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Global Food Supply Chains Beginning To Erode, Crisis Looms?
The Gold Telegram ^ | 4-16-2020 | Tom Lewis

Posted on 04/16/2020 8:46:33 AM PDT by blam

As the coronavirus continues to infect more and more people, food supply chains have started to become more strained in recent days. It was announced yesterday; the world’s biggest pork producer is closing a primary U.S plant indefinitely after a coronavirus outbreak amongst employees.

Smithfield Foods Inc. will halt its pork-processing facility in South Dakota, which accounts for 4% to 5% of U.S pork production. The company also warned that closures across the country are taking American meat supplies “perilously close to the edge” of shortfalls. This is just one of the latest examples of the coronavirus beginning to disrupt food chains at a more significant scale rapidly.

We anticipated this, as we reported on April 1 that food supply chains were in the early stages of being strained. Many countries were preparing many weeks ago by cutting back on exports to begin stockpiling. Surprisingly, dairy farmers in the United States are starting to dump milk because there was no place for them to go as the marketplace for dairy products has been affected by the closures of restaurants, schools, hotels, and food service businesses.

One would begin to believe history might not be repeating itself, but it is undoubtedly starting to rhyme. During the great depression of the 1930s, the hardest-hit industry was farming. Farm incomes dropped by nearly two-thirds at the beginning of the 1930s. Dairy farmers dumped countless gallons of milk into the street instead of accepting a penny a quart.

During World War 1, farmers had produced record crops and livestock to keep everyone fed. However, when prices started to fell, they tried to harvest even more to pay their debts and living expenses. In the early 30s, prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms.

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at goldtelegraph.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cookingcovidrates; covidphobia; crisis; food; grandsolarminimum; hysteriavirus; illeagals; ithoughtfake; justthecold; prepper; preppers; shortages; shtf; supply; supplychain; why
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To: cherry

I am tempted to roll up to Restaurant Depot and see if they’re holding to their members-only, must have a tax ID policy.


21 posted on 04/16/2020 9:08:55 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: polymuser

God bless our farmers.

No farms, no food is always true even if NYC types don’t know it.


22 posted on 04/16/2020 9:10:16 AM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

IMHO this is ChiCom disinfo.

Scare as many workers away from their jobs as possible to collapse supply chains.

Trump needs to get a lot more aggressive in combating it.

....

Agree!

This reopening of our economy needs to begin happening now!


23 posted on 04/16/2020 9:10:32 AM PDT by Artcore (Trump 2020!)
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To: blam
Thank God for President Trump!

24 posted on 04/16/2020 9:10:55 AM PDT by Savage Beast (A President praying for GodÂ’s guidance, donating his salary to charity is on the Side of the Angels)
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To: blam

So, is Smithfield out of biz forever ? Of course not. 2 weeks and they’ll be back.

Meanwhile, they’re dumping milk in Arizona....demand is way off.

These are self-induced disruptions.


25 posted on 04/16/2020 9:11:18 AM PDT by chiller (Davey Crockett said: "Be sure you're right. Then go ahead'. I'm going ahead.)
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To: blam

Next Leftist scare tactic...”We’re all going to starve!!!”


26 posted on 04/16/2020 9:11:59 AM PDT by Don Corleone (The truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth)
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To: cherry

I have always done that, its called a pantry


27 posted on 04/16/2020 9:13:22 AM PDT by Trump.Deplorable
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To: blam

Whole chicken is pretty cheep cheep now. Doesn’t take as much labor.


28 posted on 04/16/2020 9:16:18 AM PDT by Cold Heart (.)
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To: blam

#WeAreAllVegansNow


29 posted on 04/16/2020 9:18:50 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Wu Flu! (when I feel heavy metal) Wu Flu! (when I'm pins and I'm needles) Wu Flu!)
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To: cherry

[[I watch prices closely and I see a lot of inflation already...]]

Check out amazon food prices for a shock- gouging folks- $20 for a 24 pack of soda that you can get at walmart for $8, thins like poptarts 10-15 dollars more on some flavors, etc-


30 posted on 04/16/2020 9:23:10 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: cherry

“I think a word to the wise....stock up if you can...if not for you, then do it for your children and grandchildren....
it won’t hurt a thing if you have extra pasta or rice sealed away, or salt/sugar etc....it will get used....”

This is the whole reason we are in the position we are in. If you are going to build up a stock, the time was before this happens. If you are doing it now you are perpetuating the same problem you are trying to avoid.


31 posted on 04/16/2020 9:23:15 AM PDT by dgbrown
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To: Trump.Deplorable
More fear from the fake news media

Yep! Two to three weeks ago, meat was bit of a hit or miss in stores like Publix and Kroger here in TN. But having just made a grocery run yesterday, the meat shelves were fairly well stocked. Some of the canned good and frozen food shelves were pretty empty though. They were multiple pallets of items in aisleways for stocking though.

32 posted on 04/16/2020 9:25:44 AM PDT by voicereason (The RNC is like the "one-night stand" you wish you could forget.)
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To: blam

Smithfield was sold to the Chinese. The story was mainstream about 3-4 days ago. I listen to Rush on KELO out of Sioux Falls S.D. because the news in between show segments has less hate for Americans in it. They had been reporting that they had over 80 employees who had the Ornamental Flu. Regulators seemed to be “all up in their business” and of course the unions wanted a piece of the action too.

I figured they sold out because of the pressure and the need for cash. What could be bad if China owns our food? They couldn’t just send it home and leave us without? Would they?


33 posted on 04/16/2020 9:28:20 AM PDT by Glad2bnuts (“If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.” Francis Schaeffer)
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To: blam

If you want milk go to Publix... I’ve never seen them out of dairy stuff.


34 posted on 04/16/2020 9:30:15 AM PDT by GOPJ (HOW TO: Virus-Free Food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKx-F4AKteE)
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To: blam
world’s biggest pork producer is closing a primary U.S plant

nuff said ..

Bought by China’s WH Group Ltd (0288.HK) six years ago for $4.7 billion, Smithfield Foods has retooled U.S. processing operations to direct meat to China,

35 posted on 04/16/2020 9:32:04 AM PDT by redcatcherb412
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To: cherry

it won’t hurt a thing if you have extra pasta

************

Lucky if you can find any sauce for the pasta. There’s a run on it. Same with popular brand soups.


36 posted on 04/16/2020 9:34:57 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: GOPJ

Concur.


37 posted on 04/16/2020 9:35:37 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: blam

There will be no urgency among democrats until government employee paychecks stop.


38 posted on 04/16/2020 9:35:50 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves)
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To: blam

People living in commie hellholes often starve to death... in free cultures people are part of a team. We’ll have rough times in the future but it’ll never be ‘hellhole chinese/northkorea commie type starvation’ crap...

Starvation follows commie cultures like stink on a turd. We can do better.


39 posted on 04/16/2020 9:37:52 AM PDT by GOPJ (HOW TO: Virus-Free Food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKx-F4AKteE)
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To: entropy12

Food shortage in USA? Might help cure the situation of most obese population in the world.

************

Its amuzing to look at what’s in the shopping carts of obese people.


40 posted on 04/16/2020 9:38:42 AM PDT by Starboard
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