Fake news:
“Michigan Farmers Forced to Destroy Edible Cherries to Prop Up Imports?”

True: Michigan cherry farmer Marc Santucci destroyed 14 percent of his 2016 crop due to cherry industry limits on the supply of marketable cherries.

False: Cherry farmers requested they be covered by a USDA marketing order (it was not imposed on them), the order was implemented to stabilize the volatile cherry market (not to "protect imports"), and farmers are not required to destroy surplus cherries.


Ver$u$ everyday reality of farming:
“Johnston said that in the past, he's had to sell as many as 75,000 40-pound boxes of navel oranges to juice makers, getting about 50 cents a box, because quotas prevented him from selling them as fresh fruit, for which he gets about $8 a box.”
[17 May 1994 LA Times article on demise of Sunkist's Depression era quota system.]

Note: Insult to injury, poor farmer Santucci had to pick up all the cherries after the reporters left or face an illegal dumping citation to boot. Farmer Johnston got paid and we got juiced. Happy HAZOPing!