Senator Marion Michael Rounds is calling on the federal government (you know, the one run by his pal Donald Trump) to stop sending unclear signals and create a plan to protect America’s food production system. However, the actions Senator Rounds proposes in his letter to Vice-President Mike Pence (because everyone knows Donald Trump doesn’t read anything) show that he can’t offer any clearer guidance on what to do than the White House does.
Senator Rounds says we need federal “guidance” to replace the “patchwork of well-intended, but wildly inconsistent state and local approaches” to food supply and public health. Ah, yes, one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington—it’s always fun to see a crisis discombobulate Republicans and their talking points. But in calling for federal guidance, Rounds is asking someone else to come up with a plan, since he apparently sorely lacks problem-solving capacity.
Rounds does say that the federal government should put food factories next in line behind hospitals and first responders for personal protective equipment. Senator Rounds does not explain what PPE he thinks the feds can hand out, since the Trump Administration stood in the way of PPE distribution, bid against states for PPE, depleted the federal stockpile of PPE, and now is raiding masks from the Veterans Health Administration to bolster its supplies. And Senator Rounds’s suggestion that PPE be distributed based on economic and strategic needs runs counter to the Trump Administration’s PPE patronage policy: masks go to friends first.
Senator Rounds then makes vague proposals for creating an “incident command center” to deal with livestock growers’ mass herd-cullings and, apparently, mobilizing federal resources to help kill hogs:
We will support efforts by USDA to direct the meat processing industry to establish a system to allow some non-operating plants to serve as emergency locations to assist farmers and ranchers with depopulation.
The nation’s governors will need to work closely with the USDA, state veterinarians and industry to streamline these processes. Measures may include emergency declarations for temporary overstocking of facilities, identification of centralized disposal sites and mobilization of the National Guard to help farmers, ranchers and industry expedite this action with some semblance of humanity [Sen. Mike Rounds, letter, posted by KELO Radio, 2020.04.26].
Expedite this action with some semblance of humanity—Senator Rounds is really dancing around the specifics here. Why not just say, “Send out the National Guard with rifles and shovels and shoot and bury all those excess pigs?” Or better yet, why not propose a bolder plan to convert those hogs into food relief for millions of unemployed Americans?
The third plank of Senator Rounds’s proposal is USDA funding for mass killing and burial of excess livestock. I suppose that’s the easiest part of the plan: as Senator Rounds notes, Congress has already manufactured nearly three trillion dollars in deficit spending to provide coronavirus relief; a few more billion for pig shootings and burials won’t be hard to pencil into the imaginary budget.
Senator Rounds’s “plan” is vague in part because of his persistent hesitance speak directly. But his “plan” to help livestock producers is vague more because he just can’t wrap his head around the need for the inherent failures of the federally subsidized ag-industrial complex and mass-production model he has championed. Instead of flailing about for emergency guidance and assistance from a federal government that, under Trump, is unable to provide either, Senator Rounds should get creative and look for ways to help farmers get back to farming and feeding their neighbors. Stop subsidizing factory feedlots; offer direct federal assistance to small growers and local butchers and meat lockers. Don’t send the National Guard to bury hogs; set up well-spaced field tents, replace our weekend warriors, rifles with knives, and start making bacon! That’s federal pork we all can enjoy!
Now, Mikey, don’t be criticizing the administration you have back to the hilt. You and Stretch enabled these folks. Don’t turn on them now. It appears as tho Mikey is in the same boat as the rest of us, not knowing where to turn. My advice at this point, Mikey, keep your fingers in your ears. Keep your eyes closed. And keep your d@%& mouth shut. !@#%^&*
Invoke the 25th amendment on Trump or just have a 1 day quickie impeachment and get rid of Trump. Trump is making things worse by the day. This country is never going to recover as long at Trump is in office. Trump is a joke that no one is paying attention to. If Trump did not have such a big ego and had some common sense, he would see that himself and would resign.
Instead we will be going from Trump to Biden as our president and that is not going to be much of an improvement IMO.
USDA let tens of millions of pounds of food rot while food banks went wanting.
“Tens of millions of pounds of American-grown produce is rotting in fields as food banks across the country scramble to meet a massive surge in demand, a two-pronged disaster that has deprived farmers of billions of dollars in revenue while millions of newly jobless Americans struggle to feed their families.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/26/food-banks-coronavirus-agriculture-usda-207215
Tyson’s seeking to euthanize and lay waste to 2 million chickens — while lines at food banks are overwhelming. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/25/us/chickens-depopulated-delmarva-plants-delaware-maryland/index.html
It would be an interesting time be in the SD National Guard if the senator gets his way. The SD NG could consider changing their shoulder patch from the puking coyote to the pig police.
