Thanks to COVID-19, America’s food supply chain is in disarray and at the risk of total collapse.
Current Events
The word comes from the top executive of Tyson Foods, who says the coronavirus has wreaked so much havoc on the nation’s food supply chain that it’s only days away from being disrupted. Or, in other words, instead of being unable to find toilet paper and disinfecting wipes at the grocery store, shoppers may no longer be able to buy chicken, pork, beef, milk, and fresh produce by as soon as this weekend!
To demonstrate the dire severity of the issue, Tyson Foods chairman of the board John Tyson took out full-page ads Sunday in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to announce he was closing 2 pork processing plants in Indiana after “several” plant employees tested positive for COVID-19. The Tyson Foods closing was preceded by the shuttering of the Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota and the JBS pork processing plant in Minnesota after employees in both plants were also found to have contracted the coronavirus.
“As pork, beef and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain. As a result, there will be limited supply of our products available in grocery stores until we are able to reopen our facilities that are currently closed,” Tyson warned in his ad.
“We’ve just completed our third week of reduced slaughter and production. My guess is that about one week out, perhaps around May 1, shortages will begin developing at retail meat counters,” added livestock analyst Dennis Smith.
As if that wasn’t enough, the mass closings of restaurants, hotels, and schools have created a disastrous drop in demand for bulk food products which has resulted in a shocking waste emergency.
Farmers in Wisconsin and Ohio say they are having to dump 3.7 million gallons of milk each day into lagoons and manure pits and smash 750,000 unhatched eggs every week. Idaho farm owners have had to dig huge ditches to bury 1 million pounds of onions, while farms in South Florida (which supplies much of the Eastern half of the United States with produce) have been forced to plow perfectly ripe bean and cabbage fields back into the soil. All because they have too much supply and not enough demand.
Initially, the farmers donated most of the surplus to food banks and Meals on Wheels programs, however, they soon discovered charities just don’t have the refrigeration space or enough volunteer workers to absorb donations of this magnitude. Further, the cost of harvesting, processing, then transporting milk and produce to food banks had begun to put a financial strain on farmers who had already seen half their paying customers disappear.
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Workers face real fear for their health and safety. As long as that’s true, current slaughter capacity will be limited. The cost of labor will rise, and eventually retail prices will, too. #tysonfoods 6/
— The Counter (@TheCounter) April 27, 2020
With meat processing plants preparing to completely shut down any day now in order to conduct mass cleanings and test employees for COVID-19, Donald Trump has stepped in with the Defense Production Act.
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order mandating slaughterhouses to continue to remain open and continue supplying America’s grocery stores. However, with 6,500 workers already sick with COVID-19 and in isolation, his move has set the stage for a showdown between the companies that process America’s meat and the unions and activists who want to protect workers during this deadly pandemic.
Unions see Trump’s move as a stunt to absolve meat companies of liability. Because of his order, companies will be able to keep plants operating no matter how many illnesses or deaths occur — and no employee could sue them. Additionally, any employee refusing to work could be fired.
Will meat processing companies remain open and force employees to work shoulder to shoulder with coworkers who have already tested positive or may be asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus? Will companies defy Trump’s order and shutter anyway under pressure from its employee unions? Or, will thousands of meat processing employees simply stage a “sick-out” and refuse to report to work no matter what Trump or anyone says?
Since none of the above scenarios can fully rectify the problem, we are all now officially on notice. America’s food supply chain is at risk and could collapse any day now.
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