Did you know that each year the US government keeps a significant percentage of the available raisin crop from entering the free market? In order to keep the prices ripe for growers? That this “reserve tonnage” is sometimes nearly 20% of the crop? And that this has been a regular practice since Herbert Hoover was the President?
“The government has been regulating the marketing of California raisins (the source of almost all the raisins that Americans consume) for the past sixty-four years,” reports scotusblog.com’s Lyle Denniston, covering the Supreme Court, which is hearing a case against the Department of Agriculture involving the practice. “The government scheme, like several others that date from the Great Depression era, is to keep a part of each year’s crop of dried grapes (raisins) off of the market, so that the part that goes to market will bring higher prices for the growers.” They don’t get to dance in the commercials either.
