A Talk Radio Listener Finds Watermelons NOT Rotting In Fields — Due To Cheap Immigrant Labor
06/21/2016
From: A Talk Radio Listener
Watermelons are $3.99 each this week at Shoprite in New Jersey. Last Monday, I weighed the largest melons on display and bought the heaviest — 22.3 pounds. That’s less than $0.18 per pound. The melon was grown in Auburndale, FL (Mr. Melon Man), more than 1,000 miles away.
Subtracting the store’s markup and transportation costs from the $3.99 doesn’t leave much for farm labor, which Bloomberg claims to be in perpetual short supply. At least people who have lost their jobs to cheap, imported labor can buy produce at 1980 prices. Thank you, Republicans.
See previous letters from the same reader, especially this one:A Talk Radio Listener Says That If Crops Aren’t Rotting In The Fields, They Should Be.
Earlier Crop Rot Fever stories:
- Despite Drought, Crops Rotting in the Field Right on Schedule
- Shamelessness: It’s Not Even April, But The NYT Has Crops Rotting In The Fields
- Crops Rotting in the Fields, Part MLXXVII
- News Flash: Crops Not Rotting In The Fields Because Growers Are Raising Wages
- John Carney on Crop Rot Fever
- Crop Rot Fever, Seasonal Edition