CORONA Main Coronavirus thread
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Tristan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
More indication that early treatment is better; waiting until the patient is critical is not as helpful.
Help them avoid becoming critical.
hardrock
Veteran Member
They already know.
Tristan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Coronavirus claims an unexpected victim: Florida vegetablesI also heard gallons of milk are being dumped!
Can’t they give it to food banks? It seems such a waste!
by TAMARA LUSH Associated PressWednesday, April 8th 2020
PALMETTO, Fla. (AP) — Mounds of harvested zucchini and yellow squash ripened and then rotted in the hot Florida sun. Juicy tomatoes were left to wither — unpicked — in farmers' fields.
Thousands of acres of fruits and vegetables grown in Florida are being plowed over or left to rot because farmers can't sell to restaurants, theme parks or schools nationwide that have closed because of the coronavirus.
Other states are having the same issues — agriculture officials say leafy greens in California are being hit especially hard, and dairy farmers in Vermont and Wisconsin say they have had to dump a surplus of milk intended for restaurants.
With most of its harvests in the winter months, the problem is acute in Florida. For example, a few dozen people clamored to buy 25-pound (11- kilogram) boxes of Roma tomatoes direct from a packing plant over the weekend in Palmetto, a city on the western coast.
The cost per box? Just $5.
"This is a catastrophe," said tomato grower Tony DiMare, who owns farms in south Florida and the Tampa Bay area. "We haven't even started to calculate it. It's going to be in the millions of dollars. Losses mount every day."
Florida leads the U.S. in harvesting tomatoes, green beans, cabbage and peppers this time of year. While some of the crops are meant for grocery stores, many farmers cater solely to the so-called food service market — restaurants, schools and theme parks — hit hard as cities and states have ordered people to stay home and avoid others.
The loss has created a domino effect through the farming industry, Florida's second-largest economic driver. It yields $155 billion in revenue and supports about 2 million jobs.
Many growers have donated produce to food banks, but there's a limit on what the charities can accept and storage is an issue for perishable fruits and vegetables. DiMare said some central Florida food banks are full after theme parks shuttered and donated massive amounts of produce.
"We gave 400,000 pounds of tomatoes to our local food banks," DiMare said. "A million more pounds will have to be donated if we can get the food banks to take it."
Farmers are scrambling to sell to grocery stores, but it's not easy. Large chains already have contracts with farmers who grow for retail — many from outside the U.S.
"We can't even give our product away, and we're allowing imports to come in here," DiMare said.
He said 80 percent of the tomatoes grown in Florida are meant for now-shuttered restaurants and theme parks.
In the past week, 20 federal lawmakers from Florida and state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried sent letters urging U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to include Florida farmers in federal food purchase and distribution programs so the surplus crops can help feed the hungry and food insecure. Some 37 million Americans struggled with hunger before the pandemic, according to Feeding America, a nationwide network food banks.
The federal coronavirus relief act contains $9.5 billion in aid to farmers.
Some farmers have tried to branch out and sell produce boxes directly to customers, an approach taken in many places as the pandemic slams the restaurant and catering industries worldwide.
Wholesalers in London who usually sell fruit and vegetables to restaurants have pivoted to home deliveries. But large-scale farmers know selling harvest baskets won't do much for their bottom line.
On the U.S. West Coast, farmers who grow lettuce and other leafy greens are feeling the pinch.
"The tail end of the winter vegetable season in Yuma, Arizona, was devastating for farmers who rely on food service buyers," said Cory Lunde, spokesman for Western Growers, a group representing family farmers in California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. "And now, as the production shifts back to Salinas, California, there are many farmers who have crops in the ground that will be left unharvested," particularly leafy greens.
He said a spike in demand for produce at the beginning of the outbreak has now subsided.
"People are staying home and not visiting the grocery stores as often," Lunde said. "So the dominoes are continuing to fall."
In southern Florida, Paul Allen, president of R.C. Hatton Farms, took a video last week of row after row of vibrant green beans that were scheduled to be shipped to the restaurant industry.
"You can see this is a huge field of green beans," he said, lifting his cellphone camera to show a tractor plowing all the healthy plants and their beans into the soil.
Allen, who farms about 12,000 acres (4,900 hectares) in Florida and Georgia, is praying that things improve by the time crops in north Florida and Georgia are ready to be harvested over the next two months.
"You just hope you can live another day," Allen said.
Coronavirus claims an unexpected victim: Florida vegetables
PALMETTO, Fla. (AP) — Mounds of harvested zucchini and yellow squash ripened and then rotted in the hot Florida sun. Juicy tomatoes were left to wither — unpicked — in farmers' fields. Thousands of acres of fruits and vegetables grown in Florida are being plowed over or left to rot because...
abc7amarillo.com
Tristan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
xtreme_right
Veteran Member
Farmers Are Panic-Buying to Keep America’s 95 Million Cows Fed
Farmers Are Panic-Buying to Keep America’s 95 Million Cows Fed
Isis Almeida, Agnieszka de Sousa and Megan Durisin
8 hrs ago
© Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergDairy cows eat in a feeding barn at Lafranchi Ranch in Nicasio, California, U.S., on Friday, July 6, 2018. U.S. producers fear Mexico's 25 percent retaliatory tariffs on U.S. dairy and cheesein response to the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffswould deplete their exports to Mexico, according to a letter spearheaded by the U.S. Dairy Export Council, the International Dairy Foods Association, and the National Milk Producers Federation.
