'The food supply chain is breaking,' Tyson says as plants close

[Dennis Donovan]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/26/business/tyson-foods-nyt-ad/index.html

By Rob McLean, CNN Business

Updated 0311 GMT (1111 HKT) April 27, 2020

New York (CNN Business) Tyson Foods (TSN) is warning that "millions of pounds of meat" will disappear from the supply chain as the coronavirus pandemic pushes food processing plants to close, leading to product shortages in grocery stores across the country.

"The food supply chain is breaking," wrote board chairman John Tyson in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in The New York Times, Washington Post and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

US farmers don't have anywhere to sell their livestock, he said, adding that "millions of animals — chickens, pigs and cattle — will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities."

"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 wrote.

Tyson Foods, which employs roughly 100,000 workers, closed its pork plants in Waterloo, Iowa, and Logansport, Indiana, last week so that workers in those facilities could be tested for the virus.

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[superpatriotman]

1. The supply chain should have been secured long ago

But we have NO leadership in this disaster.

The ship of state is rudderless.

[Solomon]

2. I have been saying this since the virus started. We need a food supply task force.

[PoliticAverse]

3. An unsustainable business practice "is breaking". n/t

[kentuck]

4. Corporate farmers...

...was never a really good idea.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. I work in a grocery emporium. I'm expecting customers to be hoarding meat

via their purchases this week.

[dalton99a]

11. +1

[Jamastiene]

6. There is already no meat at the local Food Lion near me.

Smithfield, the ones who make Gwaltney, Armour and lots of other canned meat products, was the scene of one of the biggest outbreaks yet.

We are going to be in some serious trouble with this. It won't be just meat. It will be all food before long, unless you are good at gardening.

The apocalypse is real. It is really happening and it ain't nothing like in the movies. It's worse than the movies could ever imagine, and that is without zombies. At least we don't have zombies, yet. That's the only real good news I'm seeing so far.

[dewsgirl]

7. .......

[Silver Gaia]

8. A meat shortage could easily mean

a shortage of pet food. We can find ways to do without meat, but they can't--not very well anyway. This could be disastrous for our furry friends.

[HarlanPepper]

12. Yes, we may have to eat them soon.

Last edited Mon Apr 27, 2020, 09:32 AM - Edit history (2)

[Cirque du So-What]

16. Sorry

Auditions for this week's episode of Schroedinger's Douchebag are over, and you didn't get a slot on the show.

[HarlanPepper]

17. Ah. Well, congratulations then.

[Silver Gaia]

23. No critter eating here.

Vegetarian for the past 47 years. Seriously.

[milestogo]

19. I just ordered some from Chewy.

I don't eat meat, so its not a problem for me.

[Silver Gaia]

22. Same here.

I'm well stocked with beans and rice and cheese and veggies... lots of stuff! I'm planting a small garden as well as a container garden as well.

I have already stocked up for my critters, too, but ordered a bit more when I heard this news. At least we can find it in stock right now!

I try to stay ahead of things and anticipate what may be hard to get in a few weeks (or days). I did NOT anticipate the toilet paper shortage, though! LOL I managed to buy bidets before they also became hard to find, but have yet to install them.

[BComplex]

9. They just need to invest their STOCKHOLDER'S AND EXECUTIVE'S extreme profits into protecting their

workers. Duh? Shouldn't they be protecting their workers at a time like this anyway? If the food supply chain breaks from producers to packers, it is totally the fault of the greedy processors refusing to protect their workers and to sanitize their place of work.

Is that too hard to fathom for these "titans of industry"?

[dalton99a]

10. Meat shelves will be empty again very soon - fresh meats, lunch meats, canned meats

[HarlanPepper]

13. Another collapse? This is the 4th one in a week!

[Renew Deal]

14. A scare tactic

It’s the other side of the $500 bonus (bribe) for factory workers.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. I mentioned something similar over a month ago....

and several folks took issue with the notion;

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213159417

[Takket]

18. I noticed when I shopped yesterday

The prepacked lunch meats and things like breakfast sausage were almost completely Gone.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

20. The Chickenpocalypse is upon us. nt

[Cairycat]

21. At least one of the problems is the speed of the lines

With the fast lines, workers must stand closer together. Even if PPE is provided and strict sanitation occurs, the workers are close together.

Slowing down the lines so the workers wouldn't need to be so close together may require major retooling - I don't know.

I expect that there are ways the meat packing industry could be made safer for the workers, but I'd be surprised if the industry made much of any steps to accomplish that, certainly not without pressure from the government. The workers are considered too replaceable, just another not especially valuable raw material, for changes to come about easily.