Coronavirus Forces Farmers to Scrap Food They Can’t Sell
A tractor with a 35-foot blade mowed down one million pounds of green beans ready to be picked at R.C. Hatton’s Pahokee fields.
Those crops should have been going to South Florida’s restaurants, cruise ships, school cafeterias, airlines and even theme parks. . .
The total shutdown of the hospitality industry, to stem the spread of the coronavirus, means farmers who grew crops intended for everyone from small, independent restaurants to busy hotels are stuck with millions of pounds of produce that will soon be left to die on the vine.
And even food banks, soup kitchens and rescue missions, which have seen a surge of unemployed workers making hours-long lines for boxes of donated fresh fruits and vegetables, are saturated with farm donations.
“It’s catastrophic,” said Tony DiMare, vice president of the third-generation-owned DiMare tomato company. “It’s a dire situation, and there’s no relief in sight.” (Read more from “Coronavirus Forces Farmers to Scrap Food They Can’t Sell” HERE)
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