By Clint Thompson
Unprecedented diesel prices are the latest in a long line of challenges that threaten the sustainability of the family farm.
“I mean we’re spraying like crazy,” said South Georgia vegetable farmer Sam Watson. “We’ve got whiteflies all over the place. We’re having to spray more and spend more on chemicals because the whiteflies are so bad. We’re running more spray tractors than we normally do, because it’s fall and you’ve got to spray more. The whiteflies are bad.”
It can have a trickle-down effect for Watson and those vegetable farmers like him. Because whitefly populations are so high this year and threaten fall vegetable crops, growers have to apply more chemicals to maintain the crop which requires more diesel to fuel the tractors across the field.
As recently as Sept. 28, the average diesel price across the U.S. was $6.45 per gallon, an increase from $5.61 a month ago and $3.68 a year ago.
“I mean when it comes to what we do, you can’t just say, I’m not going to do that today because I don’t need to burn any diesel fuel. I’m going to wait for the price to go down,” Watson said. “You can’t do that. You’ve got to go, and then quite frankly, it hadn’t been going down. It’s been going up. So you better off go ahead and buy it. Next week or next month it’s liable to be (more).”
Whitefly pressure has Watson extremely concerned about the status of his crops this fall, especially after the warm temperatures in August.
They’re as bad as I’ve ever seen them this fall. We’re just pouring product out there to try to make stuff grow,” Watson said. “I’m really just nervous about this whole fall crop. If we get an early frost, we’re going to be in big, big trouble. At this point, we don’t need a frost till January. We need to pick all th”e way through December hard just because this crop’s going to be late.”
The financial challenges growers encounter before the crop is harvested are exacerbated because those expenses can’t be passed on to the consumer.
“We’ve just got to eat it. I mean, the crop isn’t worth anything,” Watson said. “We are not going to get anything for it. It just doesn’t work. I don’t know, I really don’t anymore. I’ve got three sprayers running right now for my little operation just to try to stay up and be more consistent and get stuff sprayed faster. But that’s just more money, more money, more money.”