
An Idaho farm is giving away two million potatoes as coronavirus has hurt demand - prostoalex
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/us/potato-dump-coronavirus-trnd/index.html
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sigmaprimus
Chickens one day feathers the next!

I think it's great that they were able to share the potatoes before they went
to waste.

I have a nagging suspicion that not enough people are taking the threat of the
looming food shortage seriously.

The borders have all but shutdown, preventing migrant workers from working on
the farms. Farmers in turn have stopped putting crops in. Meanwhile the meat
processing plants are being shutdwn due to the virus, resulting in a glut of
livestock and below market prices for it, which might seem good for the
consumer but what it realy means is the farmers wont be raising as many
animals for the fall and next spring. On and on the food supply chain is
spiraling down into recession.

If you think toilet paper was hard to buy and made people crazy, just wait
till this fall when the meat is all gone.

Unfortunately I don't have the solution, worse yet I can see how it is all
going to play out and theres nothing I can do about it.

Still, it is nice that the farmer shared the potatoes before they went to
waste, too bad they couldn't have planted them all, we are going to need that
food come winter.

~~~
masonic

      The borders have all but shutdown, preventing migrant workers from working on the farms
    

H-2A workers in the country are being extended. There are over 250K legal H-2A
Visa holders alone.

~~~
sigmaprimus
Thats great, I honestly hope everything works out! I am currently living in
Canada and things are not going so well up here.

I have read several stories about American farmers suffering and losing crops
due to the pandemic and labor shortages, though truth be told I read those
articles on the internet and it is possible that if I looked for good news
stories I would find those too!! Sometimes I get sucked in by my own echo
chamber!

Not to mention the fact that farmers in general have an incredible ability to
find something to complain about no matter what the situation. Eg. Too cold,
too hot, just right?!? Just right is even worse as that just means low
prices...on and on it goes.

That being said, I believe this article covers most of what I see going on,
and to some degree the point that my original comment was trying to make but
feel it is a bit more fair and balanced rather than a "The sky is falling"
attitude like my above comment had.

[https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Arizona-Farm-Bureau-
COVI...](https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Arizona-Farm-Bureau-
COVID-19-Pandemic-Causing-a-Downward-Spiral-in-Arizona-s-Crop-and-Livestock-Pr
--30381685/)

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jelliclesfarm
We need robots now more than ever. We did not automate food farms when we
could...it’s still not too late.

Small acreage farms are easier to automate and we should automate them ASAP!

If anyone wants to chat/brainstorm, please ping me.

~~~
clintonb
The issue is one of lack of demand, not supply. Automating farms (and
increasing supply) would make the problem worse. If anything needs to be
automated or improved, it’s distribution. Much of the food supply that
normally goes to restaurants and cafeterias has no place to go.

~~~
sigmaprimus
I have been hearing this new argument a lot lately and on both sides of the
coin. "It's not a supply problem it's either a "not enough" or "too much"
demand problem.

The first time I heard it was regarding the lack of toilet paper in stores,
now it's going to bankrupt farmers.

I think it's actually a problem with the just in time delivery system
currently being used. What 50 years ago would have been considered due
diligence in having a couple months of food and consumables is now considered
hoarding.

Maybe the current delivery/storage system is causing these fluctuations in
demand to affect the supply so drastically?

Maybe it's small condos without closet pantry or freezer space in our over
populated, "housing crisised" cities causing it?

It's been a long time since I took a Consumer-ed / Home economics class and I
don't even know if they teach it anymore (maybe it was replaced by coding
classes?) but when I was in school "Supply and Demand" were tied together and
you couldn't do any calculation with one and not the other let alone blame a
problem on one.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Consumer Ed home economics is not how you learn about supply chain works from
farm gate to retail.

~~~
sigmaprimus
OK how do you learn about it? Going to get some asswipe and find out theres
none there? Only to hear some asswipe tell you its not a supply problem its a
demand problem, your right I guess...oh wait you didn't really say anything
usefull just that im wrong..good job, can you print that comment out, mail it
to me before my next bowel movement? So much for the three seashells!!

