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We launch an occasional series
we are calling "Food, Glorious Food,"
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reports about what we eat,
how our food is grown,
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and the economics
of putting a meal on the table.
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Tonight we begin with food waste.
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Much of what is grown on American farms
never gets to market.
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Allison Aubrey, of National Public Radio,
has our report.
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This story is part The News Hour's
ongoing collaboration with NPR.
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(sprinklers spraying)
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♪ Latino music ♪
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(Allison Aubrey) In Salinas Valley,
California, it's a symphony of sound
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as the growing season gets underway.
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This fertile strip produces
70% of our leafy greens.
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It's been dubbed
"The Salad Bowl of America."
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But not everything grown here
makes it to our plates.
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In fact, some of it never leaves Salinas.
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At the local solid-waste dump,
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Operations Manager Cesar Zuniga
watches as trucks roll in, every day,
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to dump produce
destined for a nearby landfill.
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We got a whole load,
pretty much, of loose organic lettuce.
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We've got spinach towards the back.
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It looks like it's perfectly fine,
nothing wrong with it.
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We've got some kale here.
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We've got broccoli in the back, as well.
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We have plenty of produce
to make a salad here.
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(Allison) The greens in this landfill
are from local farms,
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and sometimes they end up here
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because something goes wrong
during the packaging process.
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Another reason
perfectly good food gets wasted?
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Peter Lehner, from the Natural Resources
Defense Council explains.
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Right now, food that isn't sold
to your best buyer
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is often dumped in the landfill.
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The prices for fresh fruits
and vegetables
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can go up and down quite a bit,
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and farmers may plant thinking
they'll get one price,
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but by the time harvest comes around
there's another price,
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and it's not even worth it for them
to get to the market.
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(Allison) A report by the Natural
Resources Defense Council says
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that as much as 40% of all the food
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produced in the United States
never gets eaten.
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The idea that almost half
of our food is wasted is crazy.
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(Allison) That waste occurs
at every point along the food chain.
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Some is lost in transport
and during food processing.
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Supermarkets and we the consumers
end up tossing out a lot too.
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But what about what's lost on the farm?
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An NRDC report found that anywhere
from 1% to 30% of farmers' crops
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don't make it to market.
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We toured Ocean Mist Farms
with Art Barrientos to find out why.
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This cauliflower here, you see
how it has that yellow tinge to it?
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- Mmhm.
- This is not marketable.
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- Just because the color is a bit off?
- Because it's yellow.
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This will not be packed.
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It's got to be every bit as nutritious
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as the white cauliflower
down here in the field.
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What's wrong with it?
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There isn't anything wrong with it.
Let me cut a...
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- Grab that floret.
- Okay, yes.
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It's crunchy. It's tasty.
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Tastes like any cauliflower I've ever had.
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So are we just shopping with our eyeballs,
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and forgetting all about our tastebuds?
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Absolutely. As consumers,
we want white cauliflower.
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That's what we expect from our grocer.
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As a result, it gets incorporated
back into the ground.
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We won't harvest it.
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So what's another issue
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that might ding something
out of the marketplace?
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(Art) Size. Size is critical.
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This cauliflower here is just too big.
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(Allison) So you have to meet
these very specific size stipulations?
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Yes, and this is too big.
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(Allison) It's really
kind of shocking to me.
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Well... yes, it can be.
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(Allison) Size matters
because retailers demand uniformity.
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When everything is stacked up nicely,
it makes for better eye candy,
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like this perfect leaf-sized cauliflower
that is being wrapped up,
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destined for the produce isle.
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The yellow rejects,
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and heads deemed too big or too small,
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are left behind in the field
to be plowed under.
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And if you think broccoli and cauliflower
have a tough time making the grade,
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check out these peaches!
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(Chris Holland) If you look at this peach,
the fruit all the way around.
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There's no blemishes to it.
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It's got red color
with a yellow blush background.
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That's going to go to our premium box,
the high-end retail.
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And this one here has got green on it,
so this would definitely go in a #2.
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We wouldn't put this in a premium box.
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(video scrubbing sound)
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(Allison) Wait. Back that up!
Premium grade? Seconds?
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Wouldn't you buy those seconds?
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And the ones that don't even rate
as a #1 or #2?
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Dumped into this truck.
