Well, normally I take anything a union says with a big grain of salt. Add in another heaping tablespoon for it coming from Bloomberg. But…it makes sense.
As I pointed out to someone in comments earlier, most people just looked at the immediate consequences of this pandemic (“I might get sick”) and many fewer looked at the downstream consequences (“The guy who fixes my car might get sick and I need to have work done on it.”, “The guy who delivers the food to the market might call in sick”, “I may not be able to schedule that root canal in two weeks”, etc.)
Meat inspectors? Sure. Probably the same for vehicle inspectors, air safety inspectors, engineering inspectors, etc. (Which might underscore that perhaps we have too many inspections required in our everyday lives.) Occupancy permit for your new addition on your house? City inspector isn’t coming out. Vehicle inspection so you can renew your tags? Most garages are at half staff and have huge waiting lists. You get the idea.
All of this, though, is completely predictable if you think far enough out. What is it that you cannot do yourself and will bottleneck things if the person who does it is unavailable? Thats the question. The answer, of course, is to have a workaround in place…could be stockpiled materials, alternate vendors, DIY, or a Plan B to make do until later.
And, maybe, it’s a good idea to make sure the freezer is topped off. Just in case.
Do for myself?– cut my hair again today. Second time, and once again, I can say, “It looks ok from the front.”
I specifically bought a clipper and set of guards for this isolation, and they have worked well. Of course, my normal cut is a clipper cut, just the guy doing it has more freedom of movement around me, and a better perspective to see the results–and about 30 years experience.
It’s interesting that in industries and jobs that kept working we keep seeing infection rates at between 10 and 20% with 15-17% being common.
Oh, and yeah, I can’t get my new tags because I need an inspection, and a windshield.
n
I’m not sure how big a threat inspectors not being around really is. It’s certainly a problem in construction and other industries where an operation has to come to a halt until an inspection is performed but for ongoing industries like meat and other food processing I suspect it’s life as usual. They didn’t suddenly become unsanitary cess pits because there are fewer inspectors.
I suspect the restaurant health inspectors are in the same boat, I’ve yet to see any indication of an outbreak of food poisoning.
This is true. The lack of inspectors, and resultant lack of inspections, does not necessarily mean a lowering of quality. But a lack of inspections means that, in many cases, a process cannot continue until an inspection has been signed off on. Doesn’t matter if the meat processing plant is spotless…no product can be made until the inspection is signed, and without an inspector to provide that signature……….
Is this another example of government “protecting us”? If they can’t do their job they need to get out of the way.
Purple stamp. The real bottleneck is lack of rabbi/emoms for kosher/halal. Any shipping delay and has to be reblessed. Just had building inspection done and missed so many violations he is getting sued. Massive culls in beef,pork/poultry,price increases ahead,wish there were work arounds for local butchers to get animals. Last outfit I drove for still had a trailer for swinging beef, would be handy to go farm to farm loading culled animals for real local butchers. Anyone else remember trucks loaded wiith chicken crates going to processors?
Most restaurants are closed. I use to work in a restaurant as a fry cook. never send anything back to the kitchen…wink wink!
Obviously if these plants close or reduce production prices will rise and availability will be lessened. As always we preppers, if we have been on it, come out ahead as we bought and stacked it when it was ( relatively) cheap.
Stock up on the processed meats too. Bacon, sausages, ham, cold cuts, canned. There is going to be a real shortage in many areas by this summer – along with commensurately higher prices. Team up with some friends or family and buy a half or quarter carcass from a butcher, get it broken down and wrapped. It’s usually much cheaper per pound that way.
Regards
Went to the local store yesterday for a few things.
All the prepackaged bacon and regular sausage was gone.
They had a couple of tubes of “hot” pork sausage, I tried that once. Once.
I agree, but it presumes that you already have a freezer with empty space. A friend has an appliance store, and told me that there are no freezers to be had in all of North America until at least July. He had a woman come in about a month ago and wanted a chest freezer. She was irate – she told him that she bought half a cow and half a pig. He told her she put the cart before the horse.
I noticed that about a month ago…freezers started disappearing. Another unintended consequence that I didnt foresee but, in hindsight, makes perfect sense.
Should of sold her a new stove, two pressure canners and half a pallet of canning jars.
more hype. on any given day 5 to 15 % of the govt.workforce is out “sick”. generous family leave and other programs encourage absence. just like the headline “accidental poisonings spike after Trump encourages Lysol injection” running today. in truth, poisonings have spiked but its an ongoing thing for the last three months as people try to follow shifting guidelines. most of the rise is mixing the wrong cleaners and children getting cleaners left in reach. back in the day it was poor fact checking, now its just low down dirty pool by corporate hack propagandists.
Darwin Awards,a couple weeks ago a couple poisoned themselves and tried to blame Trump. Thin the herd.
Looking more and more like the wife did in her hubby with the aquarium cleaner and then took a small dose herself for looks so she could claim “Trump made me do it.”
Ditto on the freezer shortage…got the last one at a Home Depot in the White Mtns . of Arizona. Boss said he wouldn’t be getting any for a long time.
I have a two-foot high stack of boxes of precooked bacon. We don’ need no steenkin’ freezer!
Checked a used resturant equipment dealer ,has refurbished units at good prices and will ship. The used is good,you couldn’t afford then new unless your Pelosi.