the difficulty of bringing produce to market is reflected in the cost structure. 90% of a food dollar goes towards all the efforts required to get food to the customer (transportation, packaging, warehousing, marketing, retail, etc).

this is why I think the solution is to have people grow their own fruits in their own backyards and front yards. customers will save a huge amount of money and it's better for the environment too.

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mpyne 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You're assuming that the customer growing their own fruit could do it at lower overall cost. Logistics are fairly inexpensive all things considered, if they really represent 90% of the total cost of fruit it says a lot for how low agribusiness has driven down the cost of the other 10%.

	▲	kelnos 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think for some types of produce, a home garden is an easy win when it comes to cost. Sure there are things that are very difficult (labor intensive, water intensive, etc.) to grow, so avoid those. But tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, beans, potatoes, peas, and beans are pretty easy to grow, and seed stock can be purchased cheaply. I haven't done this as an adult because I am so excessively lazy (but it's on my to-do list for this year, finally), but we had a vegetable garden when we were kids, and between my mom, my sister, and I, it was very manageable, and we ended up growing more than we could use, and gave some away to neighbors.

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pjc50 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As an owner of an apple tree: that's great for about two months, but I don't have commercial quantities of cold storage.

	▲	kelnos 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		We used to have a lemon tree. When it was producing, 80% of it went to waste. When it wasn't producing, we had to buy. It was still worth it, though. It required very little maintenance (pruning once a year, replace the batteries on the auto-irrigation system a couple times a year), so it was basically free.

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NotMichaelBay 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Local deer everywhere agree: this is the solution

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navigate8310 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No one is stopping customers from growing their own food. What's stopping is the lack of expertise knowledge and time commitments it takes to harvest.

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fhn 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Not really. I buy bare-root tree from home depot, throw it into the ground, and get fruit in a few years. No fertilizer, no anything, just give it water and sun. It's not rocket science.

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NotMichaelBay 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's definitely science, and it definitely doesn't work that way for most people. Also, "a few years" is a long time between deciding you want fruit and getting to eat it.

	▲	kelnos 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Also, "a few years" is a long time between deciding you want fruit and getting to eat it. The best time to plant was a few years ago, the next-best time to plant is today. This feels like a weird argument; you can decide you want to grow your own fruit today, plant that tree, and continue to buy fruit for the next few years until it's ready. This isn't rocket science. For most people it's not particularly likely that they're going to decide in the next few years that they don't like apples or lemons or whatever anymore. Your lack of desire to either plan ahead or be patient doesn't invalidate the approach.

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raisedbyninjas 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Firstly, half the produce we buy does not grow well in our climate. Secondofly, my parents both grew up on farms and have gardened most of their lives. They struggle to get a good yield between growing conditions, adjusting irrigation, and keeping the birds, hogs, deer, raccoons away.

	▲	gs17 30 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Don't forget the bugs. My parents planted a cherry tree thinking the birds would be the biggest pest. Then we found every single cherry on the tree had a cherry fruit fly larva inside it. If you don't cover or spray them at the right time, the entire crop is ruined.

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jcynix 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Not just deer, but a number of insects will thank you for your generosity. And you will have to learn when and how to fight them in order to get a decent harvest.