(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Days after President Trump extended America’s quarantine guidelines, Tyler Beaver, the 31-year-old founder of brokerage Beaf Cattle Co., couldn’t get hold of the rations that feed his clients’ cows. He’d already tried sellers in the traditional producing areas of the U.S. such as Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, only to find they were mostly sold out. Soon, in a bid to connect his customers with a feed mill still willing to sell, he changed strategy and tried to pull feed from the Delta region, hundreds of miles away—again without luck.
Just as virus-spooked consumers have rushed to grocery stores to stockpile everything from toilet paper to pasta, farmers raising America’s cattle, hogs, and chickens have filled their bins with feed, fearing the spread of the coronavirus would disrupt their supply chains. “I’ve had some calls from customers of mine looking for feed because the mills are out,” says the Fayetteville, Ark.-based Beaver. “There’s a rush to buy just because of the uncertainty in the market. They just don’t want to be caught without.”
Keeping America’s 95 million cows, 77 million pigs, and 9 billion chickens fed isn’t as simple as it may seem. Farmers are worried their feed mills could close as employees get sick or that their slaughterhouses could slow production, forcing them to keep animals for longer. They’re also concerned that a shortage of trucks, which are being waylaid to supply supermarkets, could make it harder for farm supplies to reach them.
Even the plunge in gasoline demand affects the feed supply. As ethanol plants shut down—because the fuel additive isn’t needed when gas isn’t selling—the animal feed market is being starved of an important ingredient called dried distillers grains (DDGs) that are a byproduct of ethanol production. Distillers grain is a key ingredient in rations for beef cattle and dairy cows.
The rush to fill bins hasn’t happened only in the U.S. French feedmakers stepped up ingredient purchases at the start of the lockdown, and demand jumped as plants that produce biofuels started to slow down. A similar trend occurred in Germany last month. “This is a new phenomenon,” says David Webster, head of animal nutrition and health at Cargill Inc., adding that the agribusiness giant has seen its global feed sales volume climb 10% or more in the past month. “We saw a bit of this in China in February, but now we are seeing globally, in every geography that we operate in, so it’s testing the system, so to speak.”
France’s Avril Group also experienced strong demand in the past few weeks as customers rushed to finalize purchases over concerns that production could be suspended as biodiesel demand plummeted. And German farm cooperative Agravis Raiffeisen AG said there was some panic meal buying from feedmakers, while Munich-based grain trader BayWa AG saw hoarding in northwest Europe. “If you have a huge cattle herd, you want to make sure you have enough feedstuffs available on your farm,” says Thorsten Tiedemann, chief operating officer at Getreide AG, a Hamburg-based trader that sells rapeseed meal, a feed ingredient.
That’s why James Holz, a farmer in Jefferson, Iowa, recently bought three weeks’ worth of ration for his 3,000 cattle, triple the norm. Because he’s in the U.S.’s top ethanol-producing state, he typically doesn’t need to stockpile. Some cattle producers there get multiple deliveries of distillers grains a day. “A lot of guys use their last scoop at 9 a.m., and then the truck comes at 10 a.m.,” says the 34-year-old farmer. But even he was taking no chances.
Still, because farmers’ bin space is limited, they can’t really hoard the same way that consumers are doing, says David Hoogmoed, president of the Purina Animal Nutrition unit of Land O’ Lakes Inc. (The Purina that makes the dog and cat food is owned by Nestlé SA.) “What we are seeing isn’t a run on feed, but a keep-everything-full scenario,” he says. “While the producer [in the past] may have run things down to the last minute and ordered feed for tomorrow, they are building in, in their inventory management, more of a safety stock.”
While sales at Purina’s livestock business increased only by single digits, there probably was a boost of more than 20% in the companion animal segment, which includes horses and rabbits. Even with social distancing in place, Hoogmoed says the company has kept its more than 60 mills operating, adding overtime and some weekend shifts and running “a very strong throughput.” “When you have a pet, even if it’s a horse—not a dog and a cat—they have a name and you want to take care of them,” he says. “We had a very large runup in retail feeds in all of our outlets and most of our customers.”
It’s still unclear if all the talk of hoarding will eventually result in more demand for feed. The number of animals isn’t necessarily growing at a pace that’s faster than usual, and farmers can only fill up their bins once before they go back to the normal rate of consumption, says Tiedemann of Getreide. “We will see how it plays out over the next 90 days, but our view today would be that this is demand being pulled forward,” says Cargill’s Webster.
Back in Arkansas, Beaver, who also raises cattle, is worried about the present. “If all the farmers go out and fill up all the storage bins they did have just because they are unsure what the future is going to hold, that does absorb a lot,” he says. “And if all the feedlots throughout the U.S. do the same thing and keep everything maxed out as far as their storage bins, storage capacity, and hedge for the future as well, you will start seeing shortages.”
Farmers Are Panic-Buying to Keep America’s 95 Million Cows Fed
Isis Almeida, Agnieszka de Sousa and Megan Durisin
8 hrs ago
(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Days after President Trump extended America’s quarantine guidelines, Tyler Beaver, the 31-year-old founder of brokerage Beaf Cattle Co., couldn’t get hold of the rations that feed his clients’ cows. He’d already tried sellers in the traditional producing areas of the U.S. such as Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, only to find they were mostly sold out. Soon, in a bid to connect his customers with a feed mill still willing to sell, he changed strategy and tried to pull feed from the Delta region, hundreds of miles away—again without luck.
