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Every Day Counts In The Effort To Keep California's Fresh Strawberries From Going To Waste
Amparo Sanchez, 73, picks organic strawberries at Stehly Farms Organics in Valley Center in late March. (Ariana Drehsler/AFP via Getty Images)
The peak of California's strawberry season is about to hit in a major way. That means as many as 70 to 80 million pounds of berries will be coming off of plants every week.
But because coronavirus has decimated the markets that used to take them in, tens of millions of pounds of berries are about to go to waste. At a time when food waste feels particularly egregious, it's not completely clear what can be done.
Rick Tomlinson, president of the California Strawberry Commission told me:
"Everyone is working on this literally every minute of the day right now. We are down to weeks. That peak happens in May and in the next three weeks the crop is going to double. Every day counts here. Every single day."
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