
The Sickness in Our Food Supply - Thevet
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/06/11/covid-19-sickness-food-supply/
======
filoeleven
> This is why the meat-plant closures forced American farmers to euthanize
> millions of animals, at a time when food banks were overwhelmed by demand.

“Euthanize” is a euphemism. What pig farmers have been doing due to the
shutdown is not painless euthanasia, it’s industrial-scale animal cruelty. The
linked article and videos are not for the faint of heart.

[https://theintercept.com/2020/05/29/pigs-factory-farms-
venti...](https://theintercept.com/2020/05/29/pigs-factory-farms-ventilation-
shutdown-coronavirus/)

~~~
kwhitefoot
Why did this sort of thing happen in the US? As far as I can tell nothing like
it has happened in Europe. We also have all sorts of subsidies and controls on
agriculture.

Our supply chains here (Scandinavia specifically, but as far as I know in most
of Europe as well) have been functioning almost as before except for a few
minor hiccups in the first couple of weeks of the restrictions due to COVID-19
(flour and yeast were in short supply for a couple of weeks).

Is it because Europe has stronger animal welfare provisions? Or something
else?

~~~
makomk
That is a very good question. There have definitely been large coronavirus
outbreaks in slaughterhouses all over Europe that have disrupted operations,
maybe not in Scandinavia but certainly in countries like Germany and France.

~~~
kwhitefoot
But did they disrupt things so badly that massive numbers of livestock had to
be just destroyed?

------
crazygringo
This article starts with a correct premise:

> _The retail food chain links one set of farmers to grocery stores, and a
> second chain links a different set of farmers to institutional purchasers of
> food, such as restaurants, schools, and corporate offices. With the shutting
> down of much of the economy, as Americans stay home, this second food chain
> has essentially collapsed. But because of the way the industry has developed
> over the past several decades, it’s virtually impossible to reroute food
> normally sold in bulk to institutions to the retail outlets now clamoring
> for it. There’s still plenty of food coming from American farms, but no easy
> way to get it where it’s needed._

Pollan identifies the representative problem:

> _One chicken farmer interviewed recently in Washington Monthly, who sells
> millions of eggs into the liquified egg market, destined for omelets in
> school cafeterias, lacks the grading equipment and packaging (not to mention
> the contacts or contracts) to sell his eggs in the retail marketplace._

But the article then goes on to attack all of Pollan's usual bugbears:
mergers, globalization, corn, and soybeans. Which have _nothing to do with the
problem he posed_.

He claims:

> _Local food systems have proved surprisingly resilient. Small, diversified
> farmers who supply restaurants have had an easier time finding new
> markets..._

But, frankly, citation needed. Small farmers can't just call up their local
supermarket and say "hey can you take a field's worth of arugula off my hands?
No sorry I don't have any way of packaging it into retail portions, I've
always sold in food-service size bags to restaurants."

And for cities of a certain size, "buying local" is an impossibility anyways.
I live in New York City. The land required to feed us would stretch hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of miles around... where there are already smaller
towns and suburbs that mostly fill the space. Which is why we source our food
from all over the country and world.

So unfortunately, this article _completely_ fails to find the sickness or
cure.

~~~
vector_spaces
>Small farmers can't just call up their local supermarket and say "hey can you
take a field's worth of arugula off my hands? No sorry I don't have any way of
packaging it into retail portions, I've always sold in food-service size bags
to restaurants."

Speaking as someone who has done buying for both supermarket chains and
smaller independent stores for about a decade: they absolutely can. Maybe not
to Safeway/your local Kroger-owned chain, but certainly to everyone smaller
than that: large regional chains like New Seasons Market in the PNW, smaller
chains like Bi-Rite in SF and Berkeley Bowl -- in other words, they still have
a good chance with roughly 40% of the grocery retail market. And when I would
get a call like this, I nearly always converted.

Also, produce doesn't generally need to be packaged into retail ready portions
-- that's hardly a problem most of the time. Maintaining availability and
quality, managing inventory and buying, and keeping prices computerized and
margins reasonable are much harder problems, particularly with produce, and
having a direct relationship with a small producer who can be more flexible
than a larger distributor can address many of those.

~~~
omgwtfbyobbq
This! There's a Korean grocery store chain around here (Zion) that brings in
all kinds of produce and the majority of it is significantly less than
anywhere else local. Some of it is near it's expiration date, so due diligence
is required, but at other times I think stuff is incredibly affordable because
it's in season and there's a ton of supply. I've seen prices for some things
hit ten cents a pound.

