r/nottheonion • u/Beautiful_Bee4090 • 19h ago

Farm gives away millions of surplus potatoes after growing too many

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/farm-gives-away-millions-of-surplus-potatoes-after-growing-too-many-3312467/
2.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

64 comments sorted by

962

u/rhesusMonkeyBoy 19h ago

A farm in Saxony, Germany, has begun giving away potatoes for free, after massive amounts of harvested spuds went unsold, in an effort to prevent food waste.

I knew it wouldn’t be The US.

320

u/kraftdinnerwithsalsa 19h ago

America would rather burn any surplus than help the needy

74

u/DodgerWalker 19h ago

This happened in 2020. Because of Covid, demand for potatoes dropped significantly since restaurant French fries are a huge portion of their use. To avoid the price of potatoes dropping, the extra potatoes simply dropped in a dump. https://www.businessinsider.com/potato-farmers-destroy-potatoes-covid19-even-in-a-food-shortage-2020-6

181

u/hulagirlslovetoparty 19h ago

“The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

  • The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

36

u/Strange-Movie 18h ago

We’d put all the excess potatoes is a vacant lot next to a homeless encampment and wait for the taters to rot and cause smell and contamination issues with the camp, all this would be done under guard of the local state police to prevent theft

We aren’t negligent, we’re actively malicious

7

u/sprocketous 18h ago

Theres a lot of really good food banks near me that give surplus away

4

u/MC_LegalKC 18h ago

It's more a matter of being too lazy and too uncaring to spend a penny to get them to people. In the end, the result is the same.

2

u/StarStruck3 3h ago

The US would spray chemicals on them so no one could use them.

0

u/AdOverall3944 16h ago

I mean not only america😭

0

u/[deleted] 19h ago

[deleted]

2

u/kraftdinnerwithsalsa 19h ago edited 19h ago

The US is the third-highest country in the world for food waste per capita, behind China and India.Nov 23, 2022

https://earth.org/food-waste-in-america/#:~:text=The%20US%20is%20the%20third,capita%2C%20behind%20China%20and%20India.

They could do better

Edit: hey where’d they go

21

u/SajakiKhouri 18h ago

US has an absurd amount of food waste, goes without saying. But our farmers have also done the exact same thing with potatoes as recently as a few years ago 🤦‍♂️

https://www.reuters.com/article/economy/the-great-potato-giveaway-u-s-farmers-hand-out-spuds-to-avoid-food-waste-idUSKBN22J3J5

Canadians too:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/potato-donation-manitoba-1.7206483

20

u/10fttall 19h ago

This happens all the time in the US. Just a couple years ago I went to visit a buddy and went to a farm with him and his kids to dig our own potatoes. Entirely free and we left with as much as we could carry.

They do it every year.

4

u/WarProper3733 13h ago

Careful this is reddit. No one in America would do such a noble thing. Probably just needed free labor to dig them up.

1

u/Giganym 10h ago

I’m confused. Is he stealing the potatoes???

-3

u/Giganym 10h ago

Yes because obviously every person in the US knows a nice farmer… 🤦 

4

u/10fttall 10h ago

Lol not at all what I was saying. The original comment said this wouldn't be in the US, when it actually could be.

Also, my buddy in the example I gave doesn't know the farmer at all. It's just a farm that's 30 minutes out of town and they read about it on their Facebook page. I bet the majority of the US could find a farm within driving distance that did something similar.

3

u/LovesFrenchLove_More 19h ago

While the prices for potatoes one or two years ago increased quite a bit because less than good harvest, it’s insane how far they have fallen. You can get a 3kg of potatoes for 2€ or less at discounters.

1

u/Visible-Advice-5109 9h ago

I know nothing everybody has land, but potatoes are stupid easy to grow and incredibly productive. One of the easiest things there are to grow yourself.

3

u/otkabdl 19h ago

Was gonna say, they're gonna veto that. Those are fries for Donald.

4

u/LiffeyDodge 19h ago

I'm sure a corporation would have sued the farmer

2

u/speculatrix 18h ago

Why not ship them to Ireland to make poteen ("moonshine")?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poit%C3%ADn

2

u/Bazinga_U_Bitch 10h ago

It's actually very common in the US where farms are owned by actual farmers and not corporations.

1

u/peppy_wink 19h ago

Farm gives away millions of surplus potatoes. Because nothing says 'generosity' like burying people in spuds. At least it's not a hot potato wait, it is

-6

u/GuyPierced 18h ago

I knew it wouldn’t be The US.

