There could very well be a 30 day hole in the food chain coming down the pike.

[A HERETIC I AM]

Sure, there is plenty of food in the supply chain now, but what happens if all the produce stops getting harvested for a month? Or the meat processing stops?

It might take 6 weeks to be noticed, but if there is a 4 week shutdown of the day to day food production either here or heaven forbid, worldwide.......


Sorry....just spitballin'.

I have to go drive a truck tonight at 7 PM down to WPB and back and with every passing day, I get a little more worried that one of the scores of MAGAT truckers I come into close proximity with on a daily basis will not have taken any precautions because Trumpy said it was a hoax (and they stopped listening to anyone else after that), and will sneeze or cough near me as I walk down the dock of a Postal Distribution Center.

And FWIW, the distribution center I am heading to tonight?

Is directly across the street from Trump National, West Palm Beach.

And yes, I have a couple masks, but they aren't really going to help me if a droplet gets into my eyes, right?

[FiveGoodMen]

1. If people pick up on your notion, it will be food that's out at every store, not just TP

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. I can't possibly be the first one to think of this.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. No, but you can help spread it around faster.

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. Well, I just told a few thousand people reading DU,

but so far only a couple hundred have opened this thread

[underpants]

2. The giant lurking in the room is civil unrest

Not from boredom but from necessity

[Boomerproud]

3. We don't need more anxiety.

My blind nephew with autism spectrum is having small seizures.

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. I'm not trying to create any, trust me.

It is just a thought that dawned on me a little while ago and I thought I would put it up.

[Initech]

12. I've never had anxiety until the virus came along.

Now the news is all bad, there's literally 0 distractions from it. And everything that we used to do and take for granted is gone.

The other day I thought I was having a panic attack and I've never felt those feelings before. I know end of the world doom and gloom scenarios are unavoidable right now but it is definitely triggering and scary to think that it actually is happening to us.

[StarryNite]

4. Wear eye protection.

Seriously, wear eye protection...please!

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. The only thing I have that even comes close is a pair of ski goggles.

And I just don't think they will suffice.

[Midnight Writer]

34. You can pick up reading glasses at the Dollar Store. Get very low magnification.

If you don't need glasses, you can still see well enough through these to walk around in them.

The eyes may be your most vulnerable point.

[jberryhill]

35. Better than nothing

Any physical barrier is better than nothing.

[GaYellowDawg]

47. Safety goggles from Lowe's.

If they're OSHA-approved, they'll have side guards for your eyes. I have used them when teaching dissections in lab. Light and comfortable.

[Javaman]

10. do you have safety goggles? use those. I have a pair these I will be using if I have to...

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. Nope. LIke I said above, the only thing I have that comes close....

are a pair like this;




They're ventilated. They are designed to keep the wind out of your eyes and act like sunglasses as well. They sure as hell don't keep out the wind, nor are they tight fitting like a diving mask.

[jberryhill]

36. Yes they are fine

Look at what health care workers are wearing::



Thats pretty ventilated.

[A HERETIC I AM]

39. I do have regular store bought reading glasses

And I’m wearing them as I type this, standing on the dock.

[MissB]

11. I'm gonna go out and plant some stuff today

I soaked spring peas overnight so those need to go into the ground.

I have some greens that have been hardening off for over a week and I need the space they are taking up for cardoon starts.

My plant rack is full of starts. Keeping them alive and healthy takes about a half an hour a day at this time of year.

I’ll have a much bigger garden this year, and will include a lot more beans for drying. I saved seed from the new variety of black beans I tried last year and hope that I’ll have a ton of them this year. Quinoa might even make an appearance.

Hopefully some of my fruit bushes/trees do a good job too. I’m still hopeful that the local farmers are able to produce and get to market things like strawberries and apples. I’d like to can some strawberry jam late this spring and I’m pretty sure that my Hood berry plants won’t produce enough (two years in, have more daughter plants but not nearly enough). Goodness knows my honey crisp apple tree is too immature to give me more than a couple of pounds of apples.