~~~
Melting_Harps
> This! There's a Korean grocery store chain around here (Zion) that brings in
> all kinds of produce and the majority of it is significantly less than
> anywhere else local. Some of it is near it's expiration date, so due
> diligence is required...

That's a workable model, provided very strict guidelines are put into place,
temp controlled and freezing before expiration date etc... It just makes sense
to do that than let it go to a dumpster and landfill given all the hidden
costs it takes to raise animals for meat.

> but at other times I think stuff is incredibly affordable because it's in
> season and there's a ton of supply.

It is. That's the added benefit to seasonal menus in restaurants, it helps re-
direct the supply to value added models, but also creates a direct benefit to
the consumer.

> I've seen prices for some things hit ten cents a pound.

This is a bit hard to believe, nothing that requires any amount of labour to
grow can realistically be sold that low and not be done at a loss for all
involved.

I mean even growing herbs requires resources, labour, transport that require a
higher price. Even if Ag went entirely automated I doubt we'd see that price
for anything remotely called 'food.'

Perhaps a promotion to get people in the doors? That's typical in grocery
stores business models.

~~~
omgwtfbyobbq
I think the extremely low prices are mostly for fallow crops like daikon, but
I've also seen navel oranges close to it at 8lbs for a dollar, albeit
infrequently, which is probably oversupply from some other seller.

I'll also see rotten/moldy berries I wouldn't pay a penny for, so it's very
YMMV.

Edit - The least expensive produce right now is celery at 20 cents pretty
pound.

~~~
Melting_Harps
> Edit - The least expensive produce right now is celery at 20 cents pretty
> pound.

That's insanity, celery has a 90+ growing period [1] but if they can make it
work for them. its just the water used and the labor for harvest is worth way
more than that. And highlights my issue with Farm subsidies, I can't imagine
what the farmer was paid.

I've been to many Asian stores (private to chains) having grown up in SoCal
and raised on Cantonese cuisine, and I can't remember seeing something that
low ever in even a 99 Ranch, Mitsuwa, Marukai or Hmart, let alone a private
place with higher operational costs and overhead.

Then again, most would ruin their reputations if they tried selling rotten
berries as SoCal, all of California really, is a pretty well reviewed and
subject to backlash in Print media back then and now Social media and yelp and
the like.

1:
[https://www.almanac.com/plant/celery](https://www.almanac.com/plant/celery)

