t afford the groceries they needed in the past year. This astonishing number places the county third in the country for food insecurity, according to the Food Research and Action Center.
Meanwhile, a recent study from Santa Clara University found that despite being the national leader in agricultural production, one-third of hand picked crops in California are left in the field to rot.
So, what gives? Why do we have loads of surplus crops, yet people going hungry at the same time?
Labor costs, thats why. Specifically, immense costs that are the direct result of shortsighted Democratic policies and regulations.
Greg Baker, an Executive Director of the Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship at SCU, found that farmers tend to overproduce to fulfill their contracts. They have to take into account unforeseen problems like weather, pests, plant disease, labor availity, field stability, and other variables.
After delivery to customers, if the market price is too low for the remaining crops, they leave them to rot. Last year, Bowles Farming Company in Los Banos left around 80 percent of cantaloupes in the field because prices were too low to justify harvesting.
Food banks provide farms with cardboard boxes for excess produce and picks them up as well. Plus, the state offers farmers a 15 percent tax credit based off the wholesale value of the produce. Baker said, however, that many farms either don’t know about the tax benefits or simply don’t find them to be enough to offset the costs of harvesting additional crops.
“It’s not their business,” Baker said. “They’re not running a charity along with their farm. They’re very happy to contribute but it can cost them too much money because they’re operating on slim margins as it is.”
This predicament is an unfortunate example of how the Democratic policy of a high minimum wage, or “living wage,” is hurting the industry and its workers. When it is more cost effective to leave food to rot rather than harvesting it, we have a problem.
See also: Losing Millions of Jobs Means Nothing to Representative Susan Davis.
While none of this sounds promising, not all hope is lost. Investors spent over $125 million in 2018 on new businesses looking to address food waste. Imperfect Foods is one of the most prominent of the bunch. Their mission statement says, “[We are on] a mission to reduce food waste and build a better food system for everyone. We offer imperfect (yet delicious) produce, affordable pantry items, and quality eggs and dairy.” They deliver food straight to customers’ houses and offer a discount of up to 30 percent compared to grocery stores.
Since 2015, they have saved 80 million pounds of food, created over 1,000 jobs, and expanded to 25 cities.
While these are fantastic numbers, there is much more work needed to be done. We still have too many crops going to waste, and too many people who can’t get a hold of the food they need.
If Democrats would recognize the efficacy of market mechanisms to address such issues, then we wouldn’t be in this absurd predicament to begin with. Instead, they forward one failed policy after another, exhibiting shock that the same methods continue to display the same catastrophic results.