I do cram a lot in my half acre lot, but I also realize I’m lucky to have any growing space at all.

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. Good for you!

I hope you have a bumper crop, even if my prediction proves to be false.

Nothing quite like vegetables from the back garden!

[msongs]

15. we could also be hit by a comet or the second coming could actually... happen nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. ....

[Brainfodder]

16. OK, what's the absolute bare minimum for human life food wise?

Clean water and iodized salt?

[Aquaria]

55. 1200 calories is usually the bare minimum number

To keep you out of starvation mode.

It's probably not a healthy amount. 1500 is probably sustainable, if it provides the necessary nutrients.

[Wellstone ruled]

18. Some what familiar with what

we are seeing. First of all,January till April is the dead time in Retail Groceries. The peak Sales weeks are one week before Thanksgiving till Xmas week. In saying that,Inventory in the Wholesale Warehouses are at max 30 days or so. The major Inventory build starts in late June thru September,with Canned Vegetables and Fruits being the last to fill because of what is know as the Canning Season.

Most Retailers use what is called auto fill,meaning as the number of a Item reaches a certain level of sales,example a case of Corn is 12 cans,when the computer sees that 11 cans have passed the scanner,it automatically reorders a full case to be delivered on the Stores next scheduled delivery. When the sales of a given product exceeds the projected max built into the system,everything breaks down and that is what has happened.

The Supply chain has just simply broke down and all the apparent fail saves crashed as well. We old timers would have jumped on the phone and with in hours have this solved.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Thanks for that

What prompted me to put this OP up in the first place is a story I saw about a Strawberry farmer in the Plant City area.

A huge number of strawberries are grown near the I-4 corridor and if they have no one to pick, what happens?

And that is (obviously) but one tiny sliver of the overall industry that relies on field workers - workers who Trump hates, lets just be frank - who travel around the country to pick whatever is in season.

if they can't or won't go to the farms, what happens?

Thanks for your insight. I've been an OTR driver for over 30 years but I can count on one hand the number of grocery warehouses I've been to.

[Wellstone ruled]

22. Florida Berries are going to

be plowed under the way it is looking. To many forces preventing the Farm Labor Force to risk coming across the border. Same for the Arizona Berries which like Florida are now coming on and are about to pick.

We have not seen the real effects of what happens when a Pandemic as well as a Racist Pack of Idiots join forces.

And as you are well aware of,you can get loads into Florida,but any backhauls are crap Revenue Loads. And if your Produce goes unpicked,going to be a ton of Deadheads.

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. Yup.

The interesting times mentioned in the Chinese proverb are upon us!

[Wellstone ruled]

25. Be safe my friend.

[A HERETIC I AM]

32. Aww.. thanks, man!

I appreciate that

[Kali]

46. Arizona Berries?

[Shermann]

20. High unemployment will ensure that doesn't happen

Manual laborers who are taken out of action by coronavirus will be replaced very quickly, which is good and bad at the same time.

[A HERETIC I AM]

21. We shall see.

[meadowlander]

40. +1. I don't think most food harvesting or processing is inconsistent with social distancing.

How close can you get to someone on a combine harvester? And I'm sure there's way for fruit pickers to stay at least six feet away from each other by organising what rows they are working on.

We just got a total lock-down order but there is an exception for essential workers which includes food producers.

[Igel]

24. Yes, it's possible.

But most food is produced locally, and we export a lot.

If less is produced, we don't export as much. Others starve. If the US starts to starve, the DPA lets Trump dictate which orders get filled.

Borders are still open for produce. Mexican stuff is still showing up in the veggie section at my local store, and that's a 6 hour drive from the border.

If 60% get infected, 40% aren't. If 2% die, 98% don't. Countries have fought frigging wars during plagues of greater virulence and lethality than this.

[meadowlander]

41. +1. Hope y'all like soy beans

[uponit7771]

26. TP was the canary in the coal mine

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. THANK YOU for driving that truck and bringing myself or someone I love food

or someone else...

We are in this together!