Shouldn’t outfits like Smithfield and Tyson be the ones paying for and providing the PPE for their employees??
Maybe they should pay the National Guard for this target practice and heavy machinery training ??
Maybe let average folks “Pick a Pig” like going to one of those “self-harvest” orchards or salvage auto parts lots??
CNN showed Mike in his dressing room getting ready to go on air. He was looking in a mirror and pulling what looked like orange pubic hairs out from between his teeth.
Why bother to euthanize hogs, just bury them. If memory serves the US military buried hundreds of live Iraqi soldiers in the sand during the first gulf war.
Using plows mounted on tanks and combat earthmovers, the U.S. Army division that broke through Saddam Hussein’s defensive front line buried thousands of Iraqi soldiers–some still alive and firing their weapons–in more than 70 miles of trenches, according to U.S. Army officials.Sep 12, 1991
LOL Bob Newland, Good one.
Smithfield should hire gunslingers to kill these animals and to dispose of them. Why should taxpayer money be used?
Why isn’t capitalism fixing this? People want food. It it takes more money to produce that food (workers must be in hazmat suits) then business must pass that cost on to consumers. That is the free market; that is supply and demand. If the market dictates that bacon goes up to $10.00 a pound, then that is the new price.
But it seems the argument REALLY being made here is that the free market does not work. We let gloss along wit profit when things are going well, but at the first hint of disaster, socialism has to bail out the businesses. That is my issue, I think the industry (in this case food – before housing) needs to be preserved; I just think we have seen the evidence that free market is NOT how to best preserve industry. Socialism cannot be expected to pick up the tab when times are bad and let free market reap the profits when times are good. We have structured an economic system that works — as long as nothing bad ever happens.
Buckobear, this is nothing new. We have been supplementing WalMart “low prices” by paying taxes so their workers could collect welfare; we pay for oil clean ups so that oil companies can keep their “prices low.” Why should the “low price” of pork be any different? Those proces are low BECAUSE tax payer funds supplement that industry.
Maybe the Covid-19 will expose the base untruth of “free marker capitalism.”
On that note, I see Cuomo is speaking openly about “bailing out states” and how blue states – especially NY — have been bailing out red state budgets for years to answer the hypocrisy of the Fed balking at helping struggling states or calling them “poorly managed.”
Meanwhile we passed a million cases of drumpf’s hoax today…..
Last updated: April 27, 2020, 20:12 GMT
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,004,487
Deaths:
56,491
Mike from Iowa, I knew that, with this leadership, we could do it, and do it faster than any other nation in the world.
Moar interesting stats about drumpf’s hoax….
Last updated: April 27, 2020, 21:06 GMT
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,004,942
Deaths:
56,527
Recovered:
137,591
CLOSED CASES
194,118
Cases which had an outcome:
137,591 (71%)
Recovered / Discharged
56,527 (29%)
Deaths
my god, a MILLLION? Can’t say I’m surprised, but it’s still shocking and will continue to be throughout the summer. Yes, the recovered/discharged figures are comforting, but many of us don’t expect that to be the case for us individually. So it’s still disturbing. Trump is on right now trying to ramp up the “empathy” temperature.
I know it’s a hypothetical example, but it just seems to me that if bacon goes to $10.00 a pound, then the working classes below upper middle will not be buying bacon, so meat plants will be losing that portion of the market, so people will be losing jobs, which makes them unable to support their families.
Maybe “American Innovation” can invent a new kind of bacon–tofu for the light strips and turkey dark meat for the rest?
Remember, those million can get it again too. The trump virus, the gift that keeps on giving…order it today!
I don’t know if they still grow potatoes near Clark, but they used to have a french fry plant there, 1980. People were allowed to scavenge the fields after harvest for imperfect spuds that had been left. In addition, there were 50 pound bags of spuds rejected at the plant for $10.
I wonder if they’d allow people to glean the produce fields before plowing them under? Or let folks buy a hog for a small amount? Why not?
“Moar?” Seriously? “Moar?”
Slick mike talking again wheres the half dusty
A local hog producer (hesitate to call them farmers) friend of mine has about 8-10 hogs a day he would like to even give away – IF only someone to butcher them could be found. Has searched high and low for a butcher and closest one with any “available capacity” (not fully booked up) was over 100 miles away. Shooting them and burying them instead. I’m sure there are plenty more who would gladly just give you one for your own (butchery, or yard tilling pet) if you would come and get ’em.
Richard S
Don’t know where your from but Kirkpatrick locker begging for beef and hogs Let’s make food not graves
Hope he can work something out to get them there
This makes me sick, this article, we can’t think beyond euthanasia?
