[Locke]

It has nothing to do with being 'bad at business.'

I'm always surprised at how people just fall back on that lazy excuse and feel that every industry should fall under the same rules.

This grower has to compete against produce shipped in from Mexico and California, places with dramatically lower labour costs, in exchange however they have shipping costs.

But the key is 'compete.'

The Government is raising his labour costs significantly as well as raising his heating costs, probably his business' two major cost-centres.

So what can he do? What is in his control? Hes being drowned in legislation, all he can do is try and market his produce as 'superior quality' and raise his prices. He, someone who has been in the industry 23 years, knows that this isnt going to work because cost vs quality decisions in terms of produce are not going to work out in his favour. He simply will not be able to compete anymore due to circumstances outside of his sphere of influence.

And that is the Government's fault.

He states that he paid $900K in wages last year and that the new legislation would bump his labour costs to $1.2M.

Thats $300K. Not including his estimates that his heating costs are going to double.

Considering the profit margins on produce I dont doubt his estimate that hes lost all profitability due to cost circumstances that are completely beyond his control and price circumstances that are beyond his control.

But yeah, because the Government raised his costs and he cant force people at gunpoint to overpay for tomatoes hes a crap businessman. Thats it.