Just as virus-spooked consumers have rushed to grocery stores to stockpile everything from toilet paper to pasta, farmers raising America’s cattle, hogs, and chickens have filled their bins with feed, fearing the spread of the coronavirus would disrupt their supply chains. “I’ve had some calls from customers of mine looking for feed because the mills are out,” says the Fayetteville, Ark.-based Beaver. “There’s a rush to buy just because of the uncertainty in the market. They just don’t want to be caught without.”
Keeping America’s 95 million cows, 77 million pigs, and 9 billion chickens fed isn’t as simple as it may seem. Farmers are worried their feed mills could close as employees get sick or that their slaughterhouses could slow production, forcing them to keep animals for longer. They’re also concerned that a shortage of trucks, which are being waylaid to supply supermarkets, could make it harder for farm supplies to reach them.
Even the plunge in gasoline demand affects the feed supply. As ethanol plants shut down—because the fuel additive isn’t needed when gas isn’t selling—the animal feed market is being starved of an important ingredient called dried distillers grains (DDGs) that are a byproduct of ethanol production. Distillers grain is a key ingredient in rations for beef cattle and dairy cows.
The rush to fill bins hasn’t happened only in the U.S. French feedmakers stepped up ingredient purchases at the start of the lockdown, and demand jumped as plants that produce biofuels started to slow down. A similar trend occurred in Germany last month. “This is a new phenomenon,” says David Webster, head of animal nutrition and health at Cargill Inc., adding that the agribusiness giant has seen its global feed sales volume climb 10% or more in the past month. “We saw a bit of this in China in February, but now we are seeing globally, in every geography that we operate in, so it’s testing the system, so to speak.”
France’s Avril Group also experienced strong demand in the past few weeks as customers rushed to finalize purchases over concerns that production could be suspended as biodiesel demand plummeted. And German farm cooperative Agravis Raiffeisen AG said there was some panic meal buying from feedmakers, while Munich-based grain trader BayWa AG saw hoarding in northwest Europe. “If you have a huge cattle herd, you want to make sure you have enough feedstuffs available on your farm,” says Thorsten Tiedemann, chief operating officer at Getreide AG, a Hamburg-based trader that sells rapeseed meal, a feed ingredient.
That’s why James Holz, a farmer in Jefferson, Iowa, recently bought three weeks’ worth of ration for his 3,000 cattle, triple the norm. Because he’s in the U.S.’s top ethanol-producing state, he typically doesn’t need to stockpile. Some cattle producers there get multiple deliveries of distillers grains a day. “A lot of guys use their last scoop at 9 a.m., and then the truck comes at 10 a.m.,” says the 34-year-old farmer. But even he was taking no chances.
Still, because farmers’ bin space is limited, they can’t really hoard the same way that consumers are doing, says David Hoogmoed, president of the Purina Animal Nutrition unit of Land O’ Lakes Inc. (The Purina that makes the dog and cat food is owned by Nestlé SA.) “What we are seeing isn’t a run on feed, but a keep-everything-full scenario,” he says. “While the producer [in the past] may have run things down to the last minute and ordered feed for tomorrow, they are building in, in their inventory management, more of a safety stock.”
While sales at Purina’s livestock business increased only by single digits, there probably was a boost of more than 20% in the companion animal segment, which includes horses and rabbits. Even with social distancing in place, Hoogmoed says the company has kept its more than 60 mills operating, adding overtime and some weekend shifts and running “a very strong throughput.” “When you have a pet, even if it’s a horse—not a dog and a cat—they have a name and you want to take care of them,” he says. “We had a very large runup in retail feeds in all of our outlets and most of our customers.”
It’s still unclear if all the talk of hoarding will eventually result in more demand for feed. The number of animals isn’t necessarily growing at a pace that’s faster than usual, and farmers can only fill up their bins once before they go back to the normal rate of consumption, says Tiedemann of Getreide. “We will see how it plays out over the next 90 days, but our view today would be that this is demand being pulled forward,” says Cargill’s Webster.
Back in Arkansas, Beaver, who also raises cattle, is worried about the present. “If all the farmers go out and fill up all the storage bins they did have just because they are unsure what the future is going to hold, that does absorb a lot,” he says. “And if all the feedlots throughout the U.S. do the same thing and keep everything maxed out as far as their storage bins, storage capacity, and hedge for the future as well, you will start seeing shortages.”
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
Fair use.
And Now, A Very Special COVID-19 Message From Walter | JEFF DUNHAM
•Apr 8, 2020
Jeff Dunham
Walter has some personal observations regarding COVID-19 plus some very important advice after being home for a few weeks.
Link to source:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK5oAmESJlA
run time 1:32
And Now, A Very Special COVID-19 Message From Walter | JEFF DUNHAM
•Apr 8, 2020
Jeff Dunham
Walter has some personal observations regarding COVID-19 plus some very important advice after being home for a few weeks.
Link to source:
run time 1:32
Doomer Doug
TB Fanatic
It will be near 70, sunny and clear today here in Portland. I've had enough death for today. Hundreds of people, maybe over 1,000 are going to die today in New York City. The total cases in New York Syate are closing in on 150,000 and nationwide deaths are nearing 15,000. Di blasio is blathering away like the fool he is. Time for some down time. WE ARE LED BY FOOLS.
mzkitty
I give up.
