U.S. Could Be Weeks From Meat Shortages With Shutdowns Spreading

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Bloomberg

Plant shutdowns are leaving the U.S. dangerously close to meat shortages as coronavirus outbreaks spread to suppliers across the nation and the Americas.

Almost a third of U.S. pork capacity is down, the first big poultry plants closed on Friday and experts are warning that domestic shortages are just weeks away. Brazil, the world’s No. 1 shipper of chicken and beef, saw its first major closure with the halt of a poultry plant owned by JBS SA, the world’s biggest meat company. Key operations are also down in Canada, the latest being a British Columbia poultry plant.

While hundreds of plants in the Americas are still running, the staggering acceleration of supply disruptions is now raising questions over global shortfalls. Taken together, the U.S., Brazil and Canada account for about 65% of world meat trade.

“It’s absolutely unprecedented,” said Brett Stuart, president of Denver-based consulting firm Global AgriTrends. “It’s a lose-lose situation where we have producers at the risk of losing everything and consumers at the risk of paying higher prices. Restaurants in a week could be out of fresh ground beef.”

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-could-be-weeks-from-meat-shortages-with-shutdowns-spreading/ar-BB139I9V?li=BBnb7Kz

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Hear that Trump? No more hamberders.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for visibility. This is quite serious. n/t

-Laelth

[sfstaxprep]

5. Yes And No

I doubt Vegetarians or Vegans are concerned.

[jimfields33]

7. I'd think you'd look out for every one regardless of beliefs

I think this is terrible for the country. Another hit on the American people.

[sfstaxprep]

13. Which Is Why I Said Yes & No

Unless it becomes a problem with the overall food supply, I'm far more concerned about other issues, like the outbreak in the plants themselves, which is the result of idiots running the situation.

I eat meat, and even I know that there are things other than beef that I can survive on if necessary.

[regnaD kciN]

15. For those vegetarians and vegans thinking this doesn't apply to them...

People still need protein to survive. If meat becomes unavailable, look for people who normally eat meat to turn to dairy products, and then to plant-based protein, meaning that your prices will skyrocket, too.

[jimfields33]

24. Got it. Sorry. You are correct.

[Rorey]

8. Yes, I'm not concerned

Vegetarian here.

I have to admit, though, that I've got an underlying feeling of panic about food. On a personal level, I'm sure I have at least two months worth of food. I have been replenishing when there's availability, so I have maintained the same supply since this started. I still worry about everyone else. I've been encouraging my kids (all adults) to keep stocked up.

[FreeState]

31. I'm a vegetarian and I'm concerned

I don’t want a shifter demand taking all my protein supplies

Seriously though I’m concerned about the farmers and their families that will be financially devastated by this.

[ibegurpard]

50. Exactly

This would affect everyone. If meat-eaters can't get their meat they'll come for your veggies. We all have to eat something and the demand cant be instantly absorbed by another food sector.

[Neoma]

41. I'm a little concerned.

Beans might become scarce.

[Newest Reality]

2. K&R

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Another black market opportunity

Will states be vying for product with the Federal government on this one too?

[FloridaBlues]

4. This could be very bad in coming weeks just when restaurants start to open

And home shoppers will find more empty shelves.

[totodeinhere]

6. With so many restaurants closed or seeing reduced business wouldn't that take some pressure off?

I don't know but people with room in their freezers might want to stock up now if possible.

[TeamPooka]

29. the meat packing pkants are Covid nests now. It's not for lack of buyers that they are shut down.

[Mr.Bill]

9. Spread the word

so people with lots of money will buy it all up and hoard it.

[yaesu]

11. I'm sure there will be tRump steak pressers in our future. nt

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

14. Its already starting

Chest freezers are sold out around me. Meat is still in stock, so far.

[yaesu]

10. Restaurants will probably be the hardest hit economically if there is a shortage. nt

[Mr.Bill]

18. If you've never worked in a restaurant

you would be shocked at how much food is wasted there. It's far less efficient than home cooking.

