Thread

California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops

389 points · 987 comments · randycupertino

legitster · 1790630747 · focus · HN ↗
My parents live in a massive fruit growing region of the country. Just this year, 2 of the major packing firms in the county both declared bankruptcy. It's not just the trade war, but years of shrinking seasonal workers that fell off to a trickle as well.
The knock on effect is massive. The seasonal workers supported a large permanent workforce - and more importantly tax revenues in the county are collapsing.
But the really important thing to understand is that once the industry is gone, it's gone for a long time. The other markets competing with the US are already expanding their industries to fill the void. Once those trees are planted, they produce fruit for several decades to come.
1. dorfsmay · 1790646507 · focus · HN ↗
  Why has the seasonal workforce shrunk?
  Usually most staffing issues can be solved with higher wages. Could it be a solution here?
  1. mandevil · 1790647192 · focus · HN ↗
    Oh, I read this as "disease killed the fruit=>the packing companies went bankrupt=>the farmers stopped growing=>no one needed a seasonal workforce=>all of the people who served the seasonal workforce lost their jobs."
    Something like this for oranges: <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2026/04/florida-orange-juice-industy-decline-death/" rel="nofollow">https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2026/04/florida-oran...
    The thing about the "wages are low because of immigrants" is that it neglects that all of those immigrants are consumers just as much as they producers. They need food, medical care, places to relax, places to live, and so these immigrants employ plenty of native born people, people who would not have jobs if those immigrants weren't there consuming. Even if you could get higher wages to draw other native born people in from another part of the country, then you are just stealing the people and all of this sort of consumption from another part of your same country.
    linuxftw · 1790652574 · focus · HN ↗
    Not all farm workers are immigrants, legal or otherwise. There are many temporary, seasonal workers that make poverty wages, but it's more than they would make in Mexico or wherever else. The farms provide basic necessities and pay the workers as little as possible.
    aprilthird2021 · 1790732652 · focus · HN ↗
    But even those temporary seasonal workers are in lower supply now bc the money doesn't outweigh potentially getting detained in a migrant detention camp or worse

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