Meat shortages?
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Re: Meat shortages?
This is a concern. If word gets out, people will rush to the stores and buy all of the meat. Then we will have a real shortage. The hoarding mentality is out of control.
This will of course please the vegetarians and vegans who have long advocated for people to stop eating meat. I suspect that Beyond meat and Impossible meat will suddenly see a dramatic increase in purchases.
The bottom line is that people will survive. In fact, people may be healthier as we eat less meat and eat more vegetables. It will all work out in the end.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say this is a plot by the meat industry to increase the price of beef and other meats. Restaurants are buying less meat and the meat sales are down. The only way to keep profits up is to create a fake shortage to drive up prices and make people buy more meat. People will hoard it, and then it will go bad. Then people will have to buy more.
This will of course please the vegetarians and vegans who have long advocated for people to stop eating meat. I suspect that Beyond meat and Impossible meat will suddenly see a dramatic increase in purchases.
The bottom line is that people will survive. In fact, people may be healthier as we eat less meat and eat more vegetables. It will all work out in the end.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say this is a plot by the meat industry to increase the price of beef and other meats. Restaurants are buying less meat and the meat sales are down. The only way to keep profits up is to create a fake shortage to drive up prices and make people buy more meat. People will hoard it, and then it will go bad. Then people will have to buy more.
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Re: Meat shortages?
I've been reading articles like this ever since that Smithfield plant closure in Sioux Falls was announced... there are literally dozens of articles the global media has been writing up in this sensational click bate manner.klkla wrote: ↑April 26th, 2020, 5:57 pm I hope this is just sensational click bate.:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-co ... spartandhp
But ideally plants that were closed 1-2 weeks ago should be moving toward reopening in the coming weeks (albeit probably at reduced capacity) given that is ample time to clean, stop the spread between employees, test employees, and figure out who to keep off property, etc.
But one thing is that it seems like it has been easier to close businesses, than reopen them...
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Re: Meat shortages?
The Smithfield plant supplied something like 5% of pork for the US. Not insignificant but only enough to effect supply at the margins. I've noticed that bacon has already been sometimes in short supply, which may be some of the subtext here. The other issue is that other plants could close---numerous plants at one time even, but so far that hasn't happened.
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Re: Meat shortages?
Could be just more people buying it (after all, it's easier to make bacon & eggs for breakfast when you aren't trying to get kids ready to leave for school while trying to get yourself ready to go to work at the same time), which might make sense with eggs also being more costly and harder to find at some times in many places.buckguy wrote: ↑April 27th, 2020, 6:04 am The Smithfield plant supplied something like 5% of pork for the US. Not insignificant but only enough to effect supply at the margins. I've noticed that bacon has already been sometimes in short supply, which may be some of the subtext here. The other issue is that other plants could close---numerous plants at one time even, but so far that hasn't happened.
Or it could be the plant (after all, the 5% of supply doesn't specify what product(s) they normally make there - could be that a big chunk of their bacon production is from that one plant, with lesser production of other items).
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Re: Meat shortages?
Trump used the defense protection act to force the meat plants to stay open. If you are forcing sick people to work, spread the virus, and contaminate food how is this helping?
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Re: Meat shortages?
The health codes will prevent forcing sick people to work in a food processing plant. The states and local areas will enforce those rules, I hope. The plants may stay open but in some cases it is going to be at severely reduced capacity. And I think you will still see temporary closures at plants that had a lot of outbreaks. Similar to a supermarket "closing for cleaning" after employees test positive, the same thing will need to happen with the meat plants.
The government probably can't afford to bail out the farmers at this moment so this is their way to attempt to get out of that.
This also helps counter the media narrative that has been being spread, often written by media that is not even US based, of upcoming food shortages and will hopefully prevent people from hoarding meat.
With that said I don't know what to trust anymore and think it is best to keep about a week of meat on hand at this point, and be prepared to stretch that meat out longer than a week if a shortage truly happens.
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Re: Meat shortages?
Tyson is obviously successfully lobbying the current administration. Chicken plants have long been problematic, no matter who works there because its difficult to completely rid the birds of fecal matter and e. coli. risk. Plus, factory chicken has no flavor.
One problem here is the mashup between policies. There's already less inspection of meat, more delegation to the companies, and greatly reduced OSHA inspection. The choice is shortages but a somewhat credible meat supply or meat as a potential disease vector (actual or perceived) which is the likely outcome (along with death and disease in the workplace) of forcing plants to stay open and relieving owners of liability. OTOH, all this shortsightedness may speed us away from dependence on animal-based protein, which has potential upsides to public health.
One problem here is the mashup between policies. There's already less inspection of meat, more delegation to the companies, and greatly reduced OSHA inspection. The choice is shortages but a somewhat credible meat supply or meat as a potential disease vector (actual or perceived) which is the likely outcome (along with death and disease in the workplace) of forcing plants to stay open and relieving owners of liability. OTOH, all this shortsightedness may speed us away from dependence on animal-based protein, which has potential upsides to public health.
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Re: Meat shortages?
i expect the meatpacking employees to either not show up via sickout or a strike. the meat plants in fresno are starting to get more confirmed cases of covid and that will get the attention of gov. newsom pretty quickly. the unions are already exploring their options to counter trump's order.