Saturday, July 20, 2013

Confiscated Raisins - Small Farmers Stand Up to the USDA

"They want us to pay for our own raisins that we grew," says Raisin Valley Farms owner Marvin Horne. "We have to buy them back!"

This is but one absurdity that Marvin and his wife Laura have faced during their decade-long legal battle with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Every year, the Hornes plant seeds, tie vines, harvest fruit, and place grapes in paper trays to create sun-dried raisins. And every year, the federal government prevents them from bringing their full harvest to market.

It's called an agriculture marketing order. Depression-era regulations meant to stabilize crop prices endanger the livelihoods of small farmers across the country, but the raisin marketing order is particularly egregious. An elected board of bureaucrats known as the Raisin Administrative Committee decides what the proper yield should be in any given year in order to meet a previously decided-upon price.-http://youtu.be/A8S4S49TyDk

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for bringing some sunshine to raisin prices and small farmers who generally care more are being edged out. Grapes of Wrath Redux. Different enemies?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Saw this on Reason. Stories like this drive me nuts.

    ReplyDelete

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