Chef Andres: People of America! I want to talk about two photos

[kpete]

that tell the story of food in our country in this moment...two different, painful realities that we are experiencing, and the opportunity we must seize to make sure food is not the problem but the solution 1/

Farmers in Idaho are dumping their potatoes. 😢 I went to Picabo today to see the discarded pile (and pick up a bagful). Commercial demand has fallen, and there is no market for the extra potatoes. 🥔:large

Next, thousands of cars in line for a food bank...in San Antonio, but could be anywhere in the country right now. With millions out of work and many visiting food banks for the first time, the system is totally overwhelmed and people are going hungry. 3/
:large

How is it possible these two photos exist at the same time, in the most prosperous and technologically advanced moment in our history? It’s because all along the way, we have a food supply chain that we treat as invisible when it’s working...and only notice it when it’s not. 4/

Thread:

Link to tweet

?s=20

[murielm99]

1. If anyone deserves a Nobel

(Noble)? prize, it it this man.

[alittlelark]

60. +10,000,000

[Stinky The Clown]

72. I ABSOLUTELY agree!

Maybe sainthood, too.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. "How is it possible these two photos exist at the same time?"

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. {It's playing on my iPod at this moment.}

How is it possible these two photos exist at the same time, in the most prosperous and technologically advanced moment in our history? It’s because all along the way, we have a food supply chain that we treat as invisible when it’s working...and only notice it when it’s not. 4/

Link to tweet

You wouldn't have to go any farther than Boise to find hunger.

Make that Twin Falls.

I don't know anything about potato farming. I assume that potatoes will keep a long time in cold storage, but first you have to get the potatoes to the cold storage facility, and second there has to be room in the cold storage facility for the potatoes.

[lunatica]

37. Potatoes are one of the most versatile vegetables that exist

You can pre-prepare them and freeze them as mashed potatoes or hash browns, tater tots, French fries or package them as potatoe chips with any flavor you can imagine. You can can them fully cooked, ready to add to souls, etc. you can bake them, stuff them, fry them, use them to add flavor, consistency and bulk to soups. You can cook them with anything, meats, poultry, fish, stir fried with vegetables and add a dozen flavorful condiments.

They are probably the most complete food there is.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

40. I bought a ten-pound bag on Saturday. I had been waiting for the price to drop, but

under $5 at the Aldi for ten pounds is good enough.

I have the bag sitting on the kitchen floor. I have four baked potatoes in the toaster oven right now. We've been having dreary days (for a lot of reasons) lately, and those baked potatoes really hit the spot. I have baked potatoes just about every night. A toaster oven does a bang-up job baking potatoes.

[nitpicker]

57. Check other stores

In the DC area, one chain sells 8-pound bags of russets for $2.77 all the time. Another chain every 2-3 weeks lists BOGO, so 2 5-pound bags cost $3.99.

[yellowdogintexas]

76. potatoes will keep all winter as long as they don't get wet or freeze

We grew them in the garden, and stored them in the garage after we dug them up. We never planted so many that we couldn't get them eaten before the really cold weather in December. Those were the best potatoes I have ever eaten. We had red "new" potatoes and regular brown skinned.

If you have a good root cellar or even a normal basement, you can store potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas and beets. Also apples and pears.

[idahoblue]

79. Those potato's were not Just dumped

They were dumped so people in the area could pick them up. A friend of mine arranged to have a dump truck load brought up to Hailey. They were dumped on the police station lawn for people to take. They are all gone now.
It is the time of year to clean out the potato barns. It is unfortunate that they aren’t being dried for a stable food source. Idaho is home of the freeze dry process. Are processors running at capacity? I don’t know.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

82. Thank you for that information.

I guess they would have been plowed under had the farmers not intended for people to take them.

[SoonerPride]

3. If we had a functional government they would mobilize the military to take this food to the needy

[Maraya1969]

7. That's what I was thinking. My grandmother used to keep potatoes in the cold dark

basement for the entire winter. These potatoes could be gathered and passed out by the military or the National Guard.

[SergeStorms]

49. I remember my grandmother's root cellar.

Potatoes, and even a couple of bushels of apples. The apples would lose their crispness, but you could eat them all winter long. Besides that, she canned everything under the sun. Made her own jams, and baked bread all year long. The smell of freshly baked bread.....I'm drowning in my own saliva right now. Sixty years later and I still remember that smell. I have Type 2 diabetes now, so bread is pretty much verboten, but that smell!

