Coronavirus:

[robert.]

And Smithfield is shuttering their largest processing plant...no more bacon!

my local grocery store always had bacon $5.99 boy on get one. Now it is $7.99 no buy one get one. Happened right after pa shut down. Fish sticks during lent were always buy one get one. Not this year.
Back to Smithfield. They export most of their pork.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

And Smithfield is shuttering their largest processing plant...no more bacon!

my local grocery store always had bacon $5.99 boy on get one. Now it is $7.99 no buy one get one. Happened right after pa shut down.

Smithfield bacon was $4.95 ea at the store on Sun. Huge stack. Cheapest I've seen it in years.

Fish sticks during lent were always buy one get one. Not this year.

They ran out of filler and sawdust......

Back to Smithfield. They export most of their pork.

Well, it is owned by the Chinese.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

It's increasingly apparent and understood that the farmers , and therefore the food/grocery chain - are in trouble . Crops don't have anywhere near the people needed to harvest them, and that's serious in the long run and short run . Milk is bring dumped into sewers.

Are there even enough truckers still out there available to transport the crops that are able to be harvested ?

[chuck]

Are there even enough truckers still out there available to transport the crops that are able to be harvested ?

Transport them where? This is the land of agribusiness. The issues with people at the meat packing plants is just the tip of the ice berg. Even "unprocessed" or minimally processed food has to be packaged in some way if for nothing else then transport. There is still a lot of already processed stuff in the pipeline. It's fall and possibly/probably winter that needs to be addressed.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Are there even enough truckers still out there available to transport the crops that are able to be harvested ?

Transport them where? This is the land of agribusiness. The issues with people at the meat packing plants is just the tip of the ice berg. Even "unprocessed" or minimally processed food has to be packaged in some way if for nothing else then transport. There is still a lot of already processed stuff in the pipeline. It's fall and possibly/probably winter that needs to be addressed.

Lots of links in a chain that way too many people take for granted. I think I noted something about this being an upcoming problem a few pages back and it veered off........

[chuck]

Majority of the milk produced isn't used for "drinking". Mostly for cheese, including cottage cheese and/or other processed foods. Crazy part is a lot of these plants are highly automated EXCEPT for inbounding the raw product/packaging AND LOADING the finished product onto a rail car or truck. That's where you need the warm bodies. Meat packing is much more highly automated than it was but it still requires human hands to guide the cutting/gutting tools. At least until they come up with "USDA Standardized cows, pigs, chickens". Close but not quite there yet.

Actually there is a standardized chicken for testing airplane parts against bird strikes. They even have a standardized chicken gun to do the tests. Unfortunately the standardized chicken is on the back side of the packing plant (aka it's already dead/cleaned/packaged). The birds are frozen and shipped out to test sites where they are supposed to be thawed BEFORE being fired out of the large airgun and into a canopy/windscreen/engine intake. A really fast way to lose your job at the test center is to fire a FROZEN bird at the target. Nothing they are "shooting at" is cheap.

[Roy]

Milk is bring dumped into sewers.

You'd think they'd dry it, or turn it into cheese.

[chuck]

You'd think they'd dry it, or turn it into cheese.

If the farmer belongs to a co-op that has the facilities to do so, they probably do just that. Not many have the space/equipment/expertise to pull this off. Dairy farming is already complicated/expensive without that additional work.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Milk is bring dumped into sewers.

You'd think they'd dry it, or turn it into cheese.

Ever make cheese? Like 1000's of gallons input? Not a trivial exercise.

[Roy]

Actually there is a standardized chicken for testing airplane parts against bird strikes. They even have a standardized chicken gun to do the tests. Unfortunately the standardized chicken is on the back side of the packing plant (aka it's already dead/cleaned/packaged). The birds are frozen and shipped out to test sites where they are supposed to be thawed BEFORE being fired out of the large airgun and into a canopy/windscreen/engine intake. A really fast way to lose your job at the test center is to fire a FROZEN bird at the target. Nothing they are "shooting at" is cheap.

Yes, I've seen them feed large amounts of ice into jet engines. They're checking to see that the turbine isn't blown out.

[Roy]

Milk is bring dumped into sewers.

You'd think they'd dry it, or turn it into cheese.

Ever make cheese? Like 1000's of gallons input? Not a trivial exercise.

Well then, it's a good thing we have such capacious sewers. We find it necessary or desirable to dump 30 to 40% of our food production.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Milk is bring dumped into sewers.

You'd think they'd dry it, or turn it into cheese.

Ever make cheese? Like 1000's of gallons input? Not a trivial exercise.

Well then, it's a good thing we have such capacious sewers. We find it necessary or desirable to dump 30 to 40% of our food production.

No, it's not good that we waste food, nor has it ever been. It's simply that the people and facilities for handling it and then the transport of it are compromised.

It's also not a new thing; it's been thrown away in the past to drive up prices.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[robert.]

Trucks drivers have quit in droves. It's to hard to earn a living driving a truck.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Trucks drivers have quit in droves. It's to hard to earn a living driving a truck.

Last week they were on TV celebrating the lack of traffic; now it's the lack of cargo.