Daily COVID19 update broken down by region in the UK
Confirmed cases of Coronavirus COVID-19 by region in the UK. Based on cases reported to Public Health England (PHE) and matched to ONS administrative geography
sussex999.co.uk
Tom McDowell
BAMN
Two million protective masks purchased by Finland from China have turned out to be unsuitable for use in hospitals, AFP reports.
Finland’s Health minister Aino-Kaisa Pekonen had on Tuesday tweeted a picture of the first shipment of two million surgical masks and 230,000 respirator masks being unloaded at Helsinki airport on a Finnair flight from Guangzhou in China, saying they would be “checked and tested” before use.
But by Wednesday, officials discovered that the face masks did not meet the required standards of protection against the coronavirus for use in medical environments.
“Of course this was a bit of a disappointment for us,” health ministry permanent secretary Kirsi Varhila told a news conference.
Finland currently needs about half a million surgical masks, and 50,000 respirator masks per day, officials said on Wednesday, with some regions warning of shortages.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin hit out at some local authorities on Twitter earlier in the day, accusing them of not having stockpiled three to six months’ worth of protective equipment as mandated by Finland’s pandemic preparedness plan.
www.theguardian.com
===
.
Finland’s Health minister Aino-Kaisa Pekonen had on Tuesday tweeted a picture of the first shipment of two million surgical masks and 230,000 respirator masks being unloaded at Helsinki airport on a Finnair flight from Guangzhou in China, saying they would be “checked and tested” before use.
But by Wednesday, officials discovered that the face masks did not meet the required standards of protection against the coronavirus for use in medical environments.
“Of course this was a bit of a disappointment for us,” health ministry permanent secretary Kirsi Varhila told a news conference.
Finland currently needs about half a million surgical masks, and 50,000 respirator masks per day, officials said on Wednesday, with some regions warning of shortages.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin hit out at some local authorities on Twitter earlier in the day, accusing them of not having stockpiled three to six months’ worth of protective equipment as mandated by Finland’s pandemic preparedness plan.
Global trade forecast to fall by up to a third amid Covid-19 pandemic – as it happened
Scientists predict UK will be worst-hit country in Europe; Trump threatens to stop WHO funding; global cases pass 1.4 million. This blog is now closed
www.theguardian.com
===
.
Kate Brown lied? It's more newsworthy if she tells the truth. But the info about the pregnant mom and her delivery is hopeful.
www.kgw.com
Oregon coronavirus updates April 8: Report shows Gov. Brown, top aide provided inaccurate info about COVID-19 tests
COVID-19 continues to spread in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Get the latest updates here.
Author: KGW Staff
Published: 8:04 AM PDT April 8, 2020
Updated: 9:57 AM PDT April 8, 2020
PORTLAND, Ore. — Cases of COVID-19, a new strain of coronavirus, began popping up in the United States in January. On Feb. 28, the first case in Oregon was announced.
We will post a new blog every day that tracks the daily changes in Oregon and Southwest Washington as we get them. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LATEST UPDATES
BY THE NUMBERS
As of Wednesday morning:
9:45 a.m.
Oregon coronavirus updates April 8: Oregon up to 38 deaths, 1,239 cases
COVID-19 continues to spread in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Get the latest updates here.
www.kgw.com
Oregon coronavirus updates April 8: Report shows Gov. Brown, top aide provided inaccurate info about COVID-19 tests
COVID-19 continues to spread in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Get the latest updates here.
Author: KGW Staff
Published: 8:04 AM PDT April 8, 2020
Updated: 9:57 AM PDT April 8, 2020
PORTLAND, Ore. — Cases of COVID-19, a new strain of coronavirus, began popping up in the United States in January. On Feb. 28, the first case in Oregon was announced.
We will post a new blog every day that tracks the daily changes in Oregon and Southwest Washington as we get them. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LATEST UPDATES
BY THE NUMBERS
As of Wednesday morning:
- Oregon: 33 deaths, 1,181 cases, 23,007 tests (21,826 negative) Latest Oregon numbers
- Washington: 394 deaths, 8,682 cases, 87,818 tests (79,136 negative) Latest Washington numbers
- United States: 12,911 deaths, 399,929 cases Latest U.S. numbers
- World: 83,470 deaths, 1,447,446 cases Latest global numbers
9:45 a.m.
- Oregon will get only half the 20,000 coronavirus tests that Gov. Kate Brown promised from a private commercial lab and state health officials have no plans to put those tests to immediate use identifying infected residents. New details of the state’s deal with Quest Diagnostics show Brown and her top political aide provided misleading information to the public last month about the tests, according to records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Learn more
- Following reports of large crowds at local parks over the weekend, the Portland Parks and Recreation department has announced it will deploy “park greeters” to help enforce social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak. “Park greeters will educate the public about how to use their parks system safely and to explain what facilities are open or closed,” while maintaining proper social distance themselves, Portland park officials said in a news release. Learn more
- How long will it take for Oregon's economy to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic? A lot of us hope the economy will recover quickly once the stay-home orders are lifted and businesses reopen, but economists say it could take up to a year to get back to where we were before this. Learn more
- The ban on in-person dining at restaurants and bars in Oregon has been extended indefinitely, to align with the state’s stay-home order, Gov. Kate Brown announced on Tuesday. As they have the past couple weeks, restaurants, bars and other businesses can continue to serve food for takeout and delivery. If they don’t comply with the governor’s orders, they could be subject to misdemeanor criminal charges. Learn more
- With people driving less because of the stay-home order, there has been a significant drop in vehicle emissions over the last month, and the latest data obtained by KGW from the Department of Environmental Quality also shows a significant improvement in air quality. Two pollutants found in vehicle emissions, nitrogen oxide and black carbon, have reduced over the past month by 61% and 56%, respectively. Learn more
- A Vancouver woman, Angela Primachenko, delivered a baby girl while battling COVID-19. Even more incredible, she delivered her baby while placed in a medically induced coma. The baby was born six weeks early but tested negative for the coronavirus. The mother is improving and was recently taken off a ventilator. Learn more
isolating the healthy does not work because people are not self sustaining.