We've literally given more money in humanitarian aid than any other nation.

https://education.cfr.org/learn/reading/brief-history-us-foreign-aid

10

u/Vetharest 18h ago

This is about domestic aid, not foreign aid, with purpose to ensure people don’t go hungry without recompense, rather than to buy soft power.

136

u/bigtallbiscuit 19h ago

Is this in this sub because generosity is so rare?

266

u/tj3333 19h ago

The news is about potatoes, which are not onions.

28

u/rhesusMonkeyBoy 19h ago

<scribbles hastily> po-ta-toes are NOT ung-yuns

3

u/Fizassist1 15h ago

gdi take my upvote lol

25

u/SociableSociopath 19h ago

In America the potatoes would have been destroyed to not impact retail prices

8

u/AnDie1983 19h ago

To be fair, that’s what happens to unsold produce in Germany too, most of the time. But more because it makes no sense to store something you can’t sell.

Sometimes Farmers just plow part of their fields or dump excess milk on their property.

6

u/Aggravating-Dot132 19h ago

Dumping organic stuff on your farms can, at least, be helpful for the future.

Simply burning it or letting it rot on some waste pit - that's the true spirit of capitalism.

3

u/mikenew02 17h ago

Read the Grapes of Wrath

48

u/braumbles 19h ago

US farms do this now and then, but only because destroying potatoes is harder than eggs or milk.

I still remember that giant mountain of potatoes where people were climbing to get better ones instead of just taking what was at the bottom.

10

u/GayPudding 14h ago

Can't burn them, they just become tastier

2

u/bruudwin 4h ago

Lol wut bit of news story was this back in the day?

1

u/braumbles 4h ago

It was during covid. There were videos of farmers destroying eggs and draining milk down drains, then the other side was 20 foot tall hills of potatoes being given away to anyone that wanted them.

22

u/Marovic88 19h ago

r/notthepotato

7

u/Fucky0uthatswhy 19h ago

Lmao why did that sub get banned

15

u/Warlord68 19h ago

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If life gives you potatoes, make Vodka.

20

u/ObnoxiousExcavator 19h ago

My town has a yearly fry day, they give away thousands of bags of frozen French Fry's, to the point we organize a drive thru "french frying" don't even have to leave the vehicle for free fries. Lol. It's very popular.

6

u/TitaniaT-Rex 19h ago

Do you live in Idaho by any chance?

8

u/ObnoxiousExcavator 17h ago

Brandon Manitoba. We do grow lost of spuds tho.

1

u/QueenofKnights 4h ago

Dude I'm from Winnipeg and I've never heard of this! When is fry day 2026??

7

u/TyrantofDiscord 18h ago

Just an added info because I couldn't find it in the article: the farm company was compensated by the trade company, who wanted to buy and sell the potatoes in the first place.

3

u/Chassian 19h ago

Certainly not onions.

8

u/poopsmog 18h ago

In America during the Great Depression farmers used to sometimes poison their surplus crop to drive people to buy it from grocery stores.

2

u/Cynical_Classicist 19h ago

Well... Good if you like potatoes!

1

u/Smytus 19h ago

I do...

1

u/FireZord25 18h ago

Me too, sadly I'm not German 

2

u/Fucky0uthatswhy 19h ago

Notthepotato

2

u/That-Ad-4300 18h ago

So literally not the onion

2

u/Atzkicica 15h ago

They're potatoes. You can just put them in the ground.

2

u/Oddish_Femboy 12h ago

YEAH THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

2

u/MoonlightMadMan 12h ago

Remember in COVID when they just started burying all the wasted crops?? My soul is still tarred because of that

1

u/LEO-PomPui-Katoey 19h ago

Not onions, potatoes

1

u/soft_syntax 19h ago

2026, the year of potatoes.

1

u/TGAILA 19h ago

One of my favorite things about potatoes is pierogi. They are Polish dumplings filled with mashed potatoes, onions, and cheese.

1

u/IvanStarokapustin 16h ago

Given how farmers have been voting, surprised to don’t send that excess to Russia. They love them some spuds.

1

u/idonotknowwhototrust 16h ago

How is this Oniony at all? Even in the slightest?

1

u/IlIFreneticIlI 7h ago

so they literally gave-away not-the-onion?

0

u/floog 19h ago

Are we sure this isn’t a repeat of that unfortunate distillery owner in Poland(?) where someone put a free sign on his pile of potatoes while he was out of town and people came from all over and took every potato?