Wuhan Flu: The Supply Chain Is Not Ok

More here.

This is a good time to start sourcing locally — we buy beef by the quarter for a fraction of grocery store pricing. Here’s one such example: 4H beef clubs

26 Replies to “Wuhan Flu: The Supply Chain Is Not Ok”

  1. Well, you said, long ago that we need a famine, and here it is! Our vegan friends and animal activists will be cheering and bowing to Gaia.

    1. Seriously. Buy one of more 20 lb bags of whole wheat flour, learn how to make sourdough starter and sourdough bread from a basic recipe. You can make sourdough starter from flour and water.
      Go to the Pharmacy, buy a couple of bottles of Centrum multivitamins. It’ll keep you alive and healthy.

      These recipes are a tad more complex. But they are fun to watch.
      https://youtu.be/t2gM3bpVOAg
      https://youtu.be/x1g3Hw4kB0w

  2. This is an ideal application for employees showing up to work getting a rapid test in under 3 minutes.
    Is this an opportunity for an industry to cause shortages? Thereby increasing pork prices for a long time. The farmer is locked into contracts if they are part of a supply chain, but for how long?? These contracts give market stability to both parties. I once had a non pork supply chain contract and it was negotiated annually….
    Venezuelan style food inflation starts 9am Monday morning at your local grocery store

    1. I’m in Oz, so I’m asking any knowledgeable Canadians if they remember the recent collapse and destruction of the Chinese pig herd, because of African Swine fever.

      Supplementary, do you also recall the “raids” on Canadian (and US) pork supplies to pick up the missing supply?

      Then there was something similar to what has happened with beef here in Oz; the “vertical integration” of the pork chain, from Pen to Chinese Plate.

      Just wondering if anything else exciting has occurred.

      1. Neepawa Manitoba has a big Hy-Line pork processing plant. They have been absolutely draconian with their employees about distancing and not coming in if you are ill. Every employee gets interviewed on arrival at work, being meat processing they are all wearing N95 masks, and rigorous spacing is used in any place employees might congregate. They make it really easy to take time off if you or a family member are ill. So far they have had no issues. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of you.

  3. Not just livestock processors. They are just the first. Maybe because the cold confined inside working areas make them more susceptible? Or that many are illegals, excuse me, undocumented workers?

    What about anything made in a modern assembly line method?
    Cookies, crackers, soups, breads, bottling, etc.
    cars, appliances, ?
    Workers are performing tasks in close quarters, breathing each others air.

    If the problem is iilegal workers, expect it to expand to produce farms.

  4. Decide on using Hydroxy-chloroquine as prophylaxis for critical category workers, food, utilities, emergency workers, deployed naval vessels, truckers! That is one way it is used in areas with malaria.

  5. Fun fact

    The places this will be felt first and hardest are those places that vote Democrat in the states (aka NY and LA) and liberal in Canada (aka the MTV).

    That’s not what I want, but, this is what the new green deal looks like.

    1. Why bother? So you can stay locked in your house and starve to death? We are headed back to the dark ages, and coding will become irrelevant.

      1. Not entirely true, I’m going to learn Mandarin ,and a little Koran to hedge my bets as well, and then report on all my Liberal lefty neighbors to our new masters when the time comes.

        Sorry but they left us no choice.

  6. I have long been buying my beef from a small local butcher that does grass fed beef pasture to store. They will be swamped if there are shortages of meat and they have limited capacity. I have long been considering being another freezer and buying beef a side t a time since that’s their preferred selling method. Maybe it’s time.

    1. I was thinking the same but a friend of mine who had been dithering about buying a freezer says there are none to be found. (I haven’t looked myself.)

  7. So these people tested positive for the virus, but were they sick? That’s the thing. Most people do not get that sick. This is a very bad sign. Personally, I don’t think these excessive measures are warranted.

  8. Panic, quick! No discussion of real mortality rates. ( here’s a tip…unless you test everyone or massively test randomly and with effective statistical distribution…then any quoted mortality rates are bogus) No discussion of treatments. No discussion of preemptive hchloroquine therapy. No mention of year on year death rates in US and Canada due to all causes. (3000000 and 300000 a year btw). No discussion of death rates of non covid flu and pneumonia .Were the 290 meat plant workers ill or just +ve??? 5% suspension of pork processing…how about eating 20% less pork for a couple months then….and?…so?? Ill tell you what the endless compulsive fearmongering and kneejerk over reaction is the real issue here and is the real ‘it’s probably nothing’.

    1. Mortality rates? The real mortality rate remains at 100%, eventually. I’ve heard/seen several reports that there are few if any deaths caused by influenza any more, so I suppose that’s the bright side of CoViD19. It has cured the flu.

      (Road traffic accidents and workplace injuries are probably down quite a bit, too.)

  9. Listening to Rush last week and a caller said he was a site manager on a construction project in NY. Last year in November and December the site crew, about 200 employees, all had a pneumonia like sickness during that period. He mentioned that construction workers, seldom if ever get paid sick days off and as a result they generally come to work unless they are really affected. It would be interesting to know if these workers were tested would they show antibodies to the virus and if that is the case then it could be concluded that the vast majority of those infected will recover and closing the economy was an overreach of safety. Of interest is the number of ‘experts’ that were holdovers from the Obama administration advising Trump. The Democrats have tried every which way to Sunday to undo the 2016 election. The FBI, DOJ, even the IRA, were used to thwart conservative/Republicans in their support of Trump and now perhaps the upper echelon of the CDC could be placed in that group. To the Democrats “the end justifies the means”, you have to ask how far would they push that mantra. Even now the CDC has pushed the Hydroxychloroquine out of the equation since it is not ‘approved’. If this pandemic had happened six years ago I wonder what would have happened.

  10. Was it the food inspectors forcing the company. Why create fear shutting down the whole plant instead shut down SOME of their lines??
    Smithfield should have adequate food safety protocols to continue operating.
    One directive is that if you are sick, stay home until you are medically cleared.
    Masks work, so wear them. Everyone should be gloved and likely are.
    Wear freshly laundered clothing to work every day.
    Instead theres the reaction…
    Save yourselves. Throw money. More, MORE, MOAARRR.
    The media publishes articles creating the frenzy. It’s what they live on.
    The Eagles sing Don Henleys Dirty Laundry
    https://youtu.be/0AhZ5lmLacI

    1. “Why create fear shutting down the whole plant”

      Keep the kill floor and shipping open. Ship whole carcasses. The hams and bacon might not be cured but they are still very edible.

  11. I pulled the quote below from a posting today on Don Surber’s site. 40% (293) of South Dakota’s Covid-19 cases have come from the hog processing plant. s/ No word on how often mainland Chinese have visited. Probably nothing to see here. /s

    “Red China owned Smithfield Foods shut down its largest plant.
    The Associated Press reported, “Virginia-based Smithfield Foods announced Sunday that it is closing its pork processing plant in Sioux Falls until further notice after hundreds of employees tested positive for the corona virus — a step the head of the company warned could hurt the nation’s meat supply.”

    This Wikipedia (yes, I know) article may be of interest regarding how big Smithfield is and some detail of its purchase by the Chinese.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithfield_Foods

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