Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-112 next last
To: Glad2bnuts
Smithfield was sold to the Chinese.

Interesting. I did not know that. A visitor from the Home Office perhaps?


41 posted on 04/16/2020 9:39:15 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Starboard

i dont know about everywhere else but here in alabama the price of beef has gotten insane


42 posted on 04/16/2020 9:42:06 AM PDT by jneesy (I want my country back and Trump is gonna give it to me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: blam

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 ...


43 posted on 04/16/2020 9:44:13 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

“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 ...


44 posted on 04/16/2020 9:50:06 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Bob434

actually, most (but not all) 3rd party food sellers on amazon have always price-gouged ...


45 posted on 04/16/2020 9:53:03 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: blam
I>Smithfield Foods Inc. will halt its pork-processing facility in South Dakota,

That would be Chinese pork processor Smithfield Foods

46 posted on 04/16/2020 9:53:25 AM PDT by Vinnie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dgbrown

“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 ...


47 posted on 04/16/2020 9:54:12 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: WildHighlander57; Buckeye McFrog; polymuser

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3835737/posts#43


48 posted on 04/16/2020 9:55:09 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: blam

I went Tues. TP and paper towels stacked everywhere (limit one per) but no pork. Plenty of beef.


49 posted on 04/16/2020 9:55:13 AM PDT by Vinnie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: moovova

Vacuum food sealers are your friend, for items in the freezer.

Saran and ziplocs invite freezer burn, fast.


50 posted on 04/16/2020 9:55:57 AM PDT by Jane Long (Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: catnipman

I’ll take your word on that. I have seen other institutional packaging that simply does not meet all the FDA consumer regs.


51 posted on 04/16/2020 9:57:22 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: blam
4% to 5% of U.S pork production

Does any of that 4% to 5% get exported I wonder.

52 posted on 04/16/2020 9:59:15 AM PDT by Fury
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

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.


53 posted on 04/16/2020 10:00:17 AM PDT by moovova
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: WildHighlander57

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.


54 posted on 04/16/2020 10:01:46 AM PDT by GOPJ (HOW TO: Virus-Free Food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKx-F4AKteE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: blam
Smithfield Foods In South Dakota Is Now Largest Coronavirus Hot Spot In US

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

55 posted on 04/16/2020 10:02:03 AM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: moovova

well, husband got an elk last fall and we usually get a whole hog so our freezers are full...


56 posted on 04/16/2020 10:02:08 AM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Jane Long

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.


57 posted on 04/16/2020 10:03:05 AM PDT by moovova
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: moovova
"But, I AM going to look for a freezer alarm. Too much food wrapped up in it now.'

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.

58 posted on 04/16/2020 10:11:45 AM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: blam
Really makes you wonder then why some commie states like Bernie the Nuts, is banning the sale of fruit and vegetable seeds in their retail stores as non-essential products?

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.

59 posted on 04/16/2020 10:20:03 AM PDT by redcatcherb412
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redcatcherb412; Travis McGee; Liz
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,

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.

60 posted on 04/16/2020 10:32:31 AM PDT by GOPJ (HOW TO: Virus-Free Food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKx-F4AKteE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-112 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson