The One-Straw Revolution - Multiworld India

At this point the question arises as to how far the direct sale ofnatural food can spread. I have one hope in this regard. Lately chemicalfruit growers have been driven into an extremely tight economic pinch,and this makes the production of natural food more attractive to them.No matter how hard the average farmer works applying chemicals,coloring, waxing, and so on, he can only sell his fruit for a price that willbarely cover expenses. This year, even a farm with exceptionally finefruit can only expect to realize a profit of less than five cents per pound:The farmer producing slightly lower quality fruit will end up withnothing at all.Since prices have slumped in the past few years, the agriculturalco-ops and sorting centers have become very strict, selecting fruit of onlythe very highest quality. Inferior fruit cannot be sold to the sortingcenters. After putting in a full day's work in the orchard harvesting themandarin oranges, loading them into boxes, and carrying them to thesorting shed, the farmer must work until eleven or twelve o'clock atnight, picking over his fruit, one by one, keeping only those of perfectsize and shape [the rejected fruit is sold for about half price to a privatecompany to be squeezed for juice.]The "good ones" sometimes average only 25% to 50% of the totalcrop, and even some of these are rejected by the co-op. If the profitremaining is a mere two or three cents per pound, it is considered prettygood. The poor citrus farmer is working hard these days and still barelybreaking even.Growing fruit without applying chemicals, using fertilizer, orcultivating the soil involves less expense, and the farmer's net profit istherefore higher. The fruit I ship out is practically unsorted; I just packthe fruit into a box, send them off to the market, and get to bed early.90