{"id":21923,"date":"2020-08-25T07:25:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T04:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/?p=21923"},"modified":"2020-08-25T00:06:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T21:06:03","slug":"uncertain-future-keeps-california-citrus-grower-awake-at-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/uncertain-future-keeps-california-citrus-grower-awake-at-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncertain future keeps California citrus grower awake at night"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\"><p>The potential loss of his life\u2019s work has kept Vince Bernard up at night, worried about whether he would be able to save his citrus farm. At Bernard Ranches in Riverside, California, the citrus grower saw more than 3,000 boxes of oranges rot when the coronavirus pandemic forced schools and restaurants to close in March. That loss translated into $36,000. \u201cLemon sales went from 40, 50 boxes a week to zero. And it was looking increasingly bad,\u201d said Bernard. Bernard\u2019s worst fears, however, were that his trees would die if he were not able to pay a hefty monthly water bill of $7,000.<\/p>\n<p>The 68-year-old Bernard soon realized he had to knock on doors to avoid losing his crop of Valencia oranges. Fighting back tears, Bernard recounted how he went to his old customers and said he would be glad to sell anything at cost, half price or less to stay in business. \u201cI told them &#8230; I\u2019m desperate to keep my life\u2019s work going.\u201d Bernard started selling fruit in 1984. Besides distributing to local restaurants, hotels and schools, Bernard has been relying on The Fruitguys, an online business that delivers farm-fresh fruit to offices and homes nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>With the farming industry suffering across the country due to the pandemic, The Fruitguys have lost 90% of their business.\u00a0 When Chris Mittelstaedt, founder of The Fruitguys, learned about Bernard\u2019s dire situation, he offered an alternative. \u201cIf I could get 20 weeks in a row of eight hundred bags of oranges sold for him, then that gets him closer to being able to save his ranch,\u201d said Mittelstaedt. Cesar Pascual and his family have worked at Bernard Ranches for 23 years. Pascual says watching Bernard\u2019s suffering has not been easy.\u201cHe has made a tremendous effort in looking for ways to sell the product,\u201d Pascual said.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-coronavirus-california-fruit\/uncertain-future-keeps-california-citrus-grower-awake-at-night-idUSKBN25K1YS\">Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The potential loss of his life\u2019s work has kept Vince Bernard up at night, worried about whether he would be able to save his citrus&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[250,6540,6541],"class_list":["post-21923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-csr-news-en","tag-california","tag-citrus","tag-growing","wpcat-32-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/lemon.jpg?fit=100%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21923"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21927,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21923\/revisions\/21927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}