With the shortage of food I cant believe the farmers are being told to turn your crops under.. whats
the deal

Not sure, but one issue could be delivery. If any of it was shipped by air, something like only 5% of the normal amount of flights are still happening.

Seen it on the national news tonight.. they didnt give a reason

One would think it could be put to good use locally.
Guess the networks don't want to explain the whole story, just whip up more emotion & frustration.

I find that really odd. I work in a packing plant and anything food related is essential enterprise. I know farmers around here are getting ready to plant.

I believe it's felt to suffer a crop loss rather than pay fertilizer, water, labor to bring the crop in and have no place to sell.
This is huge welling problem with the global economy. Besiide lack of labor, no one is buying anything but essentials.
Looking to buy a car or major appliance will be different in a couple months. Better stock your freezers now and also buy beans, sardines and other high quality protein. I've been in the yard and garden much of the past week, cutting cover crops, tilling and planting spring veggies. I think anyone that has room in the yard, or can cobble together some raised beds for veggies would be wise and also able to have high quality food through this summer. Beets, carrots and squash store well too if you have a place to store where it stays cool but not freeze.

Saw a quick blurb on TV, food banks are running out of food, and farmers are not shipping because trucking was blamed.

I’m missing it - if essential, why don’t they have truckers hauling?

Milk being poured down the drain and eggs being broken around here in an attempt to get prices up.

Truckers arent the issue.. they may be slowed up at the boarders but thats all.. 95%
of the vehicles on the roads are trucks

Schools and restaurants closed. That's a huge part of the fresh fruits/vegetables market. BUT...all things considered, it seems there's a better solution than turning it under.

So you are saying people eating habits have significantly changed in the last few weeks???

The “market” is people. Suppliers to grocery stores are extremely busy, suppliers to restaurants (makes me wonder about that abomination Sysco...LOL) are dead.

Around here even the restaurants are still buying food.. not as much but they are buying just to
help keep the supplier running

We here in Washington state have a large Fish and Seafood restaurant called Anthonys Homeport and they are not doing well. But every day their Fish Monger delivers fresh fish and seafood. Then they sell it at their cost at the Seattle cold storage truck dock. My neighbor picked up 25 pounds of fresh Halibut at $18.75 a pound. They do this to keep the Fish monger working. The monger keeps the Fishermen on the boats.

Seems pretty simple, people are only going to the store once a week at the most, so fresh food you only buy for a few days, schools closed, restaurant sales are down over 50%, food banks have so much they do not want it, it does not last, it boils down to 30-50% lower demand on the wholesale side. We bought enough food for a month. When we try to restart there will be some serious shortages for 3-6 months in the food chain, not just fresh veggies and milk, takes a while to get things rolling again. A lot of food manufacture is slowing down, low demand, at some point you close because it takes x amount of volume to make it worth running the operation. I am suprised the fresh side runs as smooth as it does at any time to be honest.

Commercial trucks are still crossing the borders. The staffing may be lighter due to Officers getting the COVID-19 and taking time off sick. I know we are at full staff, but traffic is way down.

a minor reason why it's being dumped.
the bigger part is sales are down so the processors have to produce less. now there is more milk held in storage tanks so they are full now. the farmers can't shut off the cows production and the processors aren't buying so the only choice is to dump the milk down the drain, actually it's usually in the manure pit not the drain.

Well this is no excuse, the same amount of people need the same amount of food - doesn't matter where they eat it.

Same with the toilet paper thing - people need more tp (maybe not as much as they bought!) because instead of taking a dump at work or elsewhere, they're taking that crap at home - as well as everyone else in the home.

American dairy farmers have been screwed over for years. Trump thought he could ease the pain with the new NAFTA deal (whatever its called) by making Canada give access to our market. Well that markets open BUT consumers aren't buying the product. We seem to get just a little more patriotic every time the US pulls one of those stunts. Heinz ketchup was rotting on the shelves after they shut down the Leamington, Ontario plant !

As for turning under the crops, that could be a ploy to drive up prices. The ripple effect will be increased prices everywhere. That will have a major impact on US exports and it won't be a good one.

People do not eat as much when they are not working, do not need the energy. The bottom 50% are out of money, so less food. Manufacture for food on the the commercial side is way down, dried eggs and milk.

I had to read that twice, just to convince myself you really posted that.

well if people don't need their energy, send me some !
i got so much stuff to do i'll take all the energy i can get !