The cost of Electricity, affecting farmers

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I was reading in the USA today newspaper, about the farmers in Calif and the cost of Elect. One affect is they are not drying there plums and raisins and other fruit this year, as the cost of elect. power is more, than they can sell there product for. So there will probably be a shortage of prunes and raisins. Also they went on to say that pumping water for there crops, the cost has double, and they will be pasting that cost onto us the comsumers. Calif raises more of our food than any other state, then florida, then Texas, and all these states are in drought conditions.The prices at the grocery stores are edgeing up slowly. And off the subject, What do you think about our tuna fish comeing in those plastic sealed bags instead of cans, UGGG!!!! Love Irene

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001

Answers

Irene I'm with you on the tuna fish in a bag! It's just not natural. I made tuna casserole for dinner on Sunday so I had 3 very attentive kitties in the kitchen with me. :-)

Did you know that prunes no longer exist? The FDA has officially changed the name to "dried plums". Seems that prune sales were down due to their image as just being for constipated old people. Dried plums is supposed to appeal more to the younger health-conscious crowd.

Has anybody here had luck making their own raisins in a dehydrator?

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001


Sounds like a great opportunity for local marketing. For much too long Cal. farmers have profited from "cheap" water imported from Col., etc. If you believe in sustainability then this is some of the best news in years. Cost of production is up along with transportation cost of mass produced, chemical laden, bad tasting, out of season veggies. Time to educate the local consumers about the benefits of locally grown products. Now if we can just get rid of the antiquated system of dairy price supports that make Cal. milk worth more than Wis. milk, we can really rejoice.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001

What's wrong with good old-fashioned solar drying? Is California not sunny enough? This is a great example of farming/food processing scaling up to the point that it is no longer sustainable. Let energy prices continue rising, maybe we'll see a return to small scale producers selling to local markets.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2001

When I worked at Safeway, in Lubbock Texas, we were not allowed, by the big Safeway office in the sky, to buy local produce. We had to buy California tomatoes, even though tomatoes grew like weeds in Lubbock. I guess they figured it was too much trouble to deal with the locals, or something. So we sold tomatoes for tons more than you could buy them for from local farmers. People bought them, though. Also, they weren't as tasty, by a long shot, as the local ones.

JOJ By the way, California doesn't import water from Colorado. And I doubt they ever will, even if they need it; Denver is buying up farms and ranches all over Colorado, just for the water rights. Gotta have those nice lawns and clean cars, ya know!

JOJ

-- Anonymous, July 16, 2001


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