People in nursing homes are "sheltered in place". And they are getting sick and dying in droves.
People in jail are already "quarantined". They are sheltered in place. And they are sick and dying in droves.
And even tigers in zoos are sheltered in place. And they are getting the virus.
But we can't do anything because you can be "asymptomatic".
If you start quarantine, about 2 million people are going to be pissed off.
The other 318 million will not care . . . they will be working and have access to healthcare.
I'd mentioned this before, added to my daily routine in December (5min/day)
to strengthen associated lung muscles. Noticeable progress has been swift.
For any upcoming respiratory challenges, one would be glad then to have
already built up an additional reserve to not "tire out" so readily, yes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngnh7nVPb9Q (3.13min)
https://o2trainer.com/products/o2-trainer-inspiratory-muscle-breathing-exerciser
Panic Early, Beat the Rush!
- Shane
www.timebomb2000.com
to strengthen associated lung muscles. Noticeable progress has been swift.
For any upcoming respiratory challenges, one would be glad then to have
already built up an additional reserve to not "tire out" so readily, yes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngnh7nVPb9Q (3.13min)
https://o2trainer.com/products/o2-trainer-inspiratory-muscle-breathing-exerciser
Panic Early, Beat the Rush!
- Shane
PREP - KI4U ReadiMasks in-stock for same-day shipping...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnhgyQZEseQ View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2uWWKPd7fQ More videos here... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDOwYDMH-B2Vf3kGycnGWKg Specs & Test results here...
adgal
Veteran Member
This was an interesting video about Food Shutdown (15:45) - FOOD SHUTDOWN: Farmers Told to “QUIT FARMING”
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
So people are learning that they should have something put back for emergencies. Never knew that....Farmers Are Panic-Buying to Keep America’s 95 Million Cows Fed
Farmers Are Panic-Buying to Keep America’s 95 Million Cows Fed
Isis Almeida, Agnieszka de Sousa and Megan Durisin
8 hrs ago
© Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergDairy cows eat in a feeding barn at Lafranchi Ranch in Nicasio, California, U.S., on Friday, July 6, 2018. U.S. producers fear Mexico's 25 percent retaliatory tariffs on U.S. dairy and cheesein response to the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffswould deplete their exports to Mexico, according to a letter spearheaded by the U.S. Dairy Export Council, the International Dairy Foods Association, and the National Milk Producers Federation.
(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Days after President Trump extended America’s quarantine guidelines, Tyler Beaver, the 31-year-old founder of brokerage Beaf Cattle Co., couldn’t get hold of the rations that feed his clients’ cows. He’d already tried sellers in the traditional producing areas of the U.S. such as Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, only to find they were mostly sold out. Soon, in a bid to connect his customers with a feed mill still willing to sell, he changed strategy and tried to pull feed from the Delta region, hundreds of miles away—again without luck.
Just as virus-spooked consumers have rushed to grocery stores to stockpile everything from toilet paper to pasta, farmers raising America’s cattle, hogs, and chickens have filled their bins with feed, fearing the spread of the coronavirus would disrupt their supply chains. “I’ve had some calls from customers of mine looking for feed because the mills are out,” says the Fayetteville, Ark.-based Beaver. “There’s a rush to buy just because of the uncertainty in the market. They just don’t want to be caught without.”
Keeping America’s 95 million cows, 77 million pigs, and 9 billion chickens fed isn’t as simple as it may seem. Farmers are worried their feed mills could close as employees get sick or that their slaughterhouses could slow production, forcing them to keep animals for longer. They’re also concerned that a shortage of trucks, which are being waylaid to supply supermarkets, could make it harder for farm supplies to reach them.
Even the plunge in gasoline demand affects the feed supply. As ethanol plants shut down—because the fuel additive isn’t needed when gas isn’t selling—the animal feed market is being starved of an important ingredient called dried distillers grains (DDGs) that are a byproduct of ethanol production. Distillers grain is a key ingredient in rations for beef cattle and dairy cows.
The rush to fill bins hasn’t happened only in the U.S. French feedmakers stepped up ingredient purchases at the start of the lockdown, and demand jumped as plants that produce biofuels started to slow down. A similar trend occurred in Germany last month. “This is a new phenomenon,” says David Webster, head of animal nutrition and health at Cargill Inc., adding that the agribusiness giant has seen its global feed sales volume climb 10% or more in the past month. “We saw a bit of this in China in February, but now we are seeing globally, in every geography that we operate in, so it’s testing the system, so to speak.”
