Sugar Beets, PepsiCo, JD, etc.

[Bob Bancroft]

The picture and discussion on the beet knife brought back a flood of memories from my youth.
In 1964 PepsiCo broke ground on a 22 million dollar beet processing plant in nearby Montezuma NY, strategically located along the NYS Barge(formerly the Erie)Canal, NYS Thruway(I90), and the main NY Central rail lines.

Many jumped in, and beets were growing everywhere. Some farmers bought beet equipment, and harvested for several other farmers. My extended family worked together at the time. My father didn't grow beets, but we got first hand involvement since my cousin did. His neighbor had a new 4020. As I recall, a topper was mounted underneath the tractor which sliced the tops off the beets. Behind the 4020 was this tall machine with large wheels which plucked the beets out of the ground, carried them up, and dropped them into a bin for later transfer into a truck. This was all JD equipment. There were some other brands around, maybe Farmhand? The harvester was stopped as much as it was moving. We have hard, stony ground. Someone missed that little fact when promoting this whole venture. In 1968 PepsiCo ceased operations and leased the plant to someone else. Soon enough, beet harvesters were seen rotting away in hedgerows. In 1975 the plant was sold and converted to be Clinton Corn. Then in 1982 ADM takes over and simply uses some of the facility for a transfer/shipment point.

Apparently this little fiasco didn't hurt Pepsi much?

Ironically, Montezuma is surrounded by muck. Some of the most productive ground in the world. At the time, potatoes and onions were grown there. I don't recall any beets being grown there. Now, interestingly enough, the potatoes and onions are gone, and this most precious land is simply growing corn and beans.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

Sounds like the typical boom and bust stories of agriculture. The first guys in make a few bucks, and the first guys out loose the least of those that get involved.
For many years, 40-50 years, there was a canning plant near us. They canned corn , peas and pumpkin, which was grown by local farmers lucky enough to get a contract. I knew the family that owned the pea harvesting equipment, very specialized and expensive piece of equipment. They went around farm to farm and harvested the canning peas. Suddenly the canning company was sold , closed down and eventually torn down. Apparently during the late 70s , it became more economical to import canned goods from some third world country half way around the world, then keep growing food right here at home.
I am going to venture a guess that Fructose corn syrup became cheap for Pepsi to make their soft drinks from , than making sugar from beets themselves. And local farmers take the hit.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Not just agriculture,look at all the old steel mills,sewing factories,tire manufacturing plant near me,also a telephone manufacturing plant,list is endless as the USA abandoned building and making many things to become a nation of consumers and money shufflers.

 

[Russ from MN]

The first couple of years after I retired I went to the Red River valley of MN and drove truck for the beet harvest, it was interesting. As I got more accustomed to being retired I decided it just wasn't worth it, it didn't pay very well and took up too much of my time. Too may weather related delays, the last year it took 28 days to do 10 days work.

I can see how having rocky soil would be a problem, the equipment would think they're beets. There are very few rocks in the RR valley, and 6-8 feet of rich topsoil.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

I agree with you 100%. And the part that burns me is, the retail cost of most of the items that come from half way around the world now, instead of just down the road , really arent any less expensive. And we loose out on jobs in our local economies. All the savings go into the pockets of multinational companies and retail giants. The modern day Robber Barons.

 

[woodbutcher]

I think we've seen similar situations in the southwest US, too. In the early 60's, my dad decided to plant sunflowers instead of cotton. So, he put all the ground we had prepared into them, using the two-row equipment and the old tractors we already had. Frito-Lay was supposed to contract for all we would produce. One year of trying to cultivate a crop of weeds was all it took to put us back in the cotton patch.

Butch

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I'm with you. Too many factories closing down. Many reasons why. A business can't make a profit, they go out of business, very simple.
Or they have to move to another country if they want to make a profit.
Taxes, labor, epa, profits all bottom lines.
It's easy for us to comment about a business moving.
Most of us have no clue all the hidden expenses a business has..
Hard to compete with steel being sold for less than you can produce it.
I worked at Bethlehem Steel Burns harbor when it was considered the state of the art mill in the 60-70's.
Bethlehem was sold with the intention of running it into bankruptcy so the new owners could gets it's hands on the pension fund. Same thing happened in Terre Haute, Ann Page.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Cheap energy, low transportation cost makes it profitable to ship things halfway around the world. World economies run on cheap energy.
I read the US is the largest economy in the world because we have an unlimited supply of paper and green ink.

 

[Charlie M]

I remember that having grown up in that part of the world. Sugar beets were going to be the savior of all farmers in the area. I remember looking at IH sales catalogs we used to get each year and seeing beet harvesting equipment. I think the current facility belonging to ADM is a transfer point for corn syrup. Its funny to see the adventures both Pepsi and Coke have tried over the years that didn't pan out.