[crickets]

8. +1

[BComplex]

84. It's called CAPITALISM. If there's not somebody making a profit, then there's not

going to be a reasonable decision made.

[AleksS]

10. This!

I bet the US could mobilize more than enough cargo carrying capacity if it was being sent to kill brown people in a different country (they’re already killing boatloads of black Americans here, obviously.)

But to save lives?

Nah.

I hate this administration. So much blood on Trumps hands.

[Scarsdale]

83. If by some slight chance

tRump or someone in his administration reads this, I pray they do NOT put the incompetent Jared on the case. He could screw up a one car funeral. It breaks my heart seeing these lines for food. THIS mess is 100% tRump's fault. If only he had taken the job seriously, instead of concentrating on rallies and golf. Too busy to read warnings about some virus in Jyna. Anyone who votes (R) needs their head examined, right along with their orange leader.

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. Absolutely!

[TrishaJ]

30. Yes, if our "president" would really do his

JOB and focus on uniting farmers with food banks instead of trying to micro-manage the scientists in the creation of a vaccine, children would be fed and farmers would be compensated. The incompetence of this man is EVIL.

[hay rick]

44. We have a functional government.

We just don't have a government that accepts the role of preventing avoidable poverty, suffering, and hunger.

[FuzzyRabbit]

71. Bingo!

[not fooled]

73. Yeah

it's functioning great to funnel money upwards.

Mission Accomplished!

[uponit7771]

56. +1

[IcyPeas]

4. just like children in cages

trump admin has a way of hiding the truth from the nation and the world. but again, where are our stupid useless "journalists"?

[Hekate]

38. "Our stupid useless journalists," as you call them, are very busy researching & reporting ...

We all have our TV favorites, but I make a point of watching Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow. I subscribe to the Los Angeles Times because I live in its region, and they are a very good paper indeed.

Others frequently cited here are New York Times, Washington Post, and UK Guardian. Also frequently cited here are Mother Jones, Atlantic, and Rolling Stone. If you read an excerpt at DU, just follow the links.

There's an embarrassment of riches at your doorstep and at your fingertips.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

41. And at the library. Most public libraries have digital subscriptions to a few newspapers.

I'm not trying to push print newspapers over the cliff, but library patrons in the middle of nowhere can go online and read today's The Wall Street Journal. It's up to {checking} $4 a pop on weekdays, $5 on Saturday for the weekend edition.

[Hekate]

43. Public libraries are an outstanding resource. My husband can read their digital subscriptions...

...from home.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Because late-stage capitalism eliminates the inefficiencies and redundancies that would provide

the slack to handle these surges in supply and demand.

[erronis]

24. Late-state capitalism - just before the permanent gangrene sets in and destroys the whole body.

The plutocrats think that they can control the disease before it reaches them in their hide-a-ways, on their yachts, on their special island sanctuaries. It will destroy them also, perhaps a bit more slowly but just as surely.

[DBoon]

86. Some wealthy investor made lots of money ...

... dismantling and selling off the ability to survive disasters.

I heard his great grandfather made a bundle selling "unnecessary" lifeboats from the Titanic

[crickets]

6. The reason these two photos exist at the same time is because

the pandemic playbook, which addressed practical matters such as food supply, was thrown out by the apricothellbeast masquerading as president.

Chef Andres is right about calling elected officials and making a lot of noise to get some action in dealing with this. He and Publix are trying, but can only do so much.

https://www.house.gov/representatives
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

https://www.nga.org/governors/
http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/us-mayors.html [largest cities]

[stillcool]

9. speechless

[mopinko]

12. i do a monthly donation.

http://wck.org

[happy feet]

20. Thanks for the link

I've just donated as well.

[ooky]

13. Speaks volumes about the Trump pandemic response. nt

[Caliman73]

14. Easy. Capitalism...

Or at least the type of capitalism that is operating today. It would cost more money for the farmers to get their wares to market and there would be a glut and prices would collapse. When the world is driven by profit and money and accumulating power, you will have a situation where farmers are dumping potatoes, dairymen (sorry for the sexist term) are dumping milk, and ranchers are slaughtering animals while people starve. People need to be obscenely wealthy so people need to starve.

[oldsoftie]

23. Or we could be like Venezuela; plenty of lines & NO potatoes.

[Caliman73]

36. Venezuela's economy is 82% privately owned.

Not a socialist country.