France’s Avril Group also experienced strong demand in the past few weeks as customers rushed to finalize purchases over concerns that production could be suspended as biodiesel demand plummeted. And German farm cooperative Agravis Raiffeisen AG said there was some panic meal buying from feedmakers, while Munich-based grain trader BayWa AG saw hoarding in northwest Europe. “If you have a huge cattle herd, you want to make sure you have enough feedstuffs available on your farm,” says Thorsten Tiedemann, chief operating officer at Getreide AG, a Hamburg-based trader that sells rapeseed meal, a feed ingredient.
That’s why James Holz, a farmer in Jefferson, Iowa, recently bought three weeks’ worth of ration for his 3,000 cattle, triple the norm. Because he’s in the U.S.’s top ethanol-producing state, he typically doesn’t need to stockpile. Some cattle producers there get multiple deliveries of distillers grains a day. “A lot of guys use their last scoop at 9 a.m., and then the truck comes at 10 a.m.,” says the 34-year-old farmer. But even he was taking no chances.
Still, because farmers’ bin space is limited, they can’t really hoard the same way that consumers are doing, says David Hoogmoed, president of the Purina Animal Nutrition unit of Land O’ Lakes Inc. (The Purina that makes the dog and cat food is owned by Nestlé SA.) “What we are seeing isn’t a run on feed, but a keep-everything-full scenario,” he says. “While the producer [in the past] may have run things down to the last minute and ordered feed for tomorrow, they are building in, in their inventory management, more of a safety stock.”
While sales at Purina’s livestock business increased only by single digits, there probably was a boost of more than 20% in the companion animal segment, which includes horses and rabbits. Even with social distancing in place, Hoogmoed says the company has kept its more than 60 mills operating, adding overtime and some weekend shifts and running “a very strong throughput.” “When you have a pet, even if it’s a horse—not a dog and a cat—they have a name and you want to take care of them,” he says. “We had a very large runup in retail feeds in all of our outlets and most of our customers.”
It’s still unclear if all the talk of hoarding will eventually result in more demand for feed. The number of animals isn’t necessarily growing at a pace that’s faster than usual, and farmers can only fill up their bins once before they go back to the normal rate of consumption, says Tiedemann of Getreide. “We will see how it plays out over the next 90 days, but our view today would be that this is demand being pulled forward,” says Cargill’s Webster.
Back in Arkansas, Beaver, who also raises cattle, is worried about the present. “If all the farmers go out and fill up all the storage bins they did have just because they are unsure what the future is going to hold, that does absorb a lot,” he says. “And if all the feedlots throughout the U.S. do the same thing and keep everything maxed out as far as their storage bins, storage capacity, and hedge for the future as well, you will start seeing shortages.”
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
China is laughing at the stupid westerners who are buying this crap...Two million protective masks purchased by Finland from China have turned out to be unsuitable for use in hospitals, AFP reports.
Finland’s Health minister Aino-Kaisa Pekonen had on Tuesday tweeted a picture of the first shipment of two million surgical masks and 230,000 respirator masks being unloaded at Helsinki airport on a Finnair flight from Guangzhou in China, saying they would be “checked and tested” before use.
But by Wednesday, officials discovered that the face masks did not meet the required standards of protection against the coronavirus for use in medical environments.
“Of course this was a bit of a disappointment for us,” health ministry permanent secretary Kirsi Varhila told a news conference.
Finland currently needs about half a million surgical masks, and 50,000 respirator masks per day, officials said on Wednesday, with some regions warning of shortages.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin hit out at some local authorities on Twitter earlier in the day, accusing them of not having stockpiled three to six months’ worth of protective equipment as mandated by Finland’s pandemic preparedness plan.
Global trade forecast to fall by up to a third amid Covid-19 pandemic – as it happened
Scientists predict UK will be worst-hit country in Europe; Trump threatens to stop WHO funding; global cases pass 1.4 million. This blog is now closed
===
.
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
It was very interesting. My question is this, if the premise is that the farmers are being told to quit (various reasons) due to oversupply, like the onions, is accurate. What caused it? It appears to be a flat demand issue based upon what the onion farmer said. So if a large amount of his production was due to eating out needs dropping to zero (more or less), then why did we not pick up the slack on the eating in side of the equation?
Was it due to large amounts of waste associated with eating out?
Are we actually eating less when we eat at home?
We used to ship it overseas, but are not now?
SSTemplar
Veteran Member
That would be the question?
Plain Jane
Just Plain Jane
Pennsylvania COVID-19 Numbers
Current number of positive results, age breakdowns, hospitalizations, and more.