[Botany]

12. Trump has gotta go now.

We are going to need adults to keep the lights on, the natural gas in the pipelines, the water flowing,
the trash picked up, the food supply lines open, and to treat and solve this deadly disease. Trump
is just not up that challenge.

[CousinIT]

16. Vegan here. World needs to stop consuming so much meat.

I don't like the loss of jobs. But as for the rest....

[LisaM]

47. Yes, we do need to stop consuming (and wasting) so much meat.

If an outcome of the pandemic is a re-examination of our eating habits, I'm all for it. I'm not completely vegetarian, but my intake of meat is pretty limited, and I'm not dairy free, but I think we could all do with lowering our meat intake.

In the short term, disrupting the food chain could be a whole new catastrophe.

[janterry]

51. I'm vegetarian and mostly vegan

But I'm not worried about having to eat less or differently.

Frankly, we overeat as a country (70% of us are EITHER obese or overweight).

I've lived on very little food in my life (we used to be quite poor). We can do it again. No problem.

I'm sorry for others and their suffering. But for our home -meh. My daughter and I can cope with just about anything .

[JudyM]

52. We'd be wise to get wiser about the planet. The pandemic is dramatically reducing

our collective carbon footprint. If only we’d use this as an opportunity to rethink our economy and our ethics. Dreaming of wiser world leaders and a far more vocal and activist Dem/green movement to capitalize on this moment instead of everyone jumping back onto the greed and endless suffering path.

[mbusby]

17. Better start....

....planting soy beans.

[Grasswire2]

19. flours, grains, yeast already getting difficult to find.

Likely milk products, soon.

Potatoes and onions are rotting on farms because there's no labor or transportation for them...

[0nirevets]

20. Predicting massive health wave as people forced to live on plant-based foods

[NickB79]

21. My mom works at the Jennie-O plant mentioned in the article

They've confirmed 6 cases but there are several dozen suspected.

She said they're optimistic it will reopen this week, but with all the social distancing measures, lines will have fewer workers and be processing far fewer turkeys per hour.

Melrose is a town of 1,000 people. Rural, small town, and conservative. Everyone thought the pandemic wouldn't touch them, or thought it was a hoax. Oops.

[2naSalit]

22. How's that community garden coming along?

I am spending my summer growing food for the winter because I can. But it's already on a lot of people's minds. Seeds are really hard to find around here.

[LisaM]

48. We live in an apartment with no green space.

Now, I'm not much into gardening anyway, so I am not saying this applies to me, but I found out recently that in Seattle, pea-patch spots, which have a waiting list, don't give preferential treatment to apartment dwellers. I mean, we don't even have a balcony to keep some basil going! You'd think that people in our situation would be able to jump the line over people with yards.

I'm editing this to add that we have some green space where we can talk, and look at a creek. We just don't have green space that's usable for things like sitting out at night or gardening.

[2naSalit]

49. That's unfortunate.

One of my friends lives in apartment complex but has a couple large plant pots in a sunny window for herbs. It's hard to get that sort of thing going.

[NickB79]

23. Good thing my hens are laying well and the gardens are looking good

And one just hatched out another 6 chicks today. If I'm lucky I'll have an extra dozen to butcher by the end of summer.

I should be picking up my new deer rifle next week.

[marble falls]

25. Shortage my aunt Mimi's tutu ...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/meat-piles-up-as-production-grows-and-exports-slow-1532268000


2.5 Billion Pounds of Meat Piles Up in U.S. as Production Grows, Exports Slow
Profits, prices are threatened as record amounts of red meat and poultry fill U.S. warehouses
By Jacob Bunge
July 22, 2018 10:00 am ET


Meat is piling up in U.S. cold-storage warehouses, fueled by a surge in supplies and trade disputes that are eroding demand.

Rest of the story at link.