------
wffurr
[http://archive.is/e70Ko](http://archive.is/e70Ko)

~~~
thathndude
Thank you

------
082349872349872
Starting with Reagan seems optimistic; I'd blame Earl "get big or get out"
Butz for your predicament.

alternative meatpacking, cool automation videos
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23367350](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23367350)

automation (cow and pig brushes)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23474129](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23474129)

(off topic, but I consider HFCS sickness in food supply
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363053](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363053)
)

------
Melting_Harps
I just love this is now starting to get the attention, this has been a worry
that has robbed me of sleep and been main focus in my Life for over a decade
now. But beneath my optimism is a sense of woeful regret of missed
opportunities had more brilliant minds focused on this problem as there is so
much potential for loss capture and cost savings that could enable a post-
scarcity paradigm to occur; one that I think could potentially have massive
impact on Greenhouse emission and climate change.

I'll try to speak on these issues as I have a background in Ag and culinary
and focused on locally sourced farm to table models. I also worked at BMW and
VW in supply chain during some of the most mission critical things in their
History (specifically Diesel-gate Tdi buyback at VW).

> But, frankly, citation needed. Small farmers can't just call up their local
> supermarket and say "hey can you take a field's worth of arugula off my
> hands? No sorry I don't have any way of packaging it into retail portions,
> I've always sold in food-service size bags to restaurants."

It may be anecdotal, but I can offer some insight here; the challenges you are
talking about come down to margins, a small local farm doesn't have to go
through a myriad of complications that come with multi-national corporations
like Tyson that rely on a federated system of distribution from regions to
central processing, warehouses, temperature controlled freight etc... in this
way the economies of scale issue is reduced and a B2C (or farm to table if you
prefer more apt jargon) can enhance total bottom line profits as it reduces
the losses of having to sell at wholesale to retailers.

I've personally gotten 50:50 pricing model to am upscale local health food
store that was in direct competition with Whole Foods when I ran a farm in
Hawaii, and had it not been for the long stranding community outreach program
that was there before I did this would have never been possible. Its more
often 10:90 for other things in my experience on other farms who supply to
large retailers/wholesalers, the conventional dairy in the dorf where I
managed a smaller farm in Switzerland had something similar that required 3
generations of family members to work on the farm as well as have day jobs
comes to mind. Whereas we could charge 11 CHF for a bottle of Biodynamicly
grown apfelmost (Apple Juice) we grew and bottled on site next to their farm.

Moreover, Community Supported Agriculture models are great ways to finance the
growing season(s) and raise capital, savings and help reduce future CapEx in
future seasons if we have seasons like this years, where many farms have sold
out their CSA and beef/pork harvests by early Spring. Mainly due to the food
shortages that occurred due to relying on the complex supply chain mentioned
in the article.

> And for cities of a certain size, "buying local" is an impossibility
> anyways. I live in New York City. The land required to feed us would stretch
> hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles around... where there are
> already smaller towns and suburbs that mostly fill the space. Which is why
> we source our food from all over the country and world.

Not entirely true, perhaps right now, yes; but look at projects like Square
Roots [1] that is primarily focused on sending container gardens to NY,
specifically in Brooklyn to try and combat this issue. Its actually a pilot
test for future Mars colonization and a way to rely on local food sources. But
NY has a myriad of models that have proved you can in fact have a direct Farm
to Community model if the incentives are aligned, look into Dan Barber's work
at Blue Hill. Or Thomas Keller's work with the French Laundry and Per Se (In
NY), these are focused on restaurants but that's just a matter of scale, you
can do that to an entire community if it avails itself.

I did my Biodynamic farming apprenticeship in Europe specifically because that
model has been refined and unchanged for millennia to feed its population
despite being from California and it's rich Agriculture History and
technological advances that makes it possible to feed not just the US but a
lot of the rest of the World. I wanted to understand localized food supply
chains and distribution models.

Its really crazy to see how a Network is built around a farm, like a cell the
Farms are usually the nucleus and everything is built around them. I wasn't
farm from Alsace and Stuttgart in Southern Germany and after several trips to
both regions to see what was occurring at that scale the model was still
intact. In Schwäbisch Gmünd, closest area to Stuttgart it was a real challenge
as the farms were way more massive than I had initially been exposed to (45
hectares) and were over 200+ with orchids, pasture, as well as gardens but
that reflects the food demands of the population in the neighboring area
(Stuttgart).

We had multi year contracts with several high end grocery stores and mills
(Rapunzel Naturkost) and other Gmbh's we sold wholesale to that made other
products with the fruits and vegetables coming from the farm where I worked
at. We were horribly understaffed with little to no prospects of hiring more
people, it was just 3 of us in the Winter and Spring seasons, and by Summer I
had better opportunities to explore in Italy and Switzerland (with offers of
culinary work and management roles) so I took them.

All this really made me think was that the this very viable model needs to be
brought up to the 21st century as the vast majority of Ag has to be automated,
the labour shortages are the thing holding it back the most, once that's
achieved there is a massive boon waiting to happen to farmers to help optimize
their distribution models and increase profits with B2B models with an
emphasis on localized community supported based farms. I'm now more focused on
supply chain optimization, having now fully retired from Kitchens and Farming
as I destroyed my body doing so by my 30s, but I'm glad I did it as more
people are moving into this space: one of my old team members at the Kitchen
just launched his own gellato shop using re-captured losses in the food supply
chain in Boulder after having been flown to Barber's place in NY. I'll plug
his spot in my food series if I ever get it going as we spent lots of nights
talking about our collective times farming and the impacts it has on the
overall Supply Chain and Food Security as a whole.

For further consideration check out this recent Joe Rogan podcast with Joe
Salatin [2], who was a pioneer of this model in the US and has gained huge
notoriety for his advances. Awesome watch.

1: [https://squarerootsgrow.com/](https://squarerootsgrow.com/)

2:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-7O3fOXXKo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-7O3fOXXKo)

~~~
drdeca
I think you meant to post this as a reply to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23514055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23514055)
? Not sure though.

~~~
Melting_Harps
Correct, I hit reply on his, but HN can be odd; I get random attachments to my
comments to for no obvious reason.

But, yes, that was my intention.

------
MattGaiser
Seems like we need to automate more of the food industry.

------
the_omegist
'Farm' animals are the ultimate victims because they have no voice. Too many
social activists start from the top-level (humans) but I think starting from
the bottom-level (nature and animals) will give the most efficient change
because it has a transversal impact on every aspect of human life.

If more people could feel empathy toward "farm" animals, all other social
problems would start being solved.

