Why This Year's Blueberry Bounty Has Growers Feeling Blue
The blueberries on your morning cereal are less expensive this year. That's because farmers are harvesting a bumper crop this summer. It's good news for berry lovers, but the bounty might wreck some blueberry growers.
In Richland, Wash., Genoa Blankenship pops open the lid on a box of blueberries. Her three young children struggle to stop wiggling. Blankenship loves the idea of healthy snacks that are easy to take along to soccer practice.
"We tend to eat blueberries at least twice a day. We start the day with blueberries at breakfast and then we end the day with blueberries and end with a bedtime snack of blueberries and oatmeal," says Blankenship.
It's just this type of enthusiasm for blueberries, along with stacks of reports about the health benefits of berries, that have helped the industry grow rapidly over the last 20 years. The USDA says the number of fields in the nation has nearly doubled in that time.
One of those fields is outside of Hillsboro, in western Oregon. Workers stoop over waist-high rows of blueberry bushes.
Farmer Roy Malensky says this year, all that planting has caught up with farmers and packing houses. But there are several other factors that lined up this year to create the blue-crush.
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