FAMINE AFTER THE PANDEMIC?

Mountain of spuds discarded by Idaho farmers
Some farmers in Idaho have such extreme surpluses that they are dumping potato crops, and dairy farms have begun feeding the potatoes to their cattle.


Farmers Dump Milk, Break Eggs as Coronavirus Restaurant Closings Destroy DemandProducers are throttling back as the virus erases sales to restaurants, hotels and cafeterias; ‘It was heart-wrenching’. 


Thousands of acres of Florida fruits, veggies left to rot amid coronavirus pandemic
Farmers can't sell them to restaurants, theme parks or schools nationwide right now.
Other states are having the same issues — agriculture officials say leafy greens in California are being hit especially hard, and dairy farmers in Vermont and Wisconsin say they have had to dump a surplus of milk intended for restaurants.

For example, a few dozen people clamored to buy 25-pound boxes of Roma tomatoes direct from a packing plant over the weekend in Palmetto, a city on the western coast.

The cost per box? Just $5.

“This is a catastrophe,” tomato grower Tony DiMare, who owns farms in south Florida and the Tampa Bay area said. “We haven’t even started to calculate it. It’s going to be in the millions of dollars. Losses mount every day.”

Florida leads the U.S. in harvesting tomatoes, green beans, cabbage and peppers this time of year. While some of the crops are meant for grocery stores, many farmers cater solely to the so-called food service market — restaurants, schools and theme parks — hit hard as cities and states have ordered people to stay home and avoid others.

The loss has created a domino effect through the farming industry, Florida’s second-largest economic driver. It yields $155 billion in revenue and supports about 2 million jobs.

Many growers have donated produce to food banks, but there’s a limit on what the charities can accept and storage is an issue for perishable fruits and vegetables.


'Dairymen are really struggling': Pandemic forcing some Idaho dairy producers to dump milk


ADD TO THIS THE FLOODS ACROSS THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE NATION AND DROUGHTS IN PARTS OF FLORIDA AND THE WEST COAST, MAKING PLANTING DIFFICULT FOR MANY FARMS.


THE NEXT NEW 'PANDEMIC' WILL BE HUNGER, JUST AS WE SAW WHEN VENEZUELA'S ECONOMY COLLAPSED.
IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME. 

The world is facing widespread famine “of biblical proportions” because of the coronavirus pandemic, the chief of the UN’s food relief agency has warned, with a short time to act before hundreds of millions starve.

More than 30 countries in the developing world could experience widespread famine, and in 10 of those countries there are already more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation, said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme.

“We are not talking about people going to bed hungry,” he told the Guardian in an interview. “We are talking about extreme conditions, emergency status – people literally marching to the brink of starvation. If we don’t get food to people, people will die.”

What appears to be certain is that the fragile healthcare systems of scores of developing countries will be unable to cope, and the economic disaster following in the wake of the pandemic will lead to huge strain on resources.


“This is truly more than just a pandemic – it is creating a hunger pandemic,” said Beasley. “This is a humanitarian and food catastrophe.”

Beasley took his message to the UN security council on Tuesday, warning world leaders that they must act quickly in a fast-deteriorating situation. He urged them to bring forward about $2bn (£1.6bn) of aid that has been pledged, so it can get to the frontline as quickly as possible.

Another $350m (£285m) is also needed to set up the logistics network to get food and medical supplies – including personal protective equipment – to where it is needed, including air bridges where ground transport is impossible.

Even before the Covid-19 crisis, Beasley was appealing to donor countries to up food relief funding to the poorest, because conflict and natural disaster were putting severe strain on food systems.

“I was already saying that 2020 would be the worst year since the second world war, on the basis of what we forecast at the end of last year,” he said. Added to that, earlier this year East Africa was hit by the worst locust swarms for decades, putting as many as 70 million people at risk.

