This is what concerns as many people have acted like the economy only effects rich people, or any move that trades the economy for lives is inherently immoral.<p>Food falls under the economy, the economy isn't just the stock market or things rich people do rich people things in. The economy is the vast network stretching across the globe that works to supply goods and services in the places they are needed, when the economy starts shutting down so do a lot of things we need for daily life. All the government stimulus in the world isn't going to help anyone if there aren't goods to purchase.
More stories about how covid19 is really screwing up other parts of the supply chain<p>Farmers being forced to pour milk down the drain:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/freshairfarmer/status/1247876205564526593?s=21" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/freshairfarmer/status/124787620556452659...</a><p>Retail toilet paper manufacturers not setup to handle load from people pooping at home instead of work (and corporate TP factories don't know how to sell to grocery stores):<p><a href="https://marker.medium.com/what-everyones-getting-wrong-about-the-toilet-paper-shortage-c812e1358fe0" rel="nofollow">https://marker.medium.com/what-everyones-getting-wrong-about...</a><p>Covid testing blocked because of equipment regulations:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/paulmromer/status/1249115887413743616" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/paulmromer/status/1249115887413743616</a>
One pet peeve I have with this article is that it doesn't explicitly state the cause of the shutdowns are Corona virus infected employees until half way through. I was 90% sure, but there was still a chance of coincidence.<p>Anyway the meat industry isn't special. The whole economy needs to run on stocked up supplies and skeleton crews for a while. That's why its so important to get this right the first time. If the lock down only consists of half-measures and the crisis is prolonged there aren't enough supplies to take another shot at it. Scarily, I'm seeing a whole lot of half-measures right now.
One thing no one has mentioned in all these articles I've read. Everyone mentions we have about a week of meat in cold storage, and that the level of meat production is falling below typical demand.<p>But it's not like the spigot is turning off / we're stopping all production. What's it falling to? If it's 85% of typical demand, that storage will stretch for awhile, especially because many people may be choosing cheaper staples to consume.
I am concerned that efforts to mitigate the damage from Covid-19 might open a window for African Swine Flu to spread to the US. China has culled 40% of their 440M pig population fighting the virus. There are promising vaccines in the works, but until they come to market a domestic pork viral outbreak could easily get out of hand while we are focused on C19.<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00742-w" rel="nofollow">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00742-w</a>
I wonder if a meat shortage that causes people who previously hadn't eaten plant substitutes, will be enough to let plant substitute companies take a bigger chunk of the meat market for good.
"the economy" is not any one thing, and this additional story is not enhancing any "the economy" argument. It correctly means everyone should be getting in line to sacrifice. And quite seriously HNers haven't sacrificed near enough. Most are working from home. Most are getting paid. Most have decent health care plans they don't have to worry about.<p>I've been reading HN for six years, and near as I can tell the vast majority don't support any health care rights, let alone universal health care. It's generally acceptable on HN that companies can fire people for being sick for too many days. There's no federally mandated sick leave at all. HNer's don't care about that.<p>I have more sympathy for HN interns who have lost their internships, except about 10 seconds later I remember just how young they are. They'll be fine.<p>And there are all the delivery persons, sacrificing more than most anyone that has the luxury of reading or writing here.<p>Very little is made on HN about how disproportionately health care workers are sacrificing family, sanity, health, and their lives. For no extra pay. They don't tend to get things like bonus pay at the end of the year, common among the HN crowd. Essential workers, most especially the ones stocking grocery stores full of jerks who refuse to wear masks or socially distance, likewise have no health care rights. They don't get bonus pay. If they get sick and are out of work for two months, they aren't assured they will be paid for time they didn't work. HN doesn't care about that. Routinely arguing against "socialist" laws that should try and make life actually fair, as contrary to the free market. Whatever that is.<p>And very little is recognized on HN about the consequences about "reopening" or "resuming" the economy on health care workers. It is a defacto demand: we own you; you are our slaves; you must work to protect us; work harder; sacrifice your lives; and above all, when the inevitably higher case load explodes you will choose who lives and dies. That is your job. To decide. And live with the scar of having chosen who lives and who dies. Deal with it. That is the demand behind every single "reopen" argument.<p>Maybe let's try to avoid freaking out about maybe not having dead pig on our sandwiches? It's degrading.<p>Those workers at shut down plants? They should have unemployment benefits pay them in the vicinity of 80%, at the least. That is not the system we have. HNer's don't care about that. It would be a competitive disincentive to free markets if the government were to compete with shit jobs no one really wants.<p>You know, and then there's the minority who consider universal basic income and universal health care from time to time. And I'm not talking about them. They're they minority on HN, near as I can tell.<p>South Korea has twice the population of NY state, and yet NY state has 62x the deaths. ROK and the U.S. had their first confirmed cases a day apart. It should humiliate every American what has transpired. Federal, state, parties, free market - across the board the result of deaths proves a culture wide incompetency. It's embarrassing.
It's not commonly known but Vegetables, Grains and Beans are extremely excellent sources of protein. Most of them have between 10-20% or more of their calories from protein. if you want exact numbers, check out this: <a href="https://kale.world/c" rel="nofollow">https://kale.world/c</a><p>And, if people reduce their meat consumption form these shortages, it could have excellent results on people's health. The last time a country went completely without meat or dairy was in durring the world war, when the Nazis took all the dairy and meat from Sweden. Their rate of heart disease went down dramatically for many years. As soon as the war ended and meat returned, the rate of heart disease sky rocketed back to the original numbers. (source: Forks over knives, a netflix documentary).