www.health.pa.gov
COVID-19 Data for Pennsylvania*
| Negative | Positive | Deaths |
| 82,299 | 16,239 | 310 |
- View hospital dataOpens In A New Window (desktop version)
- View hospital dataOpens In A New Window (mobile version)
Positive Cases by Age Range to Date
| Age Range | Percent of Cases |
| 0-4 | < 1% |
| 5-12 | < 1% |
| 13-18 | 1% |
| 19-24 | 7% |
| 25-49 | 41% |
| 50-64 | 29% |
| 65+ | 20% |
Hospitalizations by Age Range to Date
| Age Range | Percent of Cases |
| 0-4 | < 1% |
| 5-12 | < 1% |
| 13-18 | < 1% |
| 19-24 | 1% |
| 25-49 | 19% |
| 50-64 | 29% |
| 65+ | 51% |
County Case Counts to Date
| County | Number of Cases | Deaths |
| Adams | 33 | |
| Allegheny | 720 | 10 |
| Armstrong | 19 | |
| Beaver | 128 | 13 |
| Bedford | 4 | |
| Berks | 416 | 7 |
| Blair | 6 | |
| Bradford | 15 | |
| Bucks | 756 | 22 |
| Butler | 113 | 2 |
| Cambria | 9 | 1 |
| Cameron | 1 | |
| Carbon | 76 | 1 |
| Centre | 57 | |
| Chester | 373 | 6 |
| Clarion | 8 | |
| Clearfield | 7 | |
| Clinton | 3 | |
| Columbia | 54 | 1 |
| Crawford | 8 | |
| Cumberland | 84 | 2 |
| Dauphin | 168 | 2 |
| Delaware | 1034 | 23 |
| Elk | 2 | |
| Erie | 29 | |
| Fayette | 35 | 1 |
| Forest | 5 | |
| Franklin | 43 | |
| Fulton | 1 | |
| Greene | 17 | |
| Huntingdon | 6 | |
| Indiana | 21 | |
| Jefferson | 1 | |
| Juniata | 18 | |
| Lackawanna | 266 | 10 |
| Lancaster | 561 | 16 |
| Lawrence | 32 | 2 |
| Lebanon | 169 | |
| Lehigh | 1319 | 11 |
| Luzerne | 1134 | 11 |
| Lycoming | 15 | |
| McKean | 1 | |
| Mercer | 27 | |
| Mifflin | 10 | |
| Monroe | 671 | 17 |
| Montgomery | 1521 | 37 |
| Montour | 26 | |
| Northampton | 857 | 17 |
| Northumberland | 22 | |
| Perry | 13 | 1 |
| Philadelphia | 4456 | 87 |
| Pike | 148 | 6 |
| Potter | 3 | |
| Schuylkill | 136 | |
| Snyder | 9 | 1 |
| Somerset | 7 | |
| Sullivan | 1 | |
| Susquehanna | 14 | |
| Tioga | 10 | |
| Union | 8 | |
| Venango | 5 | |
| Warren | 1 | |
| Washington | 59 | |
| Wayne | 47 | |
| Westmoreland | 183 | 1 |
| Wyoming | 5 | |
| York | 233 | 2 |
Last edited:
What do you suggest should be done without hindsight.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I may have overlooked it, but is there a scheduled press conference today?
zookeeper9
Veteran Member
Supposedly at 5 PM
Live | The White House
LIVE White House events and press briefings with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials.
Bps1691
Veteran Member
Surgical mask, paper towel mask or cloth mask? Japanese professor tests which is most effective against Covid-19
www.asiaone.com
Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, we have seen various versions of face masks people use to protect themselves against the virus, be it store-bought or homemade. But just how effective are these masks?
To find out, a Japanese chemistry professor compared three different types of face masks in a science experiment: a surgical mask, a homemade paper towel mask and a homemade cloth mask.
Dr Tomoaki Okuda, an associate professor of applied chemistry at Keio University, measured how well the three masks could block airborne particles using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS).
To put it simply, the hose sucks the air in the room and measures its concentration of particles per cubic centimetre.
In his experiment, Okuda tuned the equipment to search for particles of virus size, which are estimated to be between 20 and 100 nanometers in diameter.
He wrapped the three masks around the opening of the hose and measured the number of air particles that were able to pass through. Here is a breakdown of his findings:
Surgical mask
With a store-bought surgical mask, the SMPS measured around 1,800 particles per cubic centimetre of air passing through. The results show that the mask has a collection efficiency of around 70 per cent, a high blockage rate for the estimated virus particle size.
Paper towel mask
Using three paper towels folded in half, Okuda tested a six-layer paper towel "mask". The SMPS measured around 1,000 particles per cubic centimetre of air passing through. With a collection efficiency of around 80 per cent, the paper towel mask appeared to be more effective in blocking out the estimated virus particle size compared to the surgical mask.
Cloth mask
A makeshift mask made out of a handkerchief folded thrice emulated the results of the surgical mask. The SMPS measured around 1,800 particles per cubic centimetre of air passing through, with a collection efficiency of around 70 per cent for the estimated virus particle size.
No mask
Additionally, Dr Okuda tested the hose without a mask covering it and the SMPS measured around 6,000 particles per cubic centimetre of air in the room that are between 10 and 150 nanometers in size.
So what does it mean? If we are near an infected person, there is potentially a lot of virus particles that we're breathing in.
Conclusion
Looking at the results, wearing a mask does seem to lower the chances of getting infected. Surprisingly, the mask fashioned from a handkerchief has the same effectiveness as a surgical mask, but even more so, who knew paper towels were the most effective?
However, regardless of which mask is the most effective, what's most important is to have good hygiene care and to wear masks properly. Here are also some tips on how to modify or wash your government-issued mask so that it can last longer.
Surgical mask, paper towel mask or cloth mask? Japanese professor tests which is most effective against Covid-19
Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, we have seen various versions of face masks people use to protect themselves against the virus, be it store-bought or homemade. But just how effective are these masks? To find out, a Japanese chemistry professor compared three different types of face...
www.asiaone.com
Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, we have seen various versions of face masks people use to protect themselves against the virus, be it store-bought or homemade. But just how effective are these masks?
To find out, a Japanese chemistry professor compared three different types of face masks in a science experiment: a surgical mask, a homemade paper towel mask and a homemade cloth mask.
