Those were tart cherries, I think that was legit. Nature just overproduced, I heard they wanted to keep the prices high so they wouldn’t collapse. This depressed income a little.
But this Central Valley stuff, shutting down the entire valley and letting farm after farm just die. Trees that were 30 years old, dieing, this is just insaneville.
The same thing happened in the Klamath River Basin, Oregon, about 10 years ago.
The purpose is to drive people from rural areas to the cities, the easier to control them.