Posted on 05/06/2020 7:08:20 PM PDT by MtnClimber
A renewed push to pass the PRIME Act picks up steam as COVID-19 leaves us all asking “Where’s the beef?”
The increasing possibility of a breakdown in the meat supply chain in the United States due to COVID-19 is prompting Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) to renew his push for a bill that would make it easier for small, independent slaughterhouses and meat processors to sell directly to consumers.
Large meatpacking plants across the country have shut down due to fears of COVID-19 outbreaks among workers, and less and less meat is making it to grocers and restaurants. Wendy's has run out of beef for hundreds of its restaurants (leading to many Twitter jokes about its most famous commercial).
Reason's Brian Doherty has documented how the broad shutdown of commerce is harming the world's food supply, and it's likely going to get worse. Reason food policy writer Baylen Linnekin noted on Saturday that the federal government already does not have a great track record in regulating the food industry in a way that makes it easy to stay in business. We shouldn't assume the government is going to do a good job at helping businesses reopen.
But what Massie has been proposing is legislation that reduces some of this massive red tape to make like easier for smaller slaughterhouses and meat processors to work within their own states, thereby increasing the number of businesses able to provide us with our hamburgers, bacon, and pork chops.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Wendeys buns are going to run into trouble, too. Yeast is in short supply. Some places can’t find flour. I make my own bread and am down to a teaspoon of yeast. None of the stores have any.
I do not believe the regulations allow this for restaurants.
That’s the whole point, some of these regulations need to be waived for the time being.
That said, diverting 4,000 pigs from the Hormel plant to the local mom and pop butcher tomorrow at 6 a.m. is easier said than done.
I see great irony in the government's willingness to shut down Churches. "But the Constitution!" people say. "Freedom of Religion! The Bill of Rights!"
And governors say, "Yeah, but there's this virus. So we have to ignore the law of the land. Just for a little while."
But meat processing? Oh, hey, we have regulations for that. I mean, we can't just waive them! That would be crazy!
Some of the bigger, Henry Ford assembly line style processors can run 50-60,000 pigs through a day. How many small processors would that take? Keep in mind that most small processors already have enough work to keep them in business. Plenty of small processors where I live now but I used to live in the suburbs. No processors and a lot more people per sq mile.
Pretty much works the same with all businesses. Bigger eventually overtakes the small ones. Walmart is literally the only "department" store for most rural people. No more Woolworths, K-Mart, Sears etc. Same with auto parts stores. Half a dozen large chains now. There's efficiency and buying power in large operations.
Chicken operations. They call them vertically integrated. Tyson owns the birds, the feed, the processing plants and makes the rules. The "producers" own the building, the land it's on, the manure and any birds that die before Tyson comes to pick them up. It's all very efficient. I've raised a batch of meat birds before. Cost $5-6.00 between buying the day old chicks and the feed. If I were to add my labor, they would be $15.00 whole chickens. If I were able to find a small processor to do the chickens, they would be $30 whole chickens or $40 cut up and packaged as pieces.
I actually know of a person in the Colorado Rockies that raises Pastured Poultry. He sells his self processed birds for $30 each and people buy them.
That is exactly what I see as the problem. If Tyson or Smithfield has to shut down, the local grocery stores don’t seem to be able to buy meat locally.
“Okay, I’ll tell you. You want me to be the Economic Dictator?”
“Yes!”
“And you’ll obey any order I give?”
“Implicitly!”
“Then start by abolishing all income taxes.”
“Oh, no!” screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. “We couldn’t do that! That’s . . . that’s not the field of production. That’s the field of distribution. How would we pay government employees?”
“Fire your government employees.”
“Oh, no! That’s politics! That’s not economics! You can’t interfere with politics! You can’t have everything!”
-- Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged
One thing we could do is stop the Chicoms from buying our meat companies.
Have you checked any small processors for the next date available? The ones I know are booked weeks ahead.
There are more than 20 million pigs on farms just in Iowa.
I like Massie but we have 94 small meat processors in GA now. How many more do we need?
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