This Thanksgiving Staple Is Heading for a Compost Heap
- Cranberry sales peak this week with 20% of all purchases
- Glut prompts growers to ask USDA for fruit-disposal program
A containment boom surrounds floating cranberries in a flooded bog during harvest in Camp Douglas, Wisconsin.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Cranberries might be a staple on Thanksgiving tables, but a glut of U.S. supplies has gotten so large that fruit could be headed to the compost pile.
Just as demand is hitting its seasonal peak, American processors are anxiously awaiting government approval that would allow them to turn excess fruit into fertilizer. The program would be the first of its kind for cranberries.