Every single produce industry destroys a portion of their crop every year to keep market price high. People are only going to buy so much broccoli, so they mine as well sell it for as much as they can. My hometown dumped 25 tons of crop last summer.
But they didn't receive government subsidies for what they didn't produce, right?
It is basic Economics, there was a stable/efficient market for the production and consumption of Broccoli...
At some point line A (aggregate value of crop) intersected line B (maximum value of crop) -which would be a horizontal line or ceiling.
At least they were burning Broccoli and not books.