Farm Thieves Target Grapes, and Even Bees

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Sgt. Walt Reed said he could tell right away that the grapes were stolen. They looked like an ordinary bunch. Except, he said, for the way they were dressed. “Usually grapes are put into plastic bags,” said Sergeant Reed, a 28-year veteran of the Kern County Sheriff’s Office. “But these grapes were just thrown in a Styrofoam box.”

Sergeant Reed — who eventually arrested a suspect after staking out a Kern County vineyard — is just one of dozens of deputies on the front lines of agricultural crime in California, home to the nation’s most productive farms and the people who prey on them. While thievery has long been a fact of life in the country, such crimes are on the rise and fighting them has become harder in many parts of California as many grants for rural law enforcement have withered on the vine.

While other states have their own agricultural intrigue — cattle rustlers in Texas, tomato takers in Florida — few areas can claim a wider variety of farm felons than California, where ambushes on everything from almonds to beehives have been reported in recent years. Then there is the hardware: diesel fuel, tools and truck batteries regularly disappear in the Central Valley, the state’s agricultural powerhouse, where high unemployment, foreclosures and methamphetamine abuse have made criminals more desperate, officials say.

Farm Thieves Target Grapes, and Even Bees - NY Times

Forget shoplifting from the stores, these people are stealing right from the SOURCE!

Have you noticed the marked increase in the cost of groceries lately (ESPECIALLY produce???)

The economy has gotten so bad that people think that the only way to survive and eat is to steal from the farmers themselves?

I don't know about all of you, but this year I planted my own vegetable garden for the very first time to try to offset my grocery costs. Have any of you done the samee?

hi there,

same here in Portugal, grapes stolen last year....an entire field full !! .

and now this year lots of thefts from Veg fields.

snoopyuk

I was just thinking...

Think this could lead to a black market for food?

Originally posted by TheOneYouFearIsRight
I don't know about all of you, but this year I planted my own vegetable garden for the very first time to try to offset my grocery costs. Have any of you done the samee?

Missed the mark, I think (not all that agriculturally savvy so if you have any ideas of what I can plant this late, I'd appreciate it) but I want to raise chickens on top of planting some crops on my 5 acres when I've got some dough to invest.

Not the Bees!!!

reply to post by TheOneYouFearIsRight


So what is new???

My neighbor had a horse stolen, another had cattle and I have had sheep and goats routinely stolen every year for the last ten years. Just before I am about to ship the males to auction they ALL disappear.

A friend came upon a site where they didn't even bother to steal the live animals. They just slaughtered most of his herd taking the best cuts of meat and left a stinking mess for him to clean up and bury.

I have had fencing, fence posts, tires, batteries, saddles.... thousand of dollars worth of animals and equipment stolen. The cops just shrug.

The only thing that has worked is sitting up at night waiting for them and using home defense hardware as scare tactics.

reply to post by Boreas


Try a few sheep too. - Barbados Blackbelly sheep

They are a hair sheep and do not need to be sheared and one of the hardy breeds. If you get sheep or goats U2U me and I will give you some very critical pointers.

Goats are harder to keep than sheep BTW. And yes I have milked a sheep

Best breeds for sheep milk: www.antlife.org...

Originally posted by crimvelvet
reply to post by TheOneYouFearIsRight

 

So what is new???

My neighbor had a horse stolen, another had cattle and I have had sheep and goats routinely stolen every year for the last ten years. Just before I am about to ship the males to auction they ALL disappear.

A friend came upon a site where they didn't even bother to steal the live animals. They just slaughtered most of his herd taking the best cuts of meat and left a stinking mess for him to clean up and bury.

I have had fencing, fence posts, tires, batteries, saddles.... thousand of dollars worth of animals and equipment stolen. The cops just shrug.

The only thing that has worked is sitting up at night waiting for them and using home defense hardware as scare tactics.

That's disturbing. I had no idea there was so much agricultural crime going on, or that it was as severe as you describe. Thieves disgust me. I can't stand people who rationalize this sort of behavior. Unless you're literally on the brink of death if you don't have a bite to eat, there's no good reason to steal from anybody. Sorry to hear you have to put up with that. It must be tough both financially and emotionally having people steal from you when you worked so hard to grow and acquire these things. For the police to ignore these crimes is also maddening. Good luck to you, and I hope you find a good way to end the loss.

Cattle theft is up in our county as well. People have taken to placing remote video near gates onto their property if they raise cattle on a parcel but don't live there. It won’t stop it but you can at least get a license plate. I have my beef cattle on a remote parcel but a neighbor rents a house to a nice young couple near the gate and he keeps an eye on it for me and I give him free eggs and milk.

I have taken to a brand instead of an ear tag (which can be removed easily) this year for my recent purchase of beef cattle. I personally don't like branding - viewing it as unnecessary in today's world thus cruel but now I really fear I have no choice. At today’s prices I can’t afford to lose any. Insurance will only cover the purchase price not market value.

My dairy girls all have microchips but they are worth 2.5-3k a piece and they are all trained for the machines and systems I use which makes them more valuable to me personally. Plus I love my working girls. I usually keep them in the barn overnight and let them out in the morning. However, I can GPS them to within 10 meters on the net any time I want while in the pasture while they freshen.

It’s actually pretty neat to view their social structure this way.

They all have little "clicks" and friends whose company they seem to enjoy as they tend to eat and lay in the same areas together, even give birth at the same times together in groups. I also have a few pairs who will let each other’s calves nurse but not just any calf (trust me I tried that one).

I have used this analysis to increase production (about .45 gallons a day per cow) by putting them next to each other at milking time.

So, we are just supposed to accept the crime?

And what happens to the stolen food? Is it stolen for consumption by the theives or does it get sold?

I went to the farmer's market today...

Was walking through it and all I could think of was "I wonder how much of this stuff is stolen?"