Boneless chicken is first to go scarce as coronavirus hits U.S. meat supply

fortune.com ^ | 4/28/20 | Jen Skerritt and Shelly Hagan

[a little elbow grease]

Goodbye, boneless chicken.

Food retailers across North America are swapping boneless chicken legs for less popular thighs and drumsticks as a wave of shutdowns at meatpacking plants has reduced supplies of sought-after cuts.

Covid-19 infections among workers at some of the largest meat processing plants in the U.S. and Canada have reduced slaughter capacity, and in some cases the types of cuts available. Outbreaks have shut down almost a third of U.S. pork capacity and the growing wave of disruptions has spurred plans by President Donald Trump to order meat-processing plants to remain open. In Canada, Cargill Inc. has idled its beef plant in High River, Alberta, which accounts for about 40% of Canada’s processing capacity while JBS SA’s beef plant in Brooks, Alberta, is running at about half capacity.

Quebec-based Goodfood Market Corp., which delivers meals on a subscription basis, said it will be substituting its regular boneless chicken for bone-in thighs, legs and drumsticks as the poultry industry shifts away from de-boning to ramp up production.

“Poultry suppliers are still facing labor shortages and many of them are operating with less than 50% of their regular workforce,” Goodfood Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Ferrari wrote in an email to customers. “To ensure the essential supply of chicken for Canadians across the country, the poultry industry as a whole is shifting away from de-boning chicken legs to increase their production capacity.”

[Trump.Deplorable]

You are missing some key facts

Remember these numbers are under mitigation, which means if we did nothing, our numbers will be even higher and we would have had a peak which would have collapsed our health care system and our economy.

President Trump took the right decisive actions at the right times to keep this under control as best as we can. This is a bad situation, I think letting it rip would have been an even bigger disaster, both for our health care system/workers and for our economy. You have to be realistic here and realize that doing nothing would have been far worse for our country both in lives/deaths and economic. Also need to realize that we didn’t know everything we know about this in Feb/March as we know today. A lot info out of China was just wrong. The WHO was compromised and Thank God Trump didn’t listen to any of them especially when he put in the travel ban from China.

Every major country with some sort of economy and travel got hit with this thing, it wasn’t just us and I believe we had the best response to it. We need to thank our President for making the tough decisions when he did.

[firebrand]

Here’s a scary thought:

What CDC, NIH, FEMA, et al. only knew as much as some of the people posting on this site?

Could do a great horror movie about that. Maybe somehow they all get sick from lab accidents and rank amateurs are allowed to take over. . . .

[afchief]

This article is BS!!! As one who is in the Poultry industry, it makes no difference to debone or not to debone.

STUPID Article and NO logic behind it.

[FreedomNotSafety]

“Remember these numbers are under mitigation, which means if we did nothing, our numbers will be even higher and we would have had a peak which would have collapsed our health care system and our economy.”

They would not have collapsed our health care systems except may be in a the Democratic hell holes like NYC, Detroit. As it is we collapsed our economy anyway and the toll of doing so may well exceed the virus.

You make a false dichotomy. The choice is not about “do nothing” or “tyrannical shutdowns”. Well known pandemic/epidemic measures could be taken such as isolation and quarantine of the vulnerable and sick.

More of the “we did not know” bs. That is true of almost every scary boogeyman invented by the left. The “unknown” is infinitesimal.

The virus is still there it hasn’t left. It waits for everyone until we achieve mass immunity. The lives saved by slowing the spread is far outweighed by the repression of our liberties.

Our response was among the worst. A free people can be trusted to make their own decisions. Most of the lockdown decisions were arbitrary and capricious and have actually cost lives. The death toll has been amplified by idiotic descison making that was based on “what we do not know”.

[Trump.Deplorable]

So screw everyone else because you got yours?

Sorry, I am not in that mindset

I don’t want to see mass death anywhere, NYC, Detroit, SanFran, LA, Miami, Houston, etc this is nuts even thinking that would have been a viable option. Even a rural hospital could be “shut down” if it was designed for 200 patients get 4000 patients.

Glad you agree with me that the economy was screwed either way, the only way to preserve the economy was to prevent it from landing here in the first place. Some say it was already here in December or early January.

However I will give Trump credit, he did everything as right as he could. All the shutdowns were done by governors or mayors, not President Trump. I and others on here have no problem with states opening back up and lifting whatever bans in place, sooner the better in my opinion. However I will NOT say it was for nothing, I am not saying just because enough people didn’t die that this wasn’t necessary. Actually it proved the opposite in my opinion, this was absolutely necessary. Now lets start opening this country back up

President Trump and his task force did create a guide for slowing the spread and we all followed them and it worked.

This could have been a lot worse if we had the wrong leader in charge, thank God for President Trump.

[FreedomNotSafety]

What is it you think I got? What I do not get is a monthly check from the government. What I get I must work for today and every day hereafter. I do not have the luxury of hunkering down and getting a check. What I got was a huge hit in income.

I did not agree with you on the economy. Your lockdowns and bans managed to squash the economy and not stop the spread or even appreciably slow it. NYC even managed to make the spread worse.

What nonviable option did I say that was nuts?

