Last Updated on April 24, 2020 by Mark P.
Crude oil is cheaper than most items on a McDonald’s dollar menu. Airlines are flying empty planes in order to maintain hanger privileges. And now people are starting to realize that hoarding toilet paper may not have been such a good idea since the stores keep managing to stock shelves on a daily basis. However, as we hit month two of a nation under lockdown, we as a nation might soon begin to encounter the true impact of this pandemic as supply lines and providers worry of a potential food shortage coming to a neighborhood near you in the near future.
Louis Wasser from RedTea.com reports that the longer the lockdown remains, the more you should consider storing in “excess of the normal 2-3 weeks worth of food at home.” Wasser states that right now “we’re seeing reports that Smithfield is having to shut down one of its meat processing plants in South Dakota, which alone has seen about a third of the documented coronavirus cases in the state.” If this affects other plants, “don’t be surprised to see the meat shelves at your local store as empty as a Soviet grocery store. Now is the time to start stocking up your freezers and cupboards, so that you’ll be able to get by once times get tough.”
If you think this is typical media fear-mongering, think again. Wasser points at that many farmers are currently forced to start “dumping milk by the millions of gallons due to not being able to sell it, and they’re pushing their dairy cattle into meat auctions. But with slaughterhouses struggling to find workers to keep up with that increased supply, and some having to shut down because of COVID-19, there’s a very good chance that much of that meat may end up going to waste.”
Vegetarians aren’t out of the fray either, “Millions of points of vegetables are already rotting in fields because farmers can’t find workers to harvest them. So while we would hope that food supplies would increase and prices would decrease, that won’t necessarily be the case.”
So what is the big takeaway from this impending struggle? “You can never be too prepared, and you can’t afford to be complacent.” If you were worried about potentially running out of toilet paper, avoid having to learn what it would be not to be able to feed yourself, nonetheless your own family.
