Farm Over-production of Intoxicating Substances

[David777]

Over the last couple decades, the California economy has produced a lot of wealthy people, especially from high tech and real estate. Fair numbers of those people, chasing wealth culture, bought rural lands in order to produce wine grapes to then live that upper class life. Along with massive urban infrastructure and home building development, that has removed significant areas of former natural lands in the state. I am fine with both those being stunted and instead having to face a sustainable future without overall growth. And of course, it is better change for society if people are generally less intoxicated that so many have poor self control over.

Well, now there is apparently too much wine production for the size of a dwindling market. Many people for health reasons are reducing alcohol consumption, especially younger generations. Also, some consumers given legalization, are switching from alcohol to cannabis that is hardly better for those may with addictive personalities.

(California) Wine vineyards are ripping out their fields because there isn't enough demand

Wine vineyards are ripping out their fields because there isn't enough demand

News stories are coming out from very wine touristy Napa County suggest they change into growing cannabis. But that market is in the same situation with so much overproduction now that much is being funneled into illegal markets. Oregon has had the same issue for years now that dramatically reduced costs, putting many smaller and larger farmers out of business. Simply way too easy to produce within huge farms, so likely will collapse too as soon as regulatory fees and taxes lower.

California, Oregon, and Oklahoma are illegally exporting much of those crops out of state. New York given legalization is now a huge destination. This week news has been coming out of Great Britain on significant amounts being smuggled in on airlines. And of course, beer sales are at their lowest levels in a generation. On the other hand, science is increasingly creating all manner of synthetic recreational drugs, that will plague our world.

 

[David777]

America is drinking less than ever — and the same is true for baseball players

Conversations with more than 30 major-league players, coaches and front-office personnel point toward a definitive trend: Ballplayers are drinking less than ever before.

“It's become a European style of drinking, where it's like, ‘I'm gonna have something to enjoy it,’” one multi-time All-Star told Yahoo Sports. “It's not to get drunk, go out, f***ing raise hell because, like, you can't do that. You hear the stories, but you can't do that. You just can't.”

Nearly all the figures interviewed for this story pointed to a combination of factors behind the downtick in boozing. Some emphasized the omnipresence of social media and the unease of being intoxicated in public as a public figure. Others focused on the increasing legality and availability of marijuana, preferred by many as an alternative to drinking. One throughline for everybody was the heightened level of competition in the big leagues compared to in prior eras. Pitchers have never thrown harder, hitters have never swung faster; sacrificing any edge for a hard night out is simply not worth the trade-off.

Whatever the reason, baseball’s teetotalling turn mirrors a larger societal trend.

Last month, a Gallup poll revealed that a record-low 54% of American adults said they consume alcohol. That decline has been propelled, in large part, by young adults and Gen-Zers. A 2023 study from the University of Michigan found that “Binge drinking in the past two weeks was reported by 27.2% of young adults [ages 19-30], which is the lowest level the study has ever recorded. Daily use of alcohol also reached a new all-time study low in 2023, reported by 3.6% of young adults...