[oldsoftie]

47. And yet they're starving. And out of gas. They're certainly not a Capitalist country either.

Doesnt matter who owns what if the government controls what you DO with it.

[LanternWaste]

52. Again with the false choice fallacies.

You realize of course, additional possibilities exist, yes?

If so, why spring that one choice on us when no is arguing we should "be like Venezuela"? Because of some wee agenda held tightly in your pocket, or simply trying to appear clever? (and that's how you use that fallacy for a more effective if equitably invalid, effect)

[oldsoftie]

58. "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". I know where to look for proof!

There is no "fallacy". The constant harping that everything that goes wrong is the fault of capitalism is sad when its done here.
BTW, have you EVER posted anything of any importance? Any news? Any debate? Any additional information on an existing OP? ANYTHING? Or just condescension of all of us?

[tiredtoo]

15. Give him a chance they said

And now after three years this is what his lack of leadership has created. Shame.

[jalan48]

16. It reminds me of the Grapes of Wrath.

[mikelgb]

17. Why are all the potatoes at the store always gone then? when they are there that are tiny...

why can't they adapt?

[erronis]

28. From what I understand, most potatoes are sold to fast-food chains already cut/frozen in huge bags.

Our mechanized agri-business doesn't know how to adopt to another model and still make their insane profits.

We, and much of the world, has a very fragile infrastructure build on a particular set of supply/demand variables. Throw a little kink like a pandemic in there, and all hell breaks loose.

[brooklynite]

18. Not unique to the US

Belgium needs your help eating french fries

Belgium needs international backup in its campaign to munch through a daunting mountain of unexported potatoes that has built up during the coronavirus pandemic.

Belgium's potato industry has urged patriots to take a high-calorie hit for the team by heading down to their local friteries twice a week to help reduce the spud surplus, but it's increasingly clear that 11 million Belgians won't be able to handle the deep-fried mission alone.

Belgium, the North Sea homeland of Moules-frites and mayonnaise, is the world's biggest exporter of frozen fries, but it has been hammered by the trade slowdown during the pandemic. The Belgian potato industry has warned that more than 750,000 tons of potatoes could be thrown away — more than 40 percent of the harvest.

Frozen fries account for about 75 percent of the nation's potato processing, and the sector has been especially hit hard now that restaurants and bars are in lockdown all over the world. The sector fears the worst as the restaurants and bars will be the last to reopen as restrictions are lifted, and large summer events such as festivals and sports matches are being canceled — usually big frite-eating occasions.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/29/belgian-patriots-in-friteries-cant-eat-their-way-out-of-the-potato-crisis-220996

[oldsoftie]

25. Oops, you're going to ruin it for some folks!

Only the US can have problems like this!

[LanternWaste]

53. Again, arguing a premise no one has made.

Day drinking...? Or just hopped up on fallacies again?

[oldsoftie]

54. You dont read much do you? Sad.

And these days, day drinking is the NORM!

[erronis]

29. I'll stock up on some good mayonnaise. Need EVOO mayo for best taste tho.

The Belgians have always been good cooks and good eaters. Mannequin Pis in Olney, MD was/is fantastic.

Beer ain't half bad either.

[oldsoftie]

62. Its always nice to pick up good info here!

[matt819]

19. Chef Jose is a amazing.

And, of course, he's right. The supply chains already exist to move food around the country. Warehouses exist, or can be modified to accommodate, much of the now discarded food. All it takes is the vision, the will, and the money.

Our government lacks the vision and the will, and it will not allocate the money unless they can be sure they have their fingers in those pies and that the contracts go to their cronies. So, another route for corruption.

So, what to do? I have to admit. I'm stumped. This is not WWII, when the US population was 132 million, not 330 million as it is today. We had leadership that rallied the country. Today we have the America Firsters whose policies in reality lead to America Last.

Who steps in to fill the void? To move potatoes and fruit and pork and beef and milk and cheese around the country to where it is needed most, stores it, processes it, etc. For better or worse - worse, as it turns out - years ago we moved from just in case to just in time. We allowed a few companies to monopolize/control the market. And when one of them falters, the entire supply chain is threatened. Shareholders want their money to make money every single day. And excess inventory and warehouse space, and trucks and people just don't cut it.

I'd be interested to hear what Joe Biden might do to respond to Chef Jose's challenge. Has anyone asked him? No sense in asking Trump.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

68. Put a call out to motivate volunteer

Truckers and people to load those trucks,standing 6 feet apart they will help.

