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.
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(Excerpt) Read more at goldtelegraph.com ...
i dont know about everywhere else but here in alabama the price of beef has gotten insane
stories like this are complete garbage and simply designed to pour more gasoline on people’s fears ...
plenty of food in Colorado grocery stores ... but what’s NOT as plentiful is the stuff normally found in the “wholesale” stores like Costco, Sam’s Warehouse and BJ’s because much of their stock is manufacture’s overruns, and when the regular grocery stores are selling all they can get their hands on because suddenly all the people who used to eat out at restaurants all the time are having to shop and cook for themselves, those manufacture’s overruns are no longer available to the “wholesalers” as it all goes to their first-tier grocery chain customers ...
btw, an interesting factoid was mentioned yesterday on The Daily Trump Show that food distributed to restaurants is bulk packaged, and it’s taking a bit of time for the food from those distribution channels to switch to channels that can package that food for retail sales ...
i know about that from personal experience as sometimes i buy meat from restaurant wholesalers and it does NOT come in neat, shrink-wrapped packaging, so it’s up to me to package it in smaller quantities for my freezer ... and btw, it’s not necessarily cheaper to buy food that way, but it’s often better quality and fresher ...
“That excuse Purdue gave if true is likely based on more regulatory B.S.”
no, it’s because institutional packaging is done in enormous quantities, and is often lacking all together, with stuff sold in large crates and meat in very large refrigerated boxes ... i know for a personal fact because i’ve bought food myself from restaurant wholesalers ...
actually, most (but not all) 3rd party food sellers on amazon have always price-gouged ...
That would be Chinese pork processor Smithfield Foods
“If you are doing it now you are perpetuating the same problem you are trying to avoid.”
100% true ... which is one reason we’re not adding to the problem, buying only what we need and can use ...
I went Tues. TP and paper towels stacked everywhere (limit one per) but no pork. Plenty of beef.
Vacuum food sealers are your friend, for items in the freezer.
Saran and ziplocs invite freezer burn, fast.
I’ll take your word on that. I have seen other institutional packaging that simply does not meet all the FDA consumer regs.
Does any of that 4% to 5% get exported I wonder.
Really? Our freezer is OLD...and was thinking about replacing it to be on the safe side. If it ain’t broke, I don’t need to fix it, I guess. But, I AM going to look for a freezer alarm. Too much food wrapped up in it now.
The CEO of Perdue was on with Trump’s briefing yesterday talking about that ... moving orders from restaurants to grocery stores. It’ll happen.
Capitalists make their money by providing a service or product that someone wants and/or needs. Our guys will find a way.
If we lived in a commie hellhole like China or North Korea the ‘elites’ would find a way to feed themselves and let their people starve to death. Which has happened in China and North Korea... effing pigs.
United States hot spots
* Smithfield Foods meatpacking plant; Sioux Falls, S.D. 644
* Aboard the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt; Guam, 585
* Cook County Jail; Chicago, 524
* Parnall Correctional Facility; Jackson, Mich., 212
* Soldiers' Home in Holyoke; Holyoke, Mass., 194
Source: The New York Times
well, husband got an elk last fall and we usually get a whole hog so our freezers are full...
Yep, I’m going to get one of those too. We’ve kept a small amount of food in the freezer. Nothing to cry about losing. Now that we’ve gotten series about it...time to go high tech.
The origins of hurricane parties are the result of electrical outtages. People cook everything in their freezers before it goes bad and invites all their family & friends.
Seems they are banking on food shortages and don't want the proles providing for themselves, but grovel to their statehouses begging for food the good old commie way.
Odd how the Washington Post and New York Times missed this rather large detail... /s
chinese 'elites' eat US Pork - Chinese citizens eat dogs, cats, roadkill, stuff found under rocks...
Where ever the Chinese 'elites' go the hellhole follows.
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