Farmer Gives Away Millions Of Surplus Potatoes For Free To Avoid Wastage Amid Crisis

Apr 24, 2020 by apost team

In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, demand for produce is down, which means that farmers across the country have an excess of supply. While some farmers are throwing out their excess produce, Ryan Cranney, CEO of Cranney Farms in Oakley, Idaho, is giving away around 2 million of his surplus potatoes this month so that they don’t go to waste.

Cranney Farms primarily provides potatoes to grocery stores and restaurants that make french fries, according to CNN. But now that many restaurants and factories are closed down, Cranney has six months worth of surplus crop.

"With people staying at home, these restaurants have shut down and so our markets have just kind of fallen apart," Cranney told CNN. "The factories that we sell to for french fries, they've lost their sales and had to shut their factories down with freezers full of french fries and so the outlets for our potatoes, we're having a difficult time getting them to market."

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While Cranney Farms does raise cattle and sell other produce —  sugar beets, wheat, barley, mustard seeds, corn and alfalfa — around 50 percent of its sales come from its potatoes, which means that Cranney’s enterprise is taking a real hit now that he can’t sell his main crop.

"We've made our best assumptions so we're cutting back what we're going to grow this year," Cranney told CNN. "If things turn around quickly and take off, we're going to be short. But if it drags on longer for several more months, it could be a total disaster. People are going to lose their farms over this."

Despite his own hardships, Cranney is making sure that his extra potatoes don’t go to waste by donating them to community members. To help get word out, Cranney made a post on Facebook, urging member of his small Oakley, Idaho community (population 700) to come by and help themselves, according to CNN. Food banks and soup kitchens have come by, as have community members who grab the potatoes for their neighbors and friends. One Kansas woman is even planning on driving 19 hours to pick up some of Cranney’s surplus stock.

Stories of surplus of goods and a lack of demand are spreading across the nation as most non-essential businesses remain shuttered in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The New York Times reports, for example, that farmers in Wisconsin and Ohio are dumping thousands of gallons of milk into lagoons. And in Idaho, farmers are burying millions of pounds of onions in ditches due to excess supply. But Cranney Farms has taken a different approach, avoiding waste and sharing with the community in its time of need.

"We gave a little bit and now they're giving in return, and that's what made it worth it to me," Cranney told CNN. "It's been fun for me to see people thinking of others and give their time and resources to take care of other people."

Do farms in your community have excess produce? What do you think of Ryan Cranney's decision to donate his potatoe surplus? Let us know and pass this uplifting story on to your friends and family members.