[FloridaBlues]

28. Still very little food on selves at publix. Little frozen food.

Forget paper products. Had to buy small amount of paper towels and TP from work today.

[cwydro]

45. My Publix was fine.

I noticed they were out of ground beef, but I rarely eat meat.

I saw steaks, ribs, pork, and lots of other meats.

No shortage of dairy products, eggs, cheese, yogurt etc. They were opening boxes of TP to put on the shelves.

[FloridaBlues]

49. I coming to your store!

[CountAllVotes]

29. The Grocery Outlet

I receive an email from them daily telling of what the have on sale.

They had nothing to show today.

I'm thinking their shelves are nearly empty! That is my fear!



DUMP tRUMP!!!!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. I think you can buy large lens zero diopter glasses & have them ... wait for it ... shipped to you

Zero diopter means no prescription, just like window panes.

Thank you and the truckers moving vital supplies.

[stillcool]

31. we have limits that I've seen on sale stuff.

which I am thrilled to see. Whatever happens, will happen. I have long ago stopped worrying about some future expectation that is not real.

[dameatball]

33. Does the facility unload or do you get a lumper or have to do it yourself? Drop trailer?

Just curious about how it works these day. Hoping you can limit contacts.

[A HERETIC I AM]

38. I'm here now. Depends on the facility.

Last edited Tue Mar 24, 2020, 01:25 AM - Edit history (1)

Everything is either in rolling equipment or on pallets, so this particular place I had to push everything on wheels to the dock and a forklift driver grabbed the other bits, of which there were only 2 on this load!

Then I dropped the empty in their yard and am now waiting for them to load my northbound trailer.

Sometimes I have to push the mail carts on and sometimes they load it. It just depends on what type of sorting center it is.

No lumpers in the mail facilities

[A HERETIC I AM]

42. Busy dock, but not that many trucks

It will probably get much busier later at night

[BluesRunTheGame]

37. That hasn't happened in the other countries that are further along in this than we are.

I think we’ll probably be okay on this.

[meadowlander]

43. 40% of the food produced in normal times ends up in the landfill

so I'd say we have some runway.

[former9thward]

62. I will bet that after this is over 60% of the excess food people have bought

will be ending up in that same landfill.

[NickB79]

44. Farm and food manufacturer employees are critical infrastructure workers

I just got my written notice last week.

I am to keep it in my car to show to police if I'm pulled over on my way to work when we go into a full length lockdown and non-essential travel is banned.

So rest assured, America, you will have cottage cheese!

[Shermann]

68. Are we talkin' the kind with the pineapple slices?

Just asking. That's good stuff.

[NickB79]

69. We make pineapple cottage cheese!

https://kemps.com/fridge-products/low-fat-cottage-cheese-pineapple-single-serve-5-64-oz/

[Hermit-The-Prog]

48. Aha! You admit to being part of the great trucker conspiracy to hoard all the food!

Convoys of cantalopes!
Freightliners of Fritos!
It's reefer madness with frozen tv dinners!


Psst. How much to fill a pickup with chicken? I'll trade you a cooler full of catfish, still swimming.

[A HERETIC I AM]

54. LOL....

If you were talking Salmon, we might could make a deal!

[DFW]

50. Not likely to happen here

We have a farmers market in our town in the town square three times a week. Half of the stands are really local farmers who sell from their own crops/livestock. They've been doing that here for the last 800 years, and they probably have had larger disruptions than this one during that time.

[Jirel]

51. Stop. Telling. Scary. Stories. With. No. Basis. In. Reality.

Every day, another stupid meme or story to terrify anxious people shows up. Why join this game?

You, yourself, said there is no basis for this. It’s just a “what if.”

“What if” that’s scary can start a panic for no reason as tempers flare and anxiety rises. It can adversely affect some people’s mental health. Why do this?

It makes about as much sense as asking, “But what if there’s a zombie apocalypse?” Sure, we can spitball that, but why?

[A HERETIC I AM]

53. Excuse me, but who are you to tell me what to post?

I've got a bit more history on this board than you do and I'm quite capable of determining what is appropriate or not.

