Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Liz <liz@allslash.org>]

At 08:21 AM 12/2/2007, you wrote:
> What in the world
> does this mean?:
>  <snip>
>  The wording would seem to mean that the demand for
> those products is very high.  Who is buying this "surplus"
> that, in the past, has been available ("to purchase"), to food
> banks?  Export?  To where?  Is this some of our trade
> deficit returning to cause problems for the less
> fortunate?

Much of what used to be given to food banks is going now to so-called
"salvage" stores. I inspect grocery stores under a contract
with the USDA, and I'm seeing a large increase in the number of salvage
stores--the places that sell the cereal boxes with a crushed corner, the
dinged up soup cans, etc. 

Most of the time if any portion of a wrapped pallet is damaged, the
entire pallet is refused. Stores don't want to pay warehouse personnel to
sort through a pallet of cereal boxes to set aside any that are banged
up. It's cheaper to just refuse the whole thing. Shipping companies have
insurance to cover damage, so the shippers usually aren't out either. The
broker would just donate the whole thing to the nearest food bank. Now
they're selling them to salvage store owners. Same thing for
non-perishables that are damaged after they get on the supermarket
shelves. They used to be donated. Now they're often being sold to salvage
stores. 

There is also the surplus inventory after a food manufacturer stops
producing that particular item. They don't want the name brand stores
selling cereal or crackers or whatever that they aren't making any more.
Those items used to be donated to food banks. Now they usually go to the
salvage stores. The only good thing about that is that you can get huge
savings if you don't mind minor damage. Some salvage store owners are
picky about what they will buy--they'll take only surplus, for example,
and not damaged goods. Others will take anything and you buy at your own
risk.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com