The Great Potato Giveaway | Planet Money | NPR

While millions of Americans are struggling to get enough to eat and supermarkets are running out of certain foods, farmers all over the country are trashing their crops. Why aren't these crops getting sent to stores?

The recent collapse of the restaurant industry has disrupted the United States' food supply chain and many of the crops grown specifically for restaurants have no place to go.

Instead of letting his harvest rot, a farmer in Idaho came up with a creative outcome for his mountain of potatoes.

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[chrissquires]

When I was an undergraduate in college, Back around 1982, the head of the Geography department talked about his graduate work and consulting in Brazil, helping the government set up networks of good roads and radio programs to help farmers know prices And shortages in various markets and cities, So they could bring food to places where their particular food crop was needed. Looks like we got so sophisticated that we don’t know how to do this any more in the USA. it’s not just a shame — it puts us in danger of famine in the midst of plenty.

[fxm]

There's a price to pay when it comes to super efficient optimization: when circumstances change, sometimes the system isn't just less efficient, it can completely break down. There are lots of very complex "just in time" pipelines that will fail catastrophically unless there are many providers available to fill in the gaps at the drop of a hat. The pressure for maximizing profits tends to push systems right up to the edge, leaving little room for flexibility beyond narrow limits, and those limits are often based on very optimistic forecasts.

[patrickcusick]

Not to split hairs here, but those are Yukon Gold potatoes - not Russets. And now I realize how Idaho I sound...

[dakkar]

In South Korea, Gangwon province is famous for agriculture. For the COVID-19 crisis, its economy started to suffer, by the closing of all cafeterias in school and restaurants. So, its governor promoted this by Twitter and started to sell boxes of potatoes, for 10 bucks each. It became huge popular.

[humanities-english]

Well done, Planet Money video team!!!

[CearaRed]

ironically, there was a cold weather potato shortage in 2019; restaurants & grocers couldn't get enough, shortages & high prices were SOP

[JohnSmith-tdhd]

Sounds like we need a plan for when this happens again so that food isn't wasted. In the meantime, ship the potatoes to grocery stores like normal and let the stores figure it out. Who cares about bags? People can bring their own bags for potatoes or just figure something out!

[Jennyoy]

Next time, he should have set up a temporary farm market in the cities to sell his produces directly to the customers.

[ananthchannaveer]

Did Ryan have a contract with these buyers when he grew all these potatoes? Shouldn't the multi national corporations take some of the pain... I am assuming farmers never thought of insuring their crops before covid...

[unvergebeneid]

Why can't you weigh and bag the potatoes yourself at the grocery stores? Supermarkets have scales for loose items anyway, right?

[channels]

And that's the problem with LEAN.

[speedingatheist]

So, right now you only complain about books in some bookshelfs. When are you going to start burning books? You do have strange allies in history, don't you?

[Lolchik]

I do not see how grocery stores cannot sell loose potatoes 🤔
Are we that spoiled and need everything bagged... Or dont want it at all, let it rot instead? Idiocracy!!!!

[michaelgussin]

Did anyone say "MAKE VODKA!"?