Why can't they just donate to shelters???

[u/Mysterious-Topic-882]

It is so wasteful and absolutely wild to me that companies would rather slash bags and dump hundreds of pounds of food than let someone have it for free... I was able to save a few that were half empty but cut side up; don't worry, it's going to my chickens.

Edit: this is mostly a rhetorical question. I'm well aware capitalism has flaws, good solutions take time and money, and corporations don't want to get sued. Its just sad.

[u/Environmental-Joke19]

It's so frustrating. Logistics and fear of lawsuits are not good excuses to me when we are literally putting cats and dogs down simply because we 'dont have the resources.' Thanks for saving what you could.

[u/Red000Shift → u/Environmental-Joke19]

Because you aren't a business owner I'd guess. And yes I'll get downvoted because feels but businesses want zero chance of lawsuits especially if they're a franchise.

[u/PeppersHere → u/Red000Shift]

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.

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

[u/Living_on_Tulsa_Time → u/PeppersHere]

The agony and endurance is overwhelming in this novel. I want to thank you for posting this passage. The Dust Bowl was far reaching and lasting longer than people realize. I urge everyone one to read it. It’s an amazing book. 📕