If you think my intent was merely to "terrify anxious people" you could not be more wrong.

And. I. Don't. Think. You. Used. Enough. Periods. In. Your. Title. Line.

[Shermann]

67. It. Appears. To. Be. William. "Captain Kirk". Shatner.

[Beringia]

59. I think it is a valid concern

[janterry]

52. I live in Vermont and there are small farms all around

I'm not worried one bit. Early crops won't start until May (hot house things). But we'll eat plenty of kale then! I have a few already in the garden (under the snow!)

But we have a local CSA farm near us that we use. If she needs help harvesting, we'll help her

[Beringia]

58. Other people may be worried though, who don't live around farms

[janterry]

60. true enough, but I don't think our food supply is threatened

Many of us will get covid. Most of us will be fine. I have a friend who has already recovered.

To be clear, this is an emergency and it's a pandemic. And it's a frightening time.

But,

We will get through this. Farmers up here are already creating lists for back up help (if they fall ill). (Milk producers, from what I've seen). People will get sick, stay home, get better, and return to work.

Our food supply is not threatened. I know you are commenting because I gave information about Vermont. But I am responding that overall, the food supply in the USA is not threatened. I don't see that across the country. It's true that the virus threatens many. But the statistic that has held - is that MOST (the overwhelming majority) of those that fall ill, will recover and return to work in a few weeks.

[beachbumbob]

56. Like this, its up to us, I mean OURSELVES to safeguard us and our families,

if food is gone out of stores, it is what it is. This exposes the lack of planning and mobilization of resources way more than anything else. Noah gave fair warning before the rain came. Not like we been living in a vacuum for 3 months.

[Karma13612]

57. Ouch

Not sure I want to hear every “what if scenario” today. Some I can deal with but this is pretty out there.

I might suggest that you add possible solutions to your concern posts, otherwise people begin to feel more hopeless and helpless. Just spitballing.

Time to get off the internet and have breakfast and work in my studio I think.

[Chainfire]

61. I don't worry about a lack of food sometime in the future

My immediate problems have my worry chamber full at this time.

Planting the seeds of the fear of famine is irresponsible.

Assuming that the OP is sincere, he has a microscopic view of the macro food distribution system, and his anecdotes do not represent the full scope of the American food supply chain. There may well be a shortage of fresh fruits and vegetables if our "rapists and murderers" decide to protect their health over their incomes, but that is not the makings of a famine.

I predict that we will continue to have both food and circus.

[A HERETIC I AM]

63. I just adore being scolded by people who have been members here....

Less time than I’ve been using my current bar of soap

Please don’t assume you know anything of my grasp of a given situation, micro or macro. At least not until you have 6 months or so under your belt.

[Chainfire]

64. You are quite welcome

I may be new here, but I an not new to life. I did not know that the only source of wisdom came from long term membership in the DU. I stand corrected, and bless your heart for that.

Now, do you have a response to what I posted or did you just need to throw some rocks?

[MuseRider]

66. Be careful.

Get some goggles if you can find them. Even scuba goggles, to hell with what anyone else thinks. I would send you mine since I am not using them but they would likely be too small and they are shocking pink, the style was important underwater you know. Matching fins too but those are of little help.....but I just got a visual of you with them on your hands slapping away the crazy Trumpers in WPB. Like a super hero!

I am going to restart my garden that I had to give up a couple of years ago. Hopefully it goes well, hopefully what you are talking about does not happen for a while and hopefully we do not burn up here. Considering tarps. Hopefully none of it happens but I learned a long time ago that hope is a good thing but not something to plan on.

If others have not thought about this already it is on them. I think most of us have tried our best to plan out for more than a few weeks. Out here in the boonies we can stay safe. A trip in to the store seems risky yet that is what my husband is doing right now. My lungs suck so I get to stay home but I have been cooking up a storm and taking care of everything I can take over. His risk is worth my working more.

Be safe out there!

[Bengus81]

65. Hoarders can only hoard so much........

Then they run out of freezer space. If that's the case then every restaurant would close down too.