This Breaks My Heart

We are in mourning. We are tearing the orchard around the house. It was a matter of time. The trees have been collapsing the last four years. Ten Lined June Beetle has torn up the roots. We have also had a fungus in the trees. But, it still hurts.

 This is the first time in twenty years we have not had trees surrounding our home.

Other than that things are good on the farm. We will start defoliating this next week. Meanwhile we are busy in the shop servicing and repairing equipment.

A Food Policy Catch-22

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright August 2013                                                                

                  An environmental group has done the math and calculated how much food we throw out and their numbers are astounding. They then translate that into how much water we “waste” and how much fertilizer, etc. we wouldn’t need to use if we just didn’t throw out so much food.

            Here’s the catch though- at the same time the enviros want us to throw out less food, food activists want us to eat more fresh food. Guess what? Fresh food spoils faster than processed food.

            If a farmer picks peaches when they are perfectly ripe they will get bruised between the farm and your store. Americans are notoriously picky shoppers. We don’t like bananas that have even a speck on them.

            I think the answer is fresher fruits and veggies and we accept a certain amount of loss. But, someone is going to have to explain that to our environmental friends.