The family feud threatening the future of an eastern New England supermarket chain is hurting farmers in western Massachusetts.
Frank Ciesluk has 100 acres of sweet corn ready to be picked at his farm in Deerfield, but nowhere to sell it because of the chaos that has all but shut down the 71-store Market Basket chain.
" I never expected this. You expect floods and downed corn from wind storms, but nothing like loosing your whole market."
Ciesluk said he knows other farmers who are in the same boat. The Pioneer Valley Growers Association declined to comment. Market Basket stores have been left without fresh food, and shoppers, for two weeks because of wildcat strikes by workers who’ve chosen sides in a long-running dispute between two cousins over which of them will control the family business.