But the Covid-19 pandemic, which no one could have foreseen, has “taken us to uncharted territory”, he said. “Now, my goodness, this is a perfect storm. We are looking at widespread famines of biblical proportions.”

According to a report produced by the UN and other organisations on Thursday, at least 265 million people are being pushed to the brink of starvation by the Covid-19 crisis, double the number under threat before the pandemic.

None of those looming deaths from starvation are inevitable, said Beasley. “If we get money, and we keep the supply chains open, we can avoid famine,” he said. “We can stop this if we act now.”

He said the situation even four weeks from now was impossible to forecast, stressing that donors must act with urgency. He urged countries not to put in place export bans or other restrictions on the supply of food across borders, which would lead to shortages.

But Beasley also warned that staving off the threat of famine would take months, so assistance would be needed well beyond the initial response. “Our grave concern is that we could begin to put Covid-19 behind us [in developed countries] in three or four months, and then the money runs out,” he said. “And if the money runs out people will die.”

Last year, the World Food Programme assisted about 100 million people in desperation, with a budget of about $7.5bn (£6bn). “I could easily see that need [for budget] doubling,” said Beasley.

Money alone will not be enough, he added. It is difficult for relief workers to get through lockdowns around the world and set up air bridges when transport is paralysed. “We need money and access – not one or the other, both.”

Also crucial is ensuring that supply chains stay open in the face of lockdowns and the difficulty of getting workers into the fields to tend crops if they are sick or unable to travel easily. “If the supply chain breaks down, people can’t get food – and if they can’t get food for long enough, they will die,” said Beasley.

“We are in this together. We can stop this becoming a widespread famine. But we need to act quickly and smartly.”


NOT LONG AGO, THE PHOTO BELOW WAS TAKEN FROM THE AIR WHEN A SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS FOOD BANK OPENED UP.

THERE WERE REPORTEDLY OVER 6,000 CARS LINED UP TO GET WHATEVER FOOD WAS TO BE HAD. 




Everything wrong with our food system has been made worse by the pandemic
More than two million euthanized chickens in Maryland, Delaware, and Minnesota recently joined the growing list of COVID-19 victims. Decreased demand for fresh food and workforce shortages caused by the pandemic are sending industrial food waste skyrocketing.

A pandemic-related spike in animal food waste and rising demand for plant-based alternatives brings more farmers to a critical crossroads: continue to raise animals, or grow crops instead. The millions of lost lives and countless pounds of dumped food exacerbate the existing problems of an already wasteful industry.


Five threats to US food supply chains

The coronavirus pandemic has upended food supply chains, led to closures of meat-producing plants, and left Americans with the unsettling experience of seeing empty shelves at supermarkets.

Here are five of the major challenges facing food supply chains.

1--Virus outbreaks at food plants

One vulnerable spot in the nation’s food supply chains is processing plants, where workers often stand in close quarters as they prepare food to be delivered to grocery stores and wholesale customers. The close proximity has increased the risk of outbreaks in the plants. Last week, Smithfield Foods [OWNED BY A CHINESE COMPANY. CHINA IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A RISING SWINE FLU EPIDERMIC IN ITS PIGS] ], the world’s largest pork producer, shut down a pork processing plant that accounts for up to 5 percent of production after more than 500 of its workers were infected. One worker has died from COVID-19.

Other processors, including Tysons Food, Cargill and JBS, have also been forced to close plants after workers got sick.


2--Agricultural reliance on guest workers

President Trump announced Monday that he would “suspend immigration” but is reportedly not planning to include guest worker programs in the ban.

One likely reason is that America’s agricultural sector depends heavily on foreign workers to pick crops. Last year, nearly 250,000 foreign workers were employed in American agriculture.

The pandemic and some of the policies surrounding it could be a problem for farmers and their workers.


3--Supply chain mismatches

Even as some grocery store aisles are empty and food banks clamor for donations, some agricultural businesses are resorting to spilling or throwing away huge quantities of food.

