I Tracked Down the Company Ruining Fruit



America’s biggest berry empire doesn’t actually grow berries.

Driscoll’s is the middleman that controls the genetics, reaps the profits, and then shifts blame.

A whistleblower alleges the Canadian government repeatedly flagged their berries for exceeding pesticide limits.

Producer: Alec Opperman
Editor: Eric Schuman
Videographers: Harry Aaron, Jack Davis, Sam Rosenthal, Jack Belisle, Evan Carter, Elizabeth Hanks

Video Production Manager: Isabel Atalaya
Video Production Coordinator: Jodi Clemens
Video Production Fellow: Astrid Dong
Video Editing Fellow: Daria Nastasia
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50 Comments

  1. I don't understand why you din't test for the level of pesticides and preservatives in these fruits.. Compared with poisoning people the taste is a minor issue by comparison.. Why the hell does the government allow food producers to poison people????

  2. I really wish my half dozen strawberry bare roots didn't die. I had only one crappy Bonnie plant survive just long enough to make 2 tiny berries that got eaten through by earwigs. I'm starting to think I'll never taste a real strawberry again.

  3. Was just talking to someone about the decline in berry taste over past thirty years. Strawberries are essentially flavorless now… Yuck. Thaaaanks Driscoll’s…

  4. I’m gonna say this as simply as possible……stop blindly trusting entities that claim to have your wellbeing as priority nr 1……full stop! Don’t believe it until you see it…. Faith like that in capitalism is like faith a shark won’t rip you apart when it smells blood in the water………

  5. To be quite honest I’ve never felt comfortable buying open berries and fruits in a public space. It’s one thing for them to be in punctured plastics near the farm they were harvest from….if they are transported like that………at some point they will be contaminated by something….unless deliver is air tight but can’t imagine fresh fruits being vacuum packed prior to sell cuz that kinda goes against the fresh idea

  6. This is why private sustained farming is so vital to the survival of free food. Guaranteed there will be a war in the future with exactly that as the main reason. Just like every sustaining thing that people have tried to control in human history. If it’s vital to live…..there will be a human that tries to claim ownership to sell it and get rich

  7. I am in Agriculture and let me tell you, it is that serious and what the best course of action is, will always be support local and family owned farms. I source and coordinate logistics for huge growers and it's a sad sad place to operate from. I do try to screw them on pricing etc where I can.

  8. Part of the problem is that these small and medium sized farmers keep voting for politicians that refuse to back meaningful campaign reform instead opting to choose politicians like Trump and othes the keep oligarchs in power

  9. My friend used to work in the produce industry, oranges, apples and kiwifruit. He said the fruit we get in our supermarkets is the leftover of what gets exported and if they'd picked anything close subpar for export, he'd have to fire people. So don't think you're getting the best unless you're at a legitt farmers market and even then I'd be suss

  10. Having tried fruits and vegetables in both the States and China, I've always found the stuff sold in the States to be very bland. In comparison fruits in China tend to be much sweeter and vegetables easier to cook. Now I know why.

  11. Instead of the majority of people dreaming of buying land & growing food…most people dream of having kids, getting their daily starbucks & weekly target run in, a giant wedding, a brand new car they cant afford so they have to pay payments, &are perfectly comfortable living in tiny apartments with no yard to throw a ball for a kid or animal. society fucking sucks. Its not the berries. its society. they keep building more apartments , less land for city parks or gardens. you guys keep having kids & accepting the bare minimum. Most people settle in life. i have lived in many roomate/house situations & was the only person who cared to pick fruit off the tree or plant a garden. In your average neighborhood with yards, how many people are growing their own food? we are all the problem.

  12. "..This process mimics traditional farming methods used for thousands of years by crossing one plant with another. They do not insert foreign genes from unrelated organisms, meaning the fruit is strictly non-GMO". From Driscoll's site, via google. Someone is not telling the truth- not sure if it's this site or theirs.

  13. I'm in Canada and I'm really grateful to Driscoll's for improving the berries available here in the past few years. The raspberries and blackberries have gotten better and are quite affordable 👍

  14. I stopped buying non-organic berries because they tasted like nothing almost all of the time now. At least with organic, it tastes like something most of the time. I'll also steer clear of Driscoll's going forward. (Usually Costco carries something else.)

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