[Karma13612]

36. Umm,

This article is dated July 2018

[marble falls]

43. Ummmm .... where do you think that meat went ...

1. its hard to get figures newer than 2018, those figure are actually less than two full years, old
2. At the same time: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/americans-meat-consumption-set-to-hit-a-record-in-2018/
3. Vulture capitalists stockpile commodities for disaster exploitation.
4. If the packers dumped that kind of supply on the market don't you think farmers would have sat back quietly with lowered pricing on their herds.

Chickens have a six or eight week process to market, hogs a half a year, beef is a year.

Why would farmers have screamed of Trump's China treaty squabble, but not over dumping 2,500, 000,000 pounds of it - particularly since the export market to China is 90% about pork??? And that we don't export US chickens to China, we import Chinese chickens to the US. This surpus occurred before, during and after we cut off Chinese chicken imports to the US, temporaily.

https://www.kwtx.com/content/news/Dang-thats-a-lot-of-meat-AM-professor-says-as-US-surplus-grows--489031331.html

[Yavin4]

26. Every minute that we have a complete buffoon as president makes elements of this crisis worse.

We need new leadership, and we need it now. Once again, the big problem is that the Republicans don't believe, nor really want, the government to succeed.

[cstanleytech]

28. Yes, we need it but the Republicans in the House and Senate will not agree to remove him so we need

to try to do the best we can until he is out of office.

[Yavin4]

30. We may not make it to November.

Let alone Jan. 2021.

[cstanleytech]

33. How do you figure that? The virus itself while severe is not severe enough to wipe us out.

[cstanleytech]

27. This is why we are probably going to have to open everything back up before this is contained

and try to deal with those that become ill as best we can because otherwise we risk major disruption in the food supply and the deaths that will occur will be the fault of the Republicans and Trump.

[EllieBC]

32. A package that was around 1.4 kg of lean ground beef was

$22 at the grocery store nearest me today. That’s about $2 more per kg than it was last week. It’s ridiculous. We bought a chest freezer and put it on our balcony a couple of weeks ago and bought and stocked it.

[cstanleytech]

35. 2$ a pound here. Not that its a big deal for us as over the past 7 years we have cut our meat

consumption down since my mother died and we went from doing a beef roast atleast once a week to doing it about once every 1 to 2 months.

[BigmanPigman]

34. Andrew Zimmern has been warning people for weeks and weeks.

He is in the restaurant business and he has been trying to get the word out by appearing on MSNBC, posting videos, etc. I have been paying attention. Follow him on twitter.

https://t.co/dE0XgCkYgM?amp=1
https://t.co/Jui8msJNFN?amp=1
https://t.co/YcHb9KB0sJ?amp=1
https://t.co/lyuUr9CyOw?amp=1

[dalton99a]

39. +1

[Karma13612]

37. OK, I understand

The producers want to limit spread of the virus. And protect their employees, and the members of their communities.

But, if this means a shortage of food for the population, is this still the best action?

Why aren’t food producers treated as vital as healthcare workers?

If we don’t have food, we starve.
Yes, we can live on beans, until they run out.

Eventually, ALL alternatives would be gone.

Then what?

[Steelrolled]

38. Fear mongering. nt.

[dalton99a]

40. Latest Cold Storage data from USDA:

[Igel]

42. What's up with turkey stockpiles lower than usual? n/t

[truthisfreedom]

44. That looks great except for turkey.

[mahina]

45. Teaching a whole country how to eat differently

Let’s give that some thought.
I Certainly see the upside for health and for the animals and for the environment. Have to figure out a way for the poor people who work in those factories to live

[femmedem]

46. I'm fine eating beans but I'm worried about a breakdown in the cat food supply chain.

Has anyone heard about that as a possibility? I googled this morning but didn't find it on anyone's radar, but it seems inevitable if there's a meat and poultry shortage.

I'd be devastated if I couldn't feed my cats.