Food-security remains a significant problem during coronavirus lockdowns. The next big issue unfolding is the shuttering of the nation’s food plants could drive food inflation sky high.
On Wednesday, Tyson Fresh Meats, the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods, released a statement that said its plant in Waterloo, Iowa, will suspend operations until further notice.
“Protecting our team members is our top priority and the reason we’ve implemented numerous safety measures during this challenging and unprecedented time,” said Steve Stouffer, group president of Tyson Fresh Meats.
“Despite our continued efforts to keep our people safe while fulfilling our critical role of feeding American families, the combination of worker absenteeism, COVID-19 cases and community concerns has resulted in our decision to stop production.”
Stouffer warned that the closure of the pork plant could ripple through the production chain and cause significant disruptions to the “nation’s pork supply:”
“The closure has significant ramifications beyond our company, since the plant is part of a larger supply chain that includes hundreds of independent farmers, truckers, distributors and customers, including grocers,” Stouffer said. “It means the loss of a vital market outlet for farmers and further contributes to the disruption of the nation’s pork supply.”
The company said workers would be “compensated while the plant is closed.” There was no firm timeline on when the plant would reopen. However, there were several factors, including the “outcome of team member testing for COVID-19.”
We noted over the weekend that meat prices across the country are surging as food processing plants are closing because of the virus.The latest plant closure was China-owned Smithfield Food’s factory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the largest pork processing plant in the US, due to a coronavirus outbreak, could leave Americans without pork products.Also, health officials in Illinois closed Hormel’s Rochelle Foods plant last Friday, a move that could trigger a shortage of Spam products.
And it appears food inflation could be imminent as coronavirus is leading to the shutdown of food manufacturing plants across the country.
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I guess this won’t cause any more hoarding. Trump needs to immediately impression the management at Tyson. And confiscated Smithfield.
If federal indictments for Crossfire Hurricane are not coming tomorrow or next week, an E.O. should take care of the meat industry for the rest of this year at least.
Trust the plan.
I haven’t seen any articles about the virus transmitting from humans to animals. My family stopped eating pork awhile ago. So it doesn’t matter much to me. But are poultry and beef next?
I don’t think the issue is catching the Rona from food. It’s the supply chain disruption. Speaking of which, hopefully nobody here needs any medicines…
Trump went to India to make deals. My BP meds come from India.
isn’t it convenient that china threatens to cut off meds & receives worldwide condemnation but a few weeks later they have an outbreak that causes supply disruption–
The problem is not from the animals of the products, but from the low wage migrant workers who live 12 per 2 BR apartment. One of them gets the beer flu and the whole household is quarantined, removing a dozen workers at once. If it happens to quite a few employees, the govt will step in and tell them they have a problem, so they shut down the plant.
People bitch and moan about factory food every day.
Now that they actually shutter some shit-food factories, people have their underwear pulled over their heads.
Starve the Commies first.
Think about this rationally. Of the 10% of Commies that would survive, you’d have a brutal gang. Dontcha think it may impact everyone at that point?
I’m getting one of these. My daughter is raising it for us.
https://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/meet-mangalitsa-hairy-pig-thats-kobe-beef-pork/
Well, heck, designers pigs that can take care of themselves and have lots of hair…seem we have lots of those in Texas. We call them feral hogs and there are bounties on them, but, the young ones are excellent eating.
Even the older ones make decent sausage, if you put enough fat into the meat.
Iowa was one of the remaining nine holdout states (with Republican Governors) resisting stay-at-home orders.
However, Tyson employs illegals by the truckload and entire clans live together like Mogadishuans in ramshackle flophouses adorned with satellite TV dishes. Soon they all had Coronaviruses even as the hospitals in that area laid off staff due to lack of patients.
But, due to the “outbreak”, the Iowa governor issued stricter mitigation mandates for that “region” which also included Cedar Rapids.
In addition, a caller to Rush Limbaugh yesterday from Sioux Falls Iowa revealed that local swine farmers in her area were having to decide whether to burn or bury their pigs because they were all porked-up with nowhere to go.
Got food?