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From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

bloomberg.com

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Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#441

Post by jandrewrogers »

sct202 wrote: post #276
baybal2 wrote: post #68

Coworkers in Shenzhen are already saying that more fancier foods are already getting scarcer in the inland China, and prices are going up by day. China has done a massive livestock slaughter campaign when the quarantine was declared. That has actually depressed the food prices quite a bit for the first months, but after that, the prices have shot up. This is how they got that much meat: https://mustsharenews.com/wp-c…

Worst case with meat shortages, they'll just have to eat the corn and soy they were feeding to the animals or process the grains into grain based meat substitutes. In general grain production is very automated so there won't be as much of an issue with labor issues in the US or South America impacting the global supply of grain compared to fruits and vegetables.

Quite a lot of animal feed is not fit for human consumption as it was never designed for that purpose. Animal feed is optimized for the biology of the animals eating it to elicit specific outcomes in those animals for the lowest cost. Human digestive and metabolic systems are quite dissimilar to ruminants.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#442

Post by gnusci »

catalogia wrote: post #236
scanr wrote: post #233

Fruit and veg 'will run out' unless Britain charters planes to fly in farm workers from eastern Europe. UK urgently needs 90,000 labourers to pick crops that will otherwise die in the fields, warns charity. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/28/fruit-an...

Why have eastern europeans do the work instead of the normal workers? It's not like eastern europeans have any special resistance to corona, nor are their lives worth less.

Low cheap food chain in general is sustained by cheap labor worldwide. Now that borders are closed the chain is in part disrupted, so it doesn't work.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#443

Post by cortesoft »

infinite8s wrote: post #406
empath75 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So pay more than $25 an hour. There is surely a salary that people will accept to do the work. I don’t know why everyone assumes that manual labor only deserves near poverty wages.

No one will pay $5 for an avocado.

Then grow less labor intensive things.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#444

Post by ogn3rd »

jagger27 wrote: post #309

Got a butternut squash in your pantry? Maybe a couple of tomatoes? Cook it up for dinner and save some seeds! Wash off the pulp and dry them out on a paper towel. It's not too late to start some seedlings, and it's a nice way to pass the time. I've also been experimenting with different dried beans that we stocked up on, and most of them have a pretty high germination rate. Roma beans are super tasty and high in prot…

Start with greens, many only take 4-8 weeks before their ready. Some radishes are ready in 30 days. The rest you mention outside of Chard take 90 days or so.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#445

Post by cortesoft »

djsumdog wrote: post #322
burntoutfire wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of agricultural industry in EE (at least in Poland), it's just that it pays a pittance, so the locals prefer to go west, while farmers employ migrants from poorer countries.

That's such a fucked up cycle.

So you think we should force the people to stay in the poorer country?

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#446

Post by grumple »

infinite8s wrote: post #406
empath75 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So pay more than $25 an hour. There is surely a salary that people will accept to do the work. I don’t know why everyone assumes that manual labor only deserves near poverty wages.

No one will pay $5 for an avocado.

People will absolutely pay $5 for avocados if that's what the price goes to. Avocados are among the easier things to pick though, so this doesn't really apply to them.

Tomatoes seem to cost about $3 at my local grocery store and are not nearly as good as avocados.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#447

Post by pnako »

rusk wrote: post #321
neilwilson wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With 3 million people in the UK still without work that want it - and many more laid off, redundant or self-employed without clients, the solution should be obvious. Pay a decent wage and you'll get the people. The era of cheap labour is over.

I don’t think English people want to do this kind of work ...

People in Britain were eating slugs they found on the ground before Polish explorers brought fruits to the country in 1549.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#448

Post by avianlyric »

qqssccfftt wrote: post #438
kspacewalk2 wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a month or so, once the daily deaths subside, people will risk it with the coronavirus rather than having a recession turn into a depression. This will be the correct choice.

Human civilisation has reached the point where keeping our fake paper moving is more important than staying alive. How exciting!

Unfortunately life expectancy and quality of life is very strongly correlated to GDP.

I’m not saying we can’t live without money, or anything like that. But modern society strongly relies on complex economies for even basic functions like food supply.

The health of that economy can be roughly measured using GDP, a significant drop in GDP (such as a depression) strongly suggest that economy isn’t healthy, and then the basics (like food) stop working.

Unfortunately plenty of people already rely on food banks to avoid starvation. You can’t feed an entire country like that.

The short version of the above is at the extreme you can either risk it with coronavirus (~1%-10% death rate depending on the health of your heathcare system), or in the long term risk it with starvation (guaranteed to kill you).

So yes, at certain point risking widespread infection becomes preferable to economic collapse.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#449

Post by pnako »

cco wrote: post #439
ekianjo wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They pay the least because you don't need qualifications to do them, and supply of non-qualified people >>> demand. Simple economics.

The article here, and the discussion above, is a situation where clearly the demand is high but the supply is low.

Then pay more. As a white collar worker I'm not offended that some blue collar workers make more than me. And if I have to pay more for food so we actually have a country, with people who care for each other, and not just a giant economic zone with the disappointing selfish behavior we've observed in this crisis, that's fine with me too.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#450

Post by pnako »

cortesoft wrote: post #445
djsumdog wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's such a fucked up cycle.

So you think we should force the people to stay in the poorer country?

You can't force people to stay in a country, but you can certainly prevent people from coming in a country.
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