[llmart]

70. "years ago we moved from just in case to just in time."

I was thinking about just that concept this morning. We decided some time ago that it would be a good idea to never have a surplus of anything at any given time because that was "inefficient" and as you said, requires storage. Look at the bind we're in now because we don't have face masks, nitrile gloves, etc. Can't even buy a box of masks in any store near me, so we're told to make our own. Three months into a pandemic and we haven't had toilet paper or hand sanitizer in quantities we need.

There are serious flaws in our supply systems.

[Ilsa]

21. It reminds me of a cartoon about Communism.

A split screen shows two rooms getting floor tiles installed. One room has white tiles, the second room has black tiles. Each worker has one tile left, unfortunately, the black-floor room worker has a white tile, and the white-floor room worker has a black tile. Both workers are stymied.

[OneBro]

22. I doubted the 2nd pic was a food line.

Looks more like a parking/shipping lot, and it looks like many of those cars have sun shields in them AND, most importantly, the spacing between them is too uniform. Alas, it’s real. ‘Merica.

[crickets]

34. It really was a food bank line in San Antonio.

https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/04/these-photos-show-the-staggering-food-bank-lines-across-america/
https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/More-than-70-000-raised-for-the-San-Antonio-Food-15194647.php

[yellowdogintexas]

75. It is a parking lot. In the Mother JOnes story, the caption to the picture

is 'cars waiting in parking lot at Traders Village for the food pantry to open'
If I were waiting in a parking lot in the sun in San Antonio, you better believe I'd have my sun shield up.
It is only open on weekends so during the week it is a really good place for a mass distribution center

It is a place for shoppers to trade, buy, barter and play. It features over 1,000 vendors, selling virtually anything and everything from tires to turkey legs.

Traders Village San Antonio is a swap meet, treasure hunt, shopping complex, county fair, and festival attraction all rolled into one. There are high-flying midway rides, like the towering, all-new Star Dancer where riders soar 80 feet into the air as well as an Allan Herschell-designed antique carousel and much more.

We have one up here in North Texas too

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. Meanwhile in San Antonio the Applebees where my son has worked for the past 11 yrs

is reopening tomorrow with limited capacity and limited menu. Makes no sense to do this. Obviously people are stretched financially, so eating at restaurants isn't going to happen.

Dumb idea to reopen dining, can't eat with a mask on so restaurant employees are at risk for covid19 from customers.

[oldsoftie]

59. These new rules for restaurants are going to hit franchise valuations hard.

If you have to spread everyone out, you lose the ability to serve as many people as you used to serve. Which also means you're going to make less money. Which means your value as a business will drop. Its a shame.

[SammyWinstonJack]

88. Right.

[superpatriotman]

27. Half of the country

Hates the other half (more like 70/30)

[nilesobek]

31. The dependence on mass trucking has crippled our food distribution system.

Rails to Trails is a charming environmental program I worked in as a laborer for three years.

We tore up a lot of RR tracks, well, because they were considered obsolete and could not compete with the fast world of trucking.

All the restaurants in this area, in Central Idaho, are dependent on the delivery truck. There are no farm-to-table quality restaurants. You have to travel to California for that.

This dependence on trucking was working just fine until the Coronavirus started culling drivers and wrecking the economy.

The RR wouldn't fix all these problems but at least it could help distribute donated food like this.

Look at those piles of Russetts! Idaho could feed the world.

[oldsoftie]

61. Yes!!! Rail would be a great addition to the supply chain.

Its a shame how we probably have less rail now than 30 years ago.

[A HERETIC I AM]

80. WRONG!! Oh so incredibly, incomprehensibly wrong!

This dependence on trucking was working just fine until the Coronavirus started culling drivers and wrecking the economy.
The RR wouldn't fix all these problems but at least it could help distribute donated food like this.

Couple things;

The current situation hasn't "started culling drivers", not by any stretch of the imagination. Various sectors of the economy, industries most certainly, but it isn't like there are a significant percentage of American truck drivers 'culled" from the supply chain.

Drop 30 or 40 percent of the daily consumption of fucking fast food french fries out of the American diet and you are going to have one big ass pile of potatoes.

And for what it's worth, the railroads already distribute ALL OF THE FOOD they can, that is economically viable for them to do so. Unless and until there is a railroad siding behind every single grocery store, convenience store and fast food outlet in this country, tractor trailers, in one guise or another, will continue to do the overwhelming majority of food distribution in this country.