Why lift the bans now? The virus is still here it is as capable as killing as it ever was. Mass death will still occur in some areas. Lifting them now is an admission that, as presently configured, they did more harm than good. When people start dying again do you want to jump right back into the lockdowns and bans?

Surely you jest? First, you agree with the lockdowns and bans, then you agree with them being lifted immediately, even though most people have yet to be exposed, all so you can not say they were for nothing?

You fell for the hysteria, agreed to the tyranny, and now do not want to admit it was a mistake. You want to think $10 trillion and tyranny was somehow worth it. In other words yo have buyer’s remorse.

[Trump.Deplorable]

I did not create any lock docks, even Trump didn’t do any lock downs, all of that was done on your state level.

Trump’s guidelines worked

I didn’t get a check either, lost over a 100K in income, oh well, shit happens. Glad I am debt free.

I lost a 50K deal in one afternoon, cancelled because of this bullshit, but oh well, I will make another one once things start to open up again. The economy will come back and we have the president to do it.

I will make that 100K back and then some. I am not afraid. Not afraid of this virus, but I do understand why things were done the way they were and what the president’s goals were. Its time to start opening up the country, Trump sees that and so do most on here.

Either way our economy was doomed, if you think an economy can keep “record breaking” numbers with millions of sick people with a virus we don’t fully understand so fear starts to play out, heck even riots could break out in the urban areas. Trump played this very well, it could have been worse, a lot worse.

I did not die, you did not die, a lot of people didn’t die, so I call that a success by any standard. NYC didn’t stop the spread because they never shut down the subway system. It is still running with packed trains full of sick people to this very minute. NYC is a mess because of the lack of leadership from Cuomo and DeBlasio, but nobody will call them out on it.

[Joe 6-pack]

"The only realistic and achievable goal is and always was to keep the growth in hospitalizations below system capacity so we would not crash the system...It’s Mission Accomplished on that point. Trump is going to end his Presidency if he lets them move the goalposts to “nobody gets sick or dies” because that’s not achievable."

Agreed. Trump needs to go back to the graphs and projections from early to mid-March, which was the basis for the decisions that were made. He needs to remind people what the whole theory was behind, "flattening the curve," and compare real world numbers with the projected 2.2 million deaths...and put names with those failed models.

[FreedomNotSafety]

“I did not die, you did not die, a lot of people didn’t die, so I call that a success by any standard.” ...yet, the virus is still there and is still as lethal as the flu. DEaths will start again.

We share the losses and then some. I respect your opinion a lot more knowing that.

Agree on NYC and that illustrates my point. We didn’t all need the lockdown treatment. The idiots Blasio and Cuomo are still sending patients back to nursing homes!

In the midwest, except Detroit, hospitals on the verge of closing. Mass clogging of hospitals was never going to happen in the midwest outside Dem hellholes.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Good. Less labor and faster to market. Whole chickens are the best on a Traeger BBQ. Mmmmmm!!!!

[fr_freak]

The only realistic and achievable goal is and always was to keep the growth in hospitalizations below system capacity so we would not crash the system.

It’s Mission Accomplished on that point.

Actually, no it isn't - because while the goal was to keep hospitalizations below capacity, the other half of that strategy is that exposure to the virus among the population continues. In other words, you want exposure to occur, but only at a rate where the 5-10% or so who might require hospitalization would not overwhelm the system.

However, our reaction was so drastic, and still is, that we have nearly the whole country at home, with the wrecked economy to show for it, and literally an entire nation full of EMPTY hospitals. Empty hospitals means that we weren't even close to fulfilling the "exposure" portion of the strategy properly. We haven't been alleviating the patient strain on our healthcare system - we virtually eliminated it, thereby introducing a new strain on our healthcare system- the same as the rest of the country is experiencing, which is severe economic loss.

Our response to this virus situation has been based on nothing but panic and fear, prompted by irresponsible and incorrect modeling made by questionably motivated people. I understand that Trump is forced to wade through shark-infested waters here, but that doesn't change the fact that the response has been pathetic, and, as of yet, THEY ARE NOT CHANGING IT, even as we have newer, more accurate data.

[Trump.Deplorable]

The extent of the lockdowns were not necessary, that I will agree with. However Trump’s plan did work and it saved people and probably saved the economy in the long run. Short term the economy was f’d no matter what the action or non action would have been.

However the lockdowns and the extent are at the feet of governors, (r) governors the lockdowns were not as insane and (d) governors. In NJ our governor made driving through a tulip field illegal, seriously. It was more a power trip then anything useful.

[FreedomNotSafety]

Well the lockdowns are now a sunk cost and not relevant to moving forward. We just need to make sure they don’t happen again.

[Trump.Deplorable]

The lockdowns are state decree, the feds have nothing to do with it and yes, many states went over board with it

You can ride the infected subway but can’t surf by yourself out in the ocean

That doesn’t make any sense

You can go to the grocery store but can’t drive through a tulip farm

That doesn’t make any sense

You can’t buy a gun but can kill a baby

That doesn’t make any sense

The states abused their power, and those that did should pay at the ballot box (but they won’t)

I am sure millions of lawsuits will be filed after this is all over.

[Rebelbase]

Boneless thighs are a thing.

[b4its2late]

Screw off.