‘It’s unreal': Farmers band together to dump unsold apples from their orchards, explaining it's due to high prices set by grocery stores

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    This is what happens to all of the unsold apples from my family's orchard
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    FestiveSquidV3 · 13 hr. ago This reminds me of when I was younger and spending the summer with my father. I went to the apple orchard right outside of town with a girl who was either related to the owner or family friends. We ran into him in the parking lot for the orchard's shop and he gave us permission to take as many apples as we wanted, free of charge. I ate sooooooooo many apples that day of several different varieties. 7.0k Reply Share
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    Taylorenokson ⚫ 10 hr. ago Kinda similar story. When I was in high school my baseball team travelled out of town for a game to a really small town that had massive orange orchards (groves?). It smelled so amazing during the game, it was distracting. After the game, a group of the locals passed out some paper grocery bags and told us we could pick as many oranges as we wanted to take home. That was about 20 years ago and I've still never had better oranges than those we picked that day. 1.0k Repl
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    ButterscotchEmpty290 · 14 hr. ago They don't get processed into apple juice, pie filling, or applesauce? 10.9k Reply Share . Scott2G OP 14 hr. ago edited 7 hr. ago They could've been, but there were no buyers. People aren't consuming as many apples as they used to due to high prices set by grocery stores. EDIT: I'm not involved with the orchard in any way, as I live in a different state. My family has just informed me that this is a picture of apples dumped from a whole bunch of different
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    orchards, not just from my family's--that is why there are so many. In their words: "this is what happens when there are more apples grown than consumers can eat." Regardless, it sucks to see it all go to waste 14.5k Reply Share bhlombardy 14 hr. ago Keeping doctors gainfully employed. 9.1k Reply Share
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    Old-Soul-Void · 13 hr. ago We have Hutterites in our area. They couldn't sell their potatoes recently. They dumped them near a road and told the local news to tell folks to come get them. 865 Reply Share Coffee4Life613 - 13 hr. ago It's always nice when a group passes on a bounty that's more than they can consume. 380 Reply Share
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    cparrish2017 14 hr. ago There are pig farms here in NC who'd jump at that as feed! 8.2k Reply Share Glimmerofinsight. 13 hr. ago Cows love apples too. Maybe a dairy farm would buy them? 3.0k Reply Share
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    Winter_Principle4844 · 13 hr. ago Cows love apples but can't really be a regular part of their diet, too acidic causes stomach issues for them | 1.4k Reply Share potate12323 13 hr. ago · edited 12 hr. ago You'd think something with 4 stomachs would have apples handled. 1.5k Reply Share
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    Barokespinoza23 · 14 hr. ago You can't expect the apples to turn themselves into apple cider on their own. You've got to motivate them. 11.0k Reply Share marouan10 12 hr. ago That's not true the natural state of fruit is to become al lic it's like nature wants to get drunk. 2.9k Reply Share
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    DEADPOOL_9865. 14 hr. ago So you are the guy from my maths question huh??? 4.7k Reply Share Kristupas911. 13 hr. ago The joe with 1000 acres of apples 750 Reply Share
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    DubiousTheatre . 14 hr. ago There's a sad beauty to this. Those are some truly beautiful looking apples and its a shame so many have to go to waste... 1.6k Reply Share julius_cornelius · 12 hr. ago · edited 8 hr. ago Came to say this. Gorgeous but sad. It's almost like looking at the Danxia colored mountains. 232 Reply Share
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    Peking- 12 hr. ago They don't have to go to waste, they're going to waste because someone decided it would be better to let them rot on the ground than to make slightly less money by selling them for less than they did last season. The entire agriculture sector is like this. Hunger pretty much doesn't need to exist. We don't have a supply problem, we don't even have a distribution problem. We have an "infinite profit growth" problem. 684 Reply Share
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    ilikepix :. 10 hr. ago edited 8 hr. ago They don't have to go to waste, they're going to waste because someone decided it would be better to let them rot on the ground than to make slightly less money by selling them for less than they did last season. If you live in an apple-producing region, you might literally not be able to give them away, if transporting the apples to where they're needed costs more than what they're worth to buyers. Maybe a pig farmer 400 miles away would pay $0.05/lb for
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    Temporary_Ear3340 · 14 hr. ago Apples are costing 2-4$ a lb in stores, that's why no one is buying 3.2k Reply Share smokinbbq 13 hr. ago Canadian here. $4.99/bag at the low end. If you want nicer apples, they are $7.99-9.99 a bag. If you buy solo "nice" apples, it's $2.99/ lb on sale, and $4.99 when not on sale. I love my Honey Crisp apples, but it's easily $12-$16 for a week of apples (4-5 apples a week). Crazy. 1.2k Reply Share
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    Beatrix_BB_Kiddo 13 hr. ago edited 13 hr. ago I see a lot of comments about processing. OP I have worked with fresh apples for 15+ years, selling both US1 into retail, US 2 into foodservice, and all other business segments: K-12, DoD, pet food, ingredient, etc. If you ever want to look at diversifying the segments more, I'm happy to help 748 Reply Share
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    Aggressive-Way-8474 · 12 hr. ago Meanwhile getting charged six to seven dollars for a small bag of apples means I buy less apples. A lot of food goes to waste because there aren't buyers, and a lot of buyers aren't buying because of cost. 139 Reply Share Educational_Power 792 11 hr. ago Ive replaced apples with bananas. At least where I live it's a lot more affordable. 15 Reply Share
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    iMorgana 14 hr. ago edited 12 hr. ago This sucks. My family runs a charity organization and we receive donations like this to give out to people. This is really sad. EDIT: We pick donations up ourselves. 1.1k Reply Share timeforitnowright. 13 hr. ago I work for apple growers and food banks are turning down apples. They already have too many in storage. Folks want processed goodness! 315 Reply Share
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    LightningCoyotee. 12 hr. ago As for why people at food banks don't take the apples, they simply are not filling enough. Food banks usually have a limit on how many items you can take and when you are choosing between an apple that is not even breakfast and a box of pasta that can feed you for a week... well you choose the pasta. A couple food banks I have been to have had fresh fruit sat out for free that doesn't count towards your limit, but they usually only have a few fruits there to take. 26
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    Gom_KBull. 12 hr. ago Microsoft Desktop Background Team: "Get that! Get that RIGHT FI JG NOW" 129 Reply Share
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    MLDaffy 13 hr. ago Every week some woman shows up here in the neighborhood and gives out all their extra for free to whoever wants them. She parks at corner store and hollers free. People come a running. 103 Reply Share
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    Bac7 .13 hr. ago This makes me really sad for your family. It also makes me really fɩ ng angry because we were a family that used to eat 5+ apples per day, but since that's like $6+ worth of apples now, per day, we've found other fruit to replace our favorite and cut way back on apples. Meanwhile, your family has to dump all of those, which is a waste of their time, money, and labor. Distributors keep supply low, prices high, forcing demand down. None of it is mildly anything. 538 Reply Share

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