Live data from Hacker News

2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

wcvb.com

131–140 of 161 posts

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#131
post #5

Just today I saw the news about famine in West Africa. Sigh...

It is not so easy with Africa. They already getting a lot of chicken wings and legs for very cheap from europe, because we in europe just like the bigger chicken breast. So legs and wings are send to africa for almost free, because nobody would like to eat it in europe. The result is, chicken from europe is so cheap in africa, no african farmer can compete with that price. So there are now no almost no chicken farms…

And chicken wings are about to get even cheaper. Americans used to eat them deep-fried at bars and restaurants, and they’re all closed.

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We are likely too inconsequential to even bother with examination. I was with you until this part, there's simply no way that's true. Even if the universe was brimming with life, an advance species' scientists and would be foaming at the mouth to discover a new sentient species, just like ours do when we discover something new.

Like our reaction to a newly-discovered virus? A billion-year-old species might take as much interest in us as we might take in a newly-discovered algae on a rock,

There are humans who foam at the mouth when they discover a new algae on a rock, in particular, people who study algae. One might imagine there will be a some aliens who study new sentient species and be very interested when they discover humans. It's a question of whether they have access to enough resources to reach us.

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pakistan is a lot of human created issues though. They have the most fertile land in the subcontinent along the indus river. However they have had absolutely no population control measures unlike India and Bangladesh which are almost at replacement level fertility. Throw in a backward society, mismanagement, lack of democracy and you get this. My point simply is that the hunger is not merely because of shortage of fo…

There is no winning with population control measures. Hans Rosling did a great job to spell out the arguments and evidence in his book "Factfulness" which made the charts in most countries. Really recommended reading and incredible enlightening. To give a very short version of his conclusions: the only factor reducing births is reduced child mortality. Better healthcare and generally better economic prospects and bir…

This is a very privileged view coming from someone living in a first world country. I see this argument repeated every time and i have been following Hans Rosling from a very long time. I would like you to invite and stay in India for Firstly i am not against humane response, but this is such a simplification of the problem created for a a circlejerk in Western academic circles. It is too late anyways.

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that raises further questions. How could a chicken farm or chicken meat in a freezer be more efficient forms of calorie storage than a grain silo or a shipment of flour? Do you have a source?

Because frozen meat stays good literally forever. Flour eventually goes bad. Grain can rot.

Your comment inspired me to do a little reading, since this is an interesting idea (and maybe represents an opportunity in the supply chain... maybe what we need is better/newer technology for long-term storage of grains/flour/etc.).

Apparently, flour can (should?) be frozen for long-term storage, and would keep indefinitely: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-okay... (unfortunately that link to University of Nebraska is 404 now).

Long-term grain storage concerns: https://www.agriculture.com/machinery/grain-handling-and-equ... ; as a non-expert, this begs the question of why more climate control is not done, to create indefinite/permanent storage (probably just not economical to do so, but given disruptions like COVID-19, maybe this will change?).

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think about it. "Wasting" food is identical to overproduction of food. That's slack in the system that prevents people from starving.

And yet people manage to starve anyways so I'd say the slack point isn't anywhere close to the waste point.

People don't really manage to starve in the US. Starvation as cause of death is basically an artifact in the stats, and hunger organizations have spent years conflating it with malnutrition to keep their donations flowing. Nutrition may be a real issue in America, but hunger is not.

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I struggle with leaving plate on my food and I also struggle with my weight. Growing up we weren't allowed to leave food on the plate. To this day I still feel guilty for leaving food on a plate and yet I am overweight. I know the answer is to dish out a little and get seconds if need be. Problem is I live with people who do more cooking than I do and because I am a fairly big guy they can't help but dish out massive…

Stop eating sugar, watch 'sugar: the butter truth'. This isn't something that is happening -to- you, it is something you can control.

+1 for delicious typo

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that raises further questions. How could a chicken farm or chicken meat in a freezer be more efficient forms of calorie storage than a grain silo or a shipment of flour? Do you have a source?

Because frozen meat stays good literally forever. Flour eventually goes bad. Grain can rot.

> ...frozen meat stays good literally forever.

Can you please point me to where this is investigated? I know rough vacuum-grade vacuum-packed frozen meat rates a 3-year shelf life [1]. I've yet to find information beyond rough vacuum [2], though. I would imagine ultra-high grade vacuum, in a retort bag, in a medical-grade freezer (-140 to -150° C [3], well beyond even commercial food deep freezers in the -30 to -50° C range) can extend that shelf life, but I've never found anyone who experimented and wrote it up.

Flour can be stored indefinitely in the freezer supposedly [4], but I haven't seen anyone investigate vacuum-sealed, oxygen-absorbed, frozen flour shelf life. Whole wheatberries when vacuum sealed with nitrogen flush will keep for 25 years at room temperature, don't know what adding freezing will do.

[1] https://foodvacbags.com/blogs/foodsaverblogs/can-you-vacuum-...

[2] https://schoonoverinc.com/new-vacuum-roughing-gauge-sensors/

[3] https://www.labrepco.com/product-category/cold-storage-produ...

[4] https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-okay...

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#138
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But minimum daily intake of fiber, for humans to remain healthy, is not zero. Vegetables, especially if you eat them in amounts that sustain your weight, have enough omega essential fatty acids to last you a lifetime. Legumes do have fat in them. If you eat 2000kcal of red lentils, there's more than enough protein and fat content, almost meets your omega-3 essential fatty acid requirement. Nothing stops you from addi…

Humans can be healthy without fiber. For example, see the traditional Inuit diet (at least during winter).

Traditional Inuit diet was not healthy.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00219...

Here's a study on historical data, here are some statements: "Arteriosclerosis and degeneration of the myocardium are quite common conditions among the Greenlander" -- study from 1940

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/002191...

IMO, best evidence ever is on Maasai people, where they find massive amounts of atherosclerosis in the blood vessels of young people and there are multiple cases where young people die of atherosclerosis. Only thing that makes Maasai survive is that they start with this kind of diet at early age, their blood vessels get extra wide and elastic and can withstand the hardening effects of atherosclerosis.

Fiberless diet is a death certificate for the modern western man if one's not on it from birth.

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#139
post #59

I'd say set them free. But given the breeding of commercial chickens they'd simply not survive in the wild - not stop growing and after just days be unable to move, and easy prey. If you're fortunate enough to have land, use it, even a balcony or window sill can be put to good use. There are plenty of guides on YouTube, and for a window sill no need to spend money on herbs again. For food or for leisure (or both) - i…

If you set them free they are going to cause a mess and potentially destabilize the local ecosystem.

Hence the second line of the comment.

Re: 2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because frozen meat stays good literally forever. Flour eventually goes bad. Grain can rot.

Your comment inspired me to do a little reading, since this is an interesting idea (and maybe represents an opportunity in the supply chain... maybe what we need is better/newer technology for long-term storage of grains/flour/etc.). Apparently, flour can (should?) be frozen for long-term storage, and would keep indefinitely: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-okay... (unfortunately that link to…

> just not economical to do so

Yup. Grains are so incredibly cheap that's it's not worth preserving them.

My favorite stat to pull out at parties:

The price of a bushel of wheat (aka 60 pounds) has been approximately one British pound since the mid 1300's.

It's currently worth about 4 British pounds, but that says more about how much the British pound has declined against the USD than it says about the price of wheat.

Post reply on HN