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(Chris) This truck here is our final
throwing out, going to the cattle feed.
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(truck passing)
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So think of everything it takes
to grow these crops;
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the water, the fertilizer,
the fuel to run the tractor.
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But ultimately if these crops
don't measure up to standards,
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they're just plowed under
here in the field,
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and all that energy is wasted.
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80% percent of our water,
10% of our energy,
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40% of our land is used to grow our food.
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(Allison) And when
it ends up in a landfill, Lehner says,
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there's another problem.
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(Peter) Now, food is
the largest material in our landfills.
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Of all the things that are in our dumps,
the biggest portion is food.
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And when it rots in a landfill,
it emits methane,
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which is a very potent greenhouse gas,
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30 or 100 times more potent
than carbon dioxide.
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(Allison) But there are some solutions
on the horizon.
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Ocean Mist and HMC Farms donate
some of their less-than-perfect produce
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to the California food banks.
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Last year, Ocean Mist sent nearly
400,000 lbs. of broccoli and cauliflower,
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and some of it ends up here,
at this warehouse in San Francisco.
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It can store seven
square miles of produce.
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Paul Ash oversees the operation.
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He says in the last decade,
the California Association of Food Banks
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has doubled the amount
of produce it distributes.
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(Paul Ash) This year, we hope to grow
the California Farm-to-Family Program
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by over 70 million pounds.
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And part of that will mean more produce
for California food banks.
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But we hope part of it also means
that we're going to be able
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to push this eastward,
to other food banks.
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(Allison) The Food Bank's
Farm-to-Family Program
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has tried to recruit more growers
who pack in the field
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to do what Ocean Mist does.
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They separate out the seconds,
and pack it in these black crates
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headed for the food bank.
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The premium heads get packed
in the Ocean Mist boxes,
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headed for retailers.
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It's a simple process,
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but only 3 out of 25
broccoli and cauliflower growers
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in the state participate.
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Harold McClarty, of HMC Farms
says he'd like to donate
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more of his peaches
to the food banks, but...
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Getting it into the hands
of somebody to eat it isn't free.
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There's got to be an economic incentive
to move more of this
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into an avenue that food banks
could take advantage of.
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It's a lot easier and cheaper
just to basically throw it away.
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(Allison) The State of California
does offer farmers tax credits
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to donate produce,
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but Ash says the food banks
are lobbying for bigger deductions.
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There are only six other states
besides California
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that give tax breaks to growers
for donating food.
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Fifty million Americans don't know
where their next meal is coming from.
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We, meanwhile, are wasting all this food.
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If we cut our food waste even by a third,
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there would be enough food
for all those people who don't know
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where their next meal is coming from,
to be fully fed.
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(Allison) As food banks work
to expand their programs,
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some entrepreneurs say there are
so many seconds to go around,
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they see a whole new business model,
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much like what
a French supermarket did last year.
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(commercial) So we launch
"les fruits & légumes moches,"
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starring the grotesque apple,
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the ridiculous potato,
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(Allison) And it worked.
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(commercial) Our new kind of fruits
and vegetables were an immediate success.
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We faced only one problem--
being sold out.
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(Allison) Here in the U.S., entrepreneur
Ben Simon and two partners
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are betting they can turn Americans
onto less-than-perfect produce.
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We're working hard right now
to launch a new venture
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called "Imperfect."
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You get a box of seasonal, ugly produce
delivered to your door every week.
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And because this produce looks
a little funky on the outside,
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you get it for 30-50% less
than what it costs--
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(Allison) Imperfect plans to start
delivery in the San Francisco area
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sometime this summer,
and they've just signed a deal
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with a high-end grocery chain
called Raley's,
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which has more than 100 stores
in California and Nevada.
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Here's Raley's Megan Burritt.
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(Megan) When they're
picking up that apple,
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we need to somehow tell them that story,
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whether it's, "These are
the underdog apples!
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Who doesn't love an underdog story?!"
Or something like that.
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(Allison) Will Americans
embrace these misfits
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as easily as the Europeans have?
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Raley's is betting they will.
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(truckers talking)
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And, back in Salinas, Cesar Zuniga
is anticipating traffic will pick up
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as the growing season hits full swing.
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For the PBS Newshour,
I'm Allison Aubrey of NPR News,
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in Salinas Valley.