People are stealing a lot of apples this season
Farmers around Ontario have implemented no-bag policies to discourage the worsening theft problem at orchards
If there’s one thing this divided province can agree on, it’s how enjoyable it is to descend on farmland in the fall and hand-pick a reasonable number of apples to take home.
Unfortunately, some wildly poor-mannered visitors are spoiling it for everyone else by stealing large volumes from local farmers. Paul Gray, who operates a pick-your-own farm in Caledon, says he hasn’t seen theft this bad in 20 years of running his business. People are stuffing apples they haven’t paid for in their pockets and bags, he said in an interview with CBC. At a small family-run farm, it takes a toll.
The issue seems to have gotten worse than ever this season and is widespread, according to several farmers who spoke to media recently. In September, a farm near Waterloo banned strollers, wagons and backpacks after having 500 pounds of apples stolen.
At Gray’s farm, staff are allowed to conduct random searches, but customers get angry when they’re caught stealing, which causes stress for employees.
“People are packing reusable bags into their pocket and then they’re going out into the orchard and filling those bags and thinking that they can just take them home, walk away and not pay for them,” Jessica Farmer, who owns Maple Grove Orchards in Bowmanville, told CityNews. “We’ve seen people fill strollers and wagons and then cover them.”
At another Caledon Farm, apple grower Melissa Downey told Global News, “We find people eating unlimited apples out in the field even when we ask them not to. They’re filling strollers, overfilling bags, they’re in their pockets, everywhere.”
Times are undoubtedly tough—the provincial unemployment rate is 7.9 per cent, and grocery prices continue to climb. But stealing from farmers is indefensible, people. You have two weeks to get it together and pick some apples with integrity.
Related: These Toronto chefs are redefining farm-to-table cooking
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
