Chicago Sun-Times: Farmers Plowing Produce Under, Dumping Milk from Economic Damage

[munkle]

Getting workers can't be the problem. a hundred thousand aliens at the border would be happy to come to work at the risk of getting sick. Economic damage has caused demand to dry up, restaurants, etc., even as people stand in lines for food.

EDITORIAL: When farmers plow under crops, the tragedy of COVID-19 becomes all the more vivid

We can’t ignore the potential risks to our food supply at a time when no one knows how long the pandemic will affect our economy.

chicago.suntimes.com

America has a food problem.

When, during this pandemic, we see dairy farmers dump milk into ditches and when we see vegetable farmers plow their crops back into the soil, it is tragically obvious that major agricultural markets have dried up.

It is an indication, as well, that our nation faces an unsettling new challenge in getting food to where it is needed most — one that the federal government needs to tackle immediately.

Chicago knows a lot about food. At our height in the last century, we shipped more than 80% of the nation’s meat supply from processing plants at the city’s stockyards. To this day, Illinois remains a key agricultural state that exports food globally.

But the systems needed to efficiently move food to market, especially perishables, take years to develop. Private companies are struggling to redesign them during the coronavirus pandemic, especially at a time when some of their own workers have fallen ill or are afraid to come to work.

Editorials
We’re not facing anything like history’s worst famines. As food historian and author Cynthia Clampitt tells us, people in the past often relied on a single crop. If that failed, they had little or nothing. Americans still have a wide array of food to choose from. If we can’t get pork, we can eat something else. Most food experts don’t see an immediate threat to food supplies.

The waiting game
But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the potential risks to our food supply at a time when no one knows how long the pandemic will affect our economy. Big meat-processing companies have temporarily closed or reduced production at plants in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Iowa. Smithfield Foods announced on Sunday it would shutter a processing plant indefinitely in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that produces more than 5 percent of the nation’s pork. That places the nation’s meat supply “perilously close” to a shortage, in the words of one company executive.

Meanwhile, farmers are destroying beans, squash, onion, cabbage and other crops instead of sending them to market. Hundreds of thousands of eggs are being destroyed instead of being used to grow chickens for meat. Worldwide, nations are halting or limiting exports of wheat, legumes and other food.

 

[Bo Didleysquat]

When an economic system runs upon a fucking of the people, fuck the4 economic system.

 

[miketx]

Why not just give the food away?

 

[Bo Didleysquat]

Why not just give the food away?

Oh no no no, people don't deserve to eat unless they worked and made money for shareholders somewhere. Besides, we're subsidizing farmers with socialism.

 

[Shawnee_b]

Getting workers can't be the problem. a hundred thousand aliens at the border would be happy to come to work at the risk of getting sick. Economic damage has caused demand to dry up, restaurants, etc., even as people stand in lines for food.

EDITORIAL: When farmers plow under crops, the tragedy of COVID-19 becomes all the more vivid

We can’t ignore the potential risks to our food supply at a time when no one knows how long the pandemic will affect our economy.

chicago.suntimes.com

America has a food problem.

Terrible, sad state of affairs. Yes America has a food problem but it's a deep rabbit hole.

Just for a few things, keep in mind the supply system from farmer to warehouse to market, packing plants down (Smithfield is 5% the nations pork), hoarding and mass hysteria don't help.

 

[Shawnee_b]

Why not just give the food away?

They could locally (shipping and distributing a big prob) and a good idea too. Hell put it out on wagons with a free sign

But for so many things closed is a factor too. I read today in Ocala Fla they filled 1500 peoples trunks with food and necessities

 

[Lumpy 1]

When an economic system runs upon a fucking of the people, fuck the4 economic system.

Maybe if Pelosi had called the House back in session and Chucky Schumer hadn't waited 2 1/2 years (so far) to approve nominees to the Agricultural Department this problem wouldn't be a problem.. but alas the Democrats are sitting at home F-ing off.

 

[Bo Didleysquat]

When an economic system runs upon a fucking of the people, fuck the4 economic system.

Maybe if Pelosi had called the House back in session and Chucky Schumer hadn't waited 2 1/2 years (so far) to approve nominees to the Agricultural Department this problem wouldn't be a problem.. but alas the Democrats are sitting at home F-ing off.

Oh sure, it's "one" of our political parties and I should choose a side.

The only thing america can do efficiently and effectively is slaughter across the globe for the interests of concentrated capital. That’s no accident. But it is endlessly bipartisan, economically cannibalistic, and has been pursued illegally, unconstitutionally and bogusly post WWII.

Capital was indeed correct in that if the people turned a govt over to capital and corporations-are-peoples toosies govt would never work for the people again.

Enjoy the consequences.

 

[Siete]

its not the economy - I saw the entire report.

the problem is packaging - institutional size supplies are ok- its getting those products packaged to meet consumer needs in retail stores. Big isnt better for Kroger or Walmart - limited space to store or display is the culprit. 25-50 pound bags of sugar are around - a place to put them on aisle 9 in a retail store aint going to happen- a crate of 40 dozen eggs fits ok in a Waffle House cooler, but not next to the biscuits at Kroger.

fucked up aint it.