And Now a Meat Crisis!

[top_dollar]

Eh, factory farmed meat should be hard to come by IMO.  Talk about a vector for zoonotic disease transmission.  Plus, most big fat Americans could use less cow and pig in their diets and more veggies.  Think of this as god telling you to eat more wild game, garden veggies, locally sourced groceries.  Lucky for me Ive still got lots of venison in the freezer, several rabbits as well, and all the crappies and bluegills I can handle.  

[Guest]

i find this to be another rip off to the consumers.  tysons and george's have both been working, and i would assume all the packing houses were also.  never did hear that any of them were shut down, as eating is an essential.  farmers did not quit raising beef and pork, and the chicken growers did not quit either.

and why we are on the subject, why was there an shortage of eggs.  just some more of your bs ways to gouge.

bo

[rps]

Plenty of meat out there. The wholesale demand from restaurants, hotels and such is way down. The problem is supply chain and panic. Like toilet paper, where there was never a shortage of supply, panic overwhelmed the distribution chain. Several, but not all, packer houses are dealing with employee infections, but will figure out how to operate, especially when they see the higher sales prices available. BTW, many of the farms that sell at farmers markets also sell meats, usually pasture fed rater than feeder lots.

 

[Johnsfolly]

38 minutes ago, merc1997 said:

i find this to be another rip off to the consumers.  tysons and george's have both been working, and i would assume all the packing houses were also.  never did hear that any of them were shut down, as eating is an essential.  farmers did not quit raising beef and pork, and the chicken growers did not quit either.

and why we are on the subject, why was there an shortage of eggs.  just some more of your bs ways to gouge.

bo

Bo the packing industry is considered essential and it appears that most have remained open throughout this time. However, there have been large numbers of people coming down with COVID in that industry.

I am pretty comfortable about the reliability of there being an increase of 260 cases last week here in Maryland that were workers from the poultry processing plants about 60 miles from my house. They have not closed those plants, but may soon.

 

I read from MSNBC (now this could be fake news) that over 1600 new cases in Iowa that were workers from meat packing facilities. Some of those plants may have closed.

 

I have heard that some farmers (again not fully vetted) are killing their animals since they are not able to send them to packing/processing plants and effectively cutting their losses of additional feed and care costs.

[willyfish]

I know they had to kill 2 million chickens because there isn't anyone to process them. I also saw them dumping a lot of milk. It was like pulling the plug on a boat full of water, right down the drain. Its very sad and maddening at the same time.

[MOPanfisher]

I know the local slaughterhouse is going full tilt, booking dates are months in advance.  I remember when there were several people.who did on farm butchering to whatever level you wanted.  Completed packed and stacked in freezer,,or just dead and skinned.  Most of thm were;  kill-skin-break down into quarters.  Folks wanted to save $ by doing final cut, wrap.themselves.  first time we didn't have a grinder, so no burger, but lots of stew meat.  Whatever wasn't in one package was going to be in another.

Right now wouldnt be a good time for me but I bet with a little coaching I could walk my son and daughter through butchering a beef, hog, sheep or chickens.  Toughest part would be having a big cooler, freezer space would.be easy enough.

[Jerry Rapp]

there is a lot of "I know" in this thread.  Are these actual first person observations?  Or a friend of a friend.  Or you read it on the internet?  No one knows what the hell is going on anymore.  Car wreck fatalities being listed as Covid.  Heart attack victims listed as Covid caused???  So therefore, I KNOW nothing.  Carry on.

[willyfish]

31 minutes ago, Jerry Rapp said:

there is a lot of "I know" in this thread.  Are these actual first person observations?  Or a friend of a friend.  Or you read it on the internet?  No one knows what the hell is going on anymore.  Car wreck fatalities being listed as Covid.  Heart attack victims listed as Covid caused???  So therefore, I KNOW nothing.  Carry on.

I wouldn't make this stuff up, its just reality right now

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/4/23/21232676/coronavirus-agriculture-food-supply-chain-farmers-excess-production-op-ed 

[bferg]

As someone who works in the food industry and has in the past worked for a meat company:

It isn't as simple as "opened" or "closed".  It is all about through-put and a shortage of finished goods vs. raw goods.  

All food companies are dealing with the following:

- Labor shortages as some laborers call in sick or don't show up out of fear.

- Significantly higher downtime.  If someone who works in a plant is diagnosed with COVID or even reports contact with someone who has been diagnosed there are significant protocols in place to clean the manufacturing facility.  This can mean facilities that are "open" are taken offline for production purposes as deep cleaning is completed.  

- Packaging...  It takes a lot of components to get your food to the shelf.  Not just the food.  Take bacon for example:  you have to have plastic to wrap it in.  You have to have labels.  Our company was able to quickly get ingredients for a lot of our food.  But we had to get some packaging components.  Well guess what?  Every other company needed packaging too.  So the suppliers for packaging suddenly were short as well.  Imagine the food company going to the packaging store and seeing shelves empty like you saw at the grocery store... that was happening.  

 

All of that means that even though plants are open they might be days/weeks where production through-put is lower than normal.  Meanwhile demand continues to be very high.  That equals lots of empty slots on the shelf.  

 

That isn't stuff I saw Don Lemon say on CNN- it is reality at my company (a major food supplier).  And it is happening all across the industry.  Keep in mind, this is happening at a time of significant demand- so just "catching up" to demand is even more of a challenge because supply is more complicated than ever.  

I don't know what has made some of the meat processing facilities more susceptible to COVID cases.  But they are major hot-spots.  Over 600 cases linked to one Smithfield plant in South Dakota.  I cant remember the exact number but I think it was like 70% of the total cases in the state.  Maybe the meat companies didn't have protocols in place early enough, maybe there is something about the nature of their work that impacts it...  the point is:  this isn't made up and it isn't fake- it takes a lot more to sell bacon than just pigs.  There are very real challenges in the food supply chain. 

 

No one is going to starve to death or even go hungry (unless they were before this started).  But, if you want St Louis style pork ribs on Tuesday, you might not be able to get them on that day.  Or that week even...  But you will be able to get them at some point.  

[tjm]

4 hours ago, merc1997 said:

i find this to be another rip off to the consumers.  tysons and george's have both been working, and i would assume all the packing houses were also.  never did hear that any of them were shut down, as eating is an essential.  farmers did not quit raising beef and pork, and the chicken growers did not quit either.

and why we are on the subject, why was there an shortage of eggs.  just some more of your bs ways to gouge.

bo

Smithfield Foods, Tysons Food, Cargill and JBS have all closed some plants. Harmony Beef in Canada was shut because the inspectors refuse to go there. Plants that still operate do so with fewer people, so less output.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=packing+houses+shut+down+covid19&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=packing+houses+shut+down+covid1&sc=0-31&sk=&cvid=6280C8EE55954CD4B56BE3EF6353A73E