That pile of potatoes has nothing to do with the trucking industry. It has to do with a drop off in commercial demand.

[jimfields33]

32. Texas opens for business at midnight

Last time for a picture like that.

[Roc2020]

33. what an incompetent administration

what a fail

[Hekate]

35. God Almighty

[moonseller66]

39. Where's the Beef?

We supposedly have hundreds of warehouses around the country that are storing great quantities of food such as cheese. (Old Barney Miller episode where Wojo complains to a gov official about the same thing we're not doing right now)

Maybe give out that food and store some of the stuff being tossed in them. Then when those become full, pass it out again.

And yes, mobilize the military. That's one of the reasons they are there.

[kimbutgar]

42. If we had a real leader they would have ordered this food picked up by military ry and distributed

All over the US.

But we have an idiot who only looks at how he can make money off a bad situation and doesn’t give a shit about working class America.

[PatrickforO]

45. Wow. We are SO wasteful. SO fucking wasteful.

It makes me feel ashamed of this whole country. Our system just isn't geared for our benefit. At all.

[smirkymonkey]

48. It's so depressing, isn't it?

There has to be a better way.

[zentrum]

46. Late stage Capitalism.

Sees no worth in objects except as they can make a profit.

[pansypoo53219]

50. we need to get the army into moving crops, screw fancy packaging. boxes will do. move crops to

states that need it. we can't waste food. shit. send to countries who need it too.

[dreamland]

51. It's trickle down economics

Those with the too much would rather throw away what they don't need than to give it to those who do need it.

[Wednesdays]

55. Only in America.

Hey, it's the American Way!

[warmfeet]

63. Transfer of power, control, wealth, and life.

This is very painful for the economically disadvantaged (as in dead). "Middle class Americans" will wait a bit longer for serious pain, but it is on the way.

The rich, they are making out like bandits. The rich are bandits. They are killing us, for profit. Agree, or not. The poor lose, the rich become richer.

Just really good times.

Good thing posting comments on the internet makes it all better.


Please post more comments, it's helping.

[GoCubsGo]

64. Yet, the grocery stores have not dropped the price of potatoes.

In fact, they cost more than ever. But, farmers are dumping them? What the fuck? This is such bullshit. (The fact that they're dumping, not Chef's pointing it out.)

[MerryBlooms]

66. If anyone can get a supply chain going, it's chef Andres.

Andrew Zimmern has been on MSNBC talking about this travesty and the complete lack of leadership in Washington. Between the two of them, I'm hoping something changes by next week.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

67. Food is a human right

But profit gets in the way of sharing

[BigmanPigman]

69. It would be nice to have a functioning Fed Govt,

wouldn't it? The stuff you take for granted...like a POTUS and Senate taking care of the country as a priority instead of their political reelections.

This is due to tRump, Mitch and Barr! They WILL NOT HELP US, they have told us so in their actions. We are on our own.

[niyad]

74. KNR

[yellowdogintexas]

77. this is really heartbreaking.

Surely there is some kind of volunteer group that could organize getting those potatoes to a food bank or other outlet.

College Fraternities/service organizations? Future Farmers chapters?

[meadowlander]

78. Failure of leadership.

If there was a will to rectify this situation and a competent federal government, a solution would be easily found.

[SunSeeker]

81. K & R & Retweeted!

[AtheistCrusader]

85. It takes money and capacity to move food on that scale.

Last edited Fri May 1, 2020, 01:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Money can be had, but the infrastructure isn't there. Rail is very constrained, and trucks are run by people, and people are impacted by the virus.

Not everyone can hop in an idle 18 wheeler and haul potatoes across the country, safely.

Edit:

The army and national guard could be handling this, but that would require leadership.

[CloudWatcher]

87. I was really skeptical about that photo of all those cars....

That picture just looked wrong to me. Zooming in on it (and others that quickly came up when googling) I was thinking ... where's the food? Nobody is carrying packages? Where are all the people? Why does it look more like a parking lot than a food distribution center? Are all those cars brand new? Why do none of them seem to need a wash? It's Texas, why so few pickup trucks???

And ... in case you're wondering too, here's the source:

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Thousands-hit-hard-by-coronavirus-pandemic-s-15189948.php#photo-19278214

Sadly the photo is legit. The people are still in their cars, because they're waiting for it to open. And it's not at the San Antonio Food bank warehouse, but at a flea market called "Traders Village."

A wider view:



The scale of this disaster is just impossible to comprehend.