 

[Hay hay hay]

Other countries also have very coherent and carefully managed trade policies, whereas ours is often disjointed and convoluted. Example:
Texas has given Toyota almost a $billion to build factories in Texas to assemble vehicles there,(about 10 hours of labor and 50% imported parts). Texas is also a major rice growing state. At the time the Toyota/Texas deal was struck, Japan had a 778% (that is not a typo) import tax on Texas rice to protect inefficient Japanese farmers.

 

[mjbrown]

A lot of red kidney beans were grown here and shipped to Cuba. The US imported a lot of Cuban sugar. When Castro came to power and proved to be unacceptable to the US government trade in both of those commodities ceased. The Federal government decided to subsidize a conversion from beans to sugar beets. It failed for the reasons Bob covered. I knew one farmer who took a wait and see approach and decided not to participate when he saw how much top soil clung to the beets and left the farm on the trucks.
As a teen I marched in a band and we marched in the sugar beet festival in Genoa. It was all up hill! It may have been the only one they had.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

Yes sir. We successfully grew red kidney beans for years. It was a dryer period of time. We baled hay all summer, and pulled and threshed beans in the fall. None of that is possible now.

 

[DoubleO7]

(quoted from post at 08:33:43 11/20/21) I agree with you 100%. And the part that burns me is, the retail cost of most of the items that come from half way around the world now, instead of just down the road , really arent any less expensive. And we loose out on jobs in our local economies. All the savings go into the pockets of multinational companies and retail giants. The modern day Robber Barons.

And all the stock holders that supported the those companies.
Demanding good dividends that kept stock price at a good level.

 

[NY 986]

Not much grown here locally due to the heavy clay. Over around Hall-Seneca Castle-Geneva there were a fair amount grown and the JD dealer in Hall sold a fair amount of related equipment. As to red kidney beans they were grown until the mid-1960's around here then everybody said that the varieties that grew well around here were phased out. Also, they had issues pulling beans if the clay got hard. By and large just about everybody dairy farmed until 1980. A few farms went idle and most went over to more corn even though a lot of the ground was not productive to make real good money at it. Too young to recall the Pepsi days but remember the Clinton Corn days.

 

[john in la]

Around here all sugar comes from cane.
Highly regulate crop like Canadian milk as it requires a quota to grow it.
That and import tariffs keep the big plantations profitable.

 

[1948CaseVAI]

(quoted from post at 06:33:43 11/20/21) I agree with you 100%. And the part that burns me is, the retail cost of most of the items that come from half way around the world now, instead of just down the road , really arent any less expensive. And we loose out on jobs in our local economies. All the savings go into the pockets of multinational companies and retail giants. The modern day Robber Barons.

They are NOT robber barons!! They are obeying the law that requires that all of their efforts are to provide benefit for the stockholders. Corporations are not, and are not allowed to be charities. Those that "share" with localities do so because it is good business and ends up with higher returns for the stockholders. The existence of stockholders enable the whole world to continue to function.

Companies such as Cargill, which is family-owned, do not have the same restrictions. They work in a different way although if they fail to make sufficient profit they also will disappear to the detriment of all of us. Only through the magic of capitalism can we produce enough to satisfy the world.

 

[NY 986]

Canning vegetables was strong here into the 1990's. Vegetables are still canned in Geneva, NY but the industry has for the most part fled the area for places like Michigan and further west. A fellow I knew from college got a job with Campbell's Soup as a vegetable buyer but have not heard from him in forever. It has been said that Campbell's imports a lot of its vegetable stock.

 

[David Snipes]

Yes they are, except we call then robber corporations now.

 

[J. Schwiebert]

In 1966 four of the Farmhand beet harvesters were picked up by 3 Farmhand dealers in Northwest Ohio. The one I picked up at Turnbull equipment in Hall NY.Now sugar beets are gone from Northwest Ohio too,

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Never gave it much thought. Trade deals aren't on the bad news media. Trade deals, labor costs, raw materials, epa, cheap energy is what makes the world go around.

 

[Hay hay hay]

Yep likewise, haven't heard much about the fact that lumber prices are now down 74% from the all time high in May...bought 2x4's today for $4, about what I have always paid.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

(quoted from post at 12:17:38 11/20/21) Yes they are, except we call then robber corporations now.

So why is it okay for you to make a profit, but not big corporations?

Everybody just has it in their heads that large corporations are just swimming in money, every dollar they bring in is "profit" and because of that they should be handing out alms to the little guy.

 

[SVcummins]

Yay modern view i

 

[Carlmac 369]

(quoted from post at 04:17:14 11/21/21) Yay modern view i

Far superior isn't it?

 

[SVcummins]