We can’t come up with butchering techniques mobile, instead of command centers? We can’t come up with poultry processing or programs to transport the flocks to make eggs? Kill kill kill is all we can come up with in these circumstances? We should be embarrassed and ashamed at this modern day thinking….
Richard, if you’re talking to me, I live in Minnesota and have the know how but not the space or equipment to butcher anything bigger than fowl.
I agree though, the waste coupled with dire need is heartbreaking.
Mr. Schriever, you should not sell Ms. Geelsdottir short. If your friend shipped her 2 or 3 hogs a day, I bet she could get it done if she put her mind to it.
Could we put those out of work people to work, butchering the hogs, for their free meat? Oh…wait…that’s what they were already doing when they were at work. It is a bit of a conundrum, iddnit?
Another idea would be to just give everybody a lot of free money and then they can go to the store where the meat comes from. Oh, wait…
I know, how about everybody plant a farmer’s market garden in their back yard, and shoot the deer that try to eat it. Then eat the deer. But I know that’s mean to the wild and cute critters.
It was so much better when the bacon just appeared in the grocery stores, already hickory smoked and embedded with a crust of pepper. Those days aren’t gone, you just have to fork out a few more sheckles. Capitalism will fix the pricing and the supply eventually. Because bacon is a big part, behind sausage, of what drives our economy. You can’t have breakfast without bacon and sausage gravy. And those damned Idahovians are really putting a squeeze on the potato market.
“Hunger Increases Your Risk of Chronic Diseases. According to the USDA, there is a strong connection between hunger and chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. In fact, 58% of the households that receive food from the Feeding America network have one member with high blood pressure. And 33% have a member with diabetes.”
Food would be a good start to bring down the hog numbers. By nationalizing the processing, the process lines could slow down and be able to function with social distancing.
Or, we destroy the hog market and the beef market, as it is, and use soybeans for lab produced food. Whatever we do, we better get after it or we may see more and more hungry people with nothing to lose. This is not just here, it’s worldwide. We lack the immigrants who have always worked the fields and have always worked the processing centers for our food. We have thrown those immigrants out and have savaged them badly. So, I guess we can always bake our AR-15’s or slice them up for salads.
Maybe some Kibbles and Bits mixed with mayo and then eat Old Shep while he still has some meat on his bones.
I thought we elected people to solve problems, not to shoot and bury them.
“Moar?” Seriously? “Moar?” We ploughed this ground once, counselor.
Moar articles for you mfi, This one comes courtesy of Daily Kos with research. See if you like it and if not, I won’t send you any moar.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/27/1940907/-Covid-19-State-by-State-Iowa-4-27-20-Well-it-s-even-worse-than-I-expected?utm_campaign=recent
Jerry, i pay little attention to Reynolds, she is, after all, from the Terry Braindead line of numbnut pols, and I totally ignored him. Thanks for the link. My county actually has seven cases and three have cleared up.
mfi, Terrible Terry is the ambassador to China. Where the hell was he during this Covid 19 breakout? Braindead left Iowa to fend for herself, typical trumpian lemming cult.
Haven’t heard a peep out of the perp, Jerry. Maybe the hogs ate him. OTOH,if I never hear a peep from him it won’t hurt my feelings.
King, Grassley and Kuturnutzov have been silent as well. Lucky me.
Might be behind the times, but, I just saw where a second plant worker has died of Covid-19 in South Dakota.
I have a feeling that these 3 Minnesota GOP Congressmen are not going to be hanging out at the pork plants themselves. Since the lege isn’t meeting, these guys could spend a few days helping out at the plants.
BTW, it’s not Fetid Flatulence’s decision to open or close a plant. Hagedorn, Emmer and Stauber just want him to harass Gov. Walz about it. Yep, they’re all in for Minnesota. 🙄🙄
Bring Me the News, no paywall
is.gd/IPDaq2
Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension livestock marketing specialist, has some thoughts on cattle raising and marketing. My take is that he thinks the current system is best. Read it for yourself and see if he makes sense.
is.gd/6KxM65
Here’s a plan I highly recommend. (Found on Numlock News by Walt Hickey.)
Snake River Farms in Idaho donated prized Wagyu steaks to the Francisco-Marin Food Bank, as well as several other food distribution services in the Bay Area. With restaurants closed up, their main customers are not buying, so the farm donated the beef that will be divided into 35,000 steaks and was estimated to be worth $2 million. It’ll go to aid families in the San Francisco area, with 50,000 households asking for food assistance.
Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle
JBS is crying that those enormous, hyper powerful unions are picking on poor little packers.
“JBS has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the union that represents its workers, arguing that it ‘has adopted a strategy of generating negative media attention and public opinion’ to gain concessions from the company.”
That’s something JBS knows all about.
is.gd/3FsxWa (no paywall)