Some $5 billion of fresh fruits and vegetables have already gone to waste, according to the Produce Marketing Association, an industry trade group. Some dairies have been pouring thousands of gallons of milk down the drain.

The reason is that the country's supply chains are set for normal times, when people get a significant amount of food from restaurants and many kids eat lunch and drink a carton of milk at school.

Those supply chains are struggling to adapt to the lockdown reality in which most Americans are confined to home.

Grocery stores don't have relationships with wholesale producers, which in turn do not have the facilities for packaging and selling food in a way people are used to seeing it on shelves.

The 50-pound bags of flour that mills sell to large bakeries, for example, are of little use to people buying for a family of four.


4--Increased food insecurity

Even before the pandemic began, 37 million people were considered food insecure, according to Monica Hake, a senior research manager at Feeding America, a hunger-prevention group.

The economic downturn from the coronavirus is only set to make that number rise.

In late March, Hake projected that a 7.6-point rise in the unemployment rate would increase the number of food-insecure people by 17.1 million.

So far, more than 20 million people have applied for unemployment, which economists say translates to a roughly 15 percent unemployment rate, up 11.5 points from before the pandemic.

But with most schools closed through the end of the year, children who often rely on school meals face particular challenges.

5--Crunch on delivery capacity

As more and more cities have locked down, the problem of how to get food into people's homes has grown.

People practicing stringent social distancing have resorted to grocery deliveries, leaving delivery services strapped for workers.

Grocery stores have had to implement new cleaning and social distancing guidelines and in many places are limiting the number of shoppers allowed in at a time. They require customers to wait in lines outside, six feet apart, and wear face masks in the stores.

That's taken a tough toll on the grocery store workers, whom states such as Minnesota have deemed essential.

Delivery people and grocery store workers alike face increased risks of getting sick.
Given the low pay and benefits often associated with the work, an uptick in COVID-19 cases among workers could make the positions harder to fill.
CONSIDER THE LONG-TERM EFFECT OF UNEMPLOYMENT DURING THIS PANDEMIC.

Famine among poor and vulnerable people can result from multiple causes, as Amartya Sen demonstrated in his book 'Poverty and Famines'.
Sen cited examples in which there was no decline in the total amount of food available.

The problem was its distribution among people and over time.
And here, markets and other institutions play a crucial role.

Lockdowns can disrupt the production and distribution of food, alongside a collapse in poor people's earnings and higher food prices.
We are learning that today's food supply chains have vulnerabilities, even in rich countries.

Limited state capacity will also aggravate many developing countries' challenges in combating the pandemic. Because public administration tends to be weaker in poorer countries, some of the measures that rich countries have introduced are simply not feasible. Adaptation to local administrative capabilities is essential.


When serious shortages begin appearing in more and more locations, and no restocking is taking place, that will be a big red flag that it’s about to get really bad.

Week after week, I find almost NO meat products in local grocery stores, few staples like rice, beans, pastas, still no toilet paper unless you're there when the doors open and the mad rush flows in. 
Produce just isn't coming back in quantity. 
It's just about impossible to find ingredients for a simple salad in our tiny rural community. 
I'm hoping local farmers will begin offering such items soon.
If not....

We may not see recovery from this soon enough. 
We may find ourselves in a situation comparable to when a hurricane hits an area, or a major flood happens....just nowhere to deliver food where it can be safely stored to keep it fresh, nowhere to go to buy it. 

Hopefully not.

Maybe not.

But keep your ears to the ground…
We've all read of sporadic mini-riots because of the inavailability of food when this first began, but when we hear of things like that DAILY, we likely won't be able to recover in time to prevent the panic spreading.

I PRAY BOTH I AND THE 'EXPERTS' ARE WRONG, BUT AS I'VE WRITTEN HERE MANY TIMES, "WHOEVER CONTROLS THE FOOD, CONTROLS THE WORLD", AND IT IS ALL ABOUT CONTROL, ISN'T IT?








//WW