Happy Thanksgiving Readers.
Sand Wars Over Cranberries
The Wall Street Journal reports The Sand Wars Dividing Cranberry Growers and Their Neighbors
Cranberry growers in southeastern Massachusetts are battling neighbors and town officials over…sand.
The conflict is playing out in town meetings and in court across the nation’s oldest cranberry-growing region.
Massachusetts farmers are allowed to excavate sand on their properties with a town permit, as long as it is incidental or necessary for agriculture, but critics complain that sand mining has become a business that is disturbing the bucolic nature of the region.
A half-inch layer of sand acts as a compost that can be scattered on existing vines, while a foot-deep layer of sand acts as soil when growers need to rip out and replace older vines with new higher-yielding hybrid varieties.
Most growers have sand on their property; they just need a permit from the local town, a backhoe and a dump truck to dig it up and apply it to their bogs.
In September, the company applied for a new permit to remove 1.7 million cubic yards of sand from its property to build a reservoir for newly built cranberry bogs.
That operation would allow the removal of 50 dump-truck loads of sand a day, 5½ days a week, for four years, according to a permit application the firm filed with the town.
“Cranberry growing isn’t a booming industry,” said Eric Crone, chairman of the board of selectmen in the town of Kingston, home to growers. “It isn’t something that investors are trying to get into, but they are trying to get into the removal of [sand] because they can make money on it.”
The price of sand and gravel—crucial for concrete and other industrial uses—has climbed from $7.66 per metric ton in 2012 to $12.20 per metric ton in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey—an increase of around 20% after accounting for inflation.
At the same time, wholesale cranberry prices have fallen from a high of $47 for a 100-pound barrel in 2012 to $36 in 2023, a decrease of roughly 44% after accounting for inflation.
Town officials wouldn’t comment, citing the continuing litigation with the company, which sued the town in 2023, saying it disagreed with requirements in an earth removal permit the town issued to the firm.
Conservation advocates maintain that these and other excavation projects go too far.
Cranberry Fun Facts
- The United States is the world’s top cranberry producer, more than doubling Canada’s production in second place.
- Wisconsin is the top cranberry producing state, producing around 60% of the country’s annual cranberry crop. Wisconsin is known as the cranberry capital of the world.
- Massachusetts is the second-largest producer, accounting for around a quarter of the country’s cranberry crop.
- In 2023, Wisconsin produced at about 5.01 million barrels, followed by Massachusetts with 1.97 million barrels.
My Message on Coast-to-Coast Wednesday Night
About once a week, I am on Coast-to-Coast live syndicated talk show with George Noory on over 600 stations with millions of listeners, to give a couple minutes of my take on the economy.
I used to be on the show on random days. Now it’s easy to follow me. I am on Every Wednesday, just after Midnight, on days that I am within cell phone reach. Click the above link for stations.
Last night I discussed how the Quarterly QCEW Data Provides More Evidence of BLS Jobs Overstatement
I also discussed huge negative revisions to second-quarter GDI released on Wednesday that I have not yet commented on, but coming up.
Then I read a prepared Thanksgiving statement.
George enough gloom.
I want to give thanks to you and your listeners.
I have been on your show for I think 18 years. Wow.
And the whole time, George, someone in the media has been predicting China would overtake the US.
China didn’t and won’t. And I have been saying that for 18 years too.
We have the strongest most free capital markets in the world. That is the source of our strength and our jobs.
I laugh at those leaving the US because Trump won the election. But there’s nothing like the US Constitution, anywhere, especially freedom of speech. [Adding this line. We should celebrate free speech, not trash the right.] But hey, you are free to leave. Give thanks to that because not everyone can.
The world didn’t end when Obama won, when Trump won, when Biden won, and it won’t end now because Trump won again.
If you can’t find something to thank about the US, then give thinks to friends and family.
Thank you, George, for letting me express my thoughts for 18 years.
Happy Thanksgiving listeners!
To My Readers
I have been doing this since March of 2003. I don’t believe I have ever missed a day. Yes, I mean 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, every day for over 20 years, zero days off.
My posts on Christmas and New Years are typically “Merry Christmas” or “Happy New Year” but it has been something.
I do this because I love doing this, not because it is hugely profitable. I often break out laughing at topics I am writing about.
So readers, thanks for the joy you have given me.
And thanks to three close high school friends, Dave, Fil, and Ron with whom I exchange emails nearly every day, also long time friends and family.
Special thanks to friends we have met in Utah, especially our neighbors Sam and Midge, and Sue and Fred. We are all hiking buddies now.
Today we will be with Sam and Midge. She is making a turkey and we are bringing a ham.
And top thanks to Liz, my best friend, and beautiful, intelligent and patient wife. We escaped Illinois to Utah four years ago July, and have never been happier.
To Liz, with thanks to Dobie Gray
Thanks for the joy that you’ve given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
And rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You’ve helped me along
Makin’ me strong
Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!