RangerJoe
Posts: 13450
Joined: 11/16/2015 From: My Mother, although my Father had some small part. Status: offline
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Eat more potatoes! 'Heartbreaking' scene in Idaho as mountains of potatoes are laid to waste Updated apr. 29, 2020 1:07 PM quote:
Despite a growing demand in grocery stores, potato prices have plummeted in the last few weeks due to social distancing guidelines and a lack of demand in restaurants and the food industry. Just weeks prior, the industry was looking at the best prices in recent memory and even projections for a summer shortage, The Associated Press reported. The cost for a 50-pound carton of restaurant-grade potatoes in the Twin Falls and Burley district hovered between $22 and $23 on March 13 but had dropped to somewhere between $10 and $12 by April 16. Some farmers in Idaho have such extreme surpluses that they are dumping potato crops, and dairy farms have begun feeding the potatoes to their cattle. . . . Also over the weekend, 43,000 pounds of potatoes were delivered by truck to the Bronx from Idaho, in an effort to put the surplus food to good use in the poorest congregation district in the city, where food scarcity is more than common. "Many of our families are from the Mott Haven area of the South Bronx so they are struggling with food insecurity," executive director of East Side House Settlement Daniel Diaz told ABC News. Farms to Food Banks, the organization behind the massive delivery, will hand out the potatoes on Wednesday. Diaz said the amount of food would be able to feed anywhere between 2,000 and 2,500 families out of 5,000 families in the South Bronx that are hungry. Farms to Food Banks was brought to fruition after Westchester County money manager John Botti saw a news report on farmers pouring excess milk down drains as vegetables sat in their fields and rotted. A field of flowering Ranger russet potato plants is pictured near Wilder, Idaho, on Wednesday, June 12, 2013. In a lawsuit moved to Idaho federal court this week, a U.S. wholesale grocery cooperative has sued the United Potato Growers of America, alleging the group's members in 15 states are illegally fixing prices and driving up costs. (AP Photo/John Miller) The organization now sends semi-trailers to farms across the U.S. to pick up excess supply then brings it back for food banks across New York City to enjoy. A GoFundMe set up for Farms to Food Banks has already received $174,264 in pledges out of a $200,000 goal after being up for only seven days. Individual donations were as much as thousands of dollars. "Food banks are overwhelmed, undersupplied and are forced to turn families away empty handed, leaving them on the brink of starvation," the GoFundMe said. "There is more than enough food, but it is not in the right places." https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/heartbreaking-scene-in-iowa-as-mountains-of-potatoes-are-laid-to-waste/729662 Personally, I would rather have the food go to waist rather than go to waste.
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Seek peace but keep your gun handy. I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing! “Illegitemus non carborundum est (“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”).” ― Julia Child
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