Dr Tomoaki Okuda, an associate professor of applied chemistry at Keio University, measured how well the three masks could block airborne particles using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS).
To put it simply, the hose sucks the air in the room and measures its concentration of particles per cubic centimetre.
In his experiment, Okuda tuned the equipment to search for particles of virus size, which are estimated to be between 20 and 100 nanometers in diameter.
He wrapped the three masks around the opening of the hose and measured the number of air particles that were able to pass through. Here is a breakdown of his findings:
Surgical mask
With a store-bought surgical mask, the SMPS measured around 1,800 particles per cubic centimetre of air passing through. The results show that the mask has a collection efficiency of around 70 per cent, a high blockage rate for the estimated virus particle size.
Paper towel mask
Using three paper towels folded in half, Okuda tested a six-layer paper towel "mask". The SMPS measured around 1,000 particles per cubic centimetre of air passing through. With a collection efficiency of around 80 per cent, the paper towel mask appeared to be more effective in blocking out the estimated virus particle size compared to the surgical mask.
Cloth mask
A makeshift mask made out of a handkerchief folded thrice emulated the results of the surgical mask. The SMPS measured around 1,800 particles per cubic centimetre of air passing through, with a collection efficiency of around 70 per cent for the estimated virus particle size.
No mask
Additionally, Dr Okuda tested the hose without a mask covering it and the SMPS measured around 6,000 particles per cubic centimetre of air in the room that are between 10 and 150 nanometers in size.
So what does it mean? If we are near an infected person, there is potentially a lot of virus particles that we're breathing in.
Conclusion
Looking at the results, wearing a mask does seem to lower the chances of getting infected. Surprisingly, the mask fashioned from a handkerchief has the same effectiveness as a surgical mask, but even more so, who knew paper towels were the most effective?
However, regardless of which mask is the most effective, what's most important is to have good hygiene care and to wear masks properly. Here are also some tips on how to modify or wash your government-issued mask so that it can last longer.
SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Supposedly at 5 PM
Live | The White House
LIVE White House events and press briefings with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials.www.whitehouse.gov
Ok. Thanks a bunch!
cyberiot
Rimtas žmogus
He's gonna take $#!+ for that.
Melodi
Disaster Cat
As a young woman, I worked in food service both sitdown places and really fast food (never any place fancy but all but two were chain operations).
You would be amazed at the sheer waste that takes place there, I gather it is not as bad as it used to be but when I worked at Burger King, for example, we had to make up a bunch of stuff ahead each lunchtime and then toss it after a certain amount of time - that was mandatory and no we were not allowed to take it home or give it away.
Pizza Hut was better on the Pizzas (I ate a lot of Pizza mistakes) but the salad bar was a content source of compost - every day we had to put the stuff out and at the end of a certain number of hours (or some cases at the end of the day depending on the vegetable) it went into the trash.
This is in addition to the huge piles of food served on American fast-food and restaurant plates, most people don't realize the cost of the food in a sit-down place is not the main expense (it is overhead) so if you can pack more bodies into the place by putting out platters of stuff (especially cheap to make things like pancakes or french fries) that the Jolly Green Giant might have trouble finishing you are way ahead in terms of profits for the week.
A lot of what is being tossed now is vegetables, especially things like onion, lettuce, I'm guessing soon tomatoes as well as the squash, etc. Those are all things with a very short shelf-life, that are used by the bushels in fast food places and other outlets.
In the past, there were lots of factories that canned or froze the surplus but a lot of those are no longer around and/or they are not able to take a surplus if the farmer could get it harvested and get it there.
That is the same problem with milk, it is illegal in most places to just walk raw milk right from the cow and take it to a cheesemaker, and the cheesemakers, unless it is an in house operation, can't use it that way either.
What is collapsing (and not just in the US, but here on this side of the water) are the distribution systems that get the food harvested, taken to the market (or factory for processing) and sold or used.
In a perfect world, the food could just be redirected to food banks or canning factories and that would be that; but it doesn't work that way unfortunately, the infrastructure to make it happen is simply no longer there either.
I am hoping I don't see my neighbor a strong, good and very religious man in tears; but I expect I might if he has to start pouring milk on the ground and slaughtering his dairy herd (or just shooting them).
adgal
Veteran Member
It sounds like it's because of all of the restaurants closing down. I think I heard that 37% of the US population eat out, rather than cook for dinner. So, 37% of over 300 million people - I guess that's a lot of onions, milk, etc...
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
I got that, but each person eats x per day and that hasn't changed due to famine. So in theory what was eaten in the restaurants is now being eaten at home. Again in theory, the same amount of food being eaten per day. So why the surplus?
20Gauge
TB Fanatic
That would make sense. Thank you for the explanation.
That means we are not going to have enough food at some point if this continues. (see bold areas)
adgal
Veteran Member
I think it has more to do with production lines than amounts - if certain trucks are supposed to pick up from certain farms (i.e. onion farm for restaurants) and then bring that product to places that process the produce - chopped onions, onion rings, etc... And the processing plants are either shut down or their freezers are full - the production line stops. So, we can go to the store and see that there's not enough milk - but that production line is retail, so milk is being dumped because the other production line (restaurant) has been stopped. And, I agree - at some point, we are not going to have enough food.
I know of vegans who are not buying vegetables from the store now because they are afraid of contamination. The same goes for me and other non vegans. We are buying canned or frozen. The big problem with a glut of crops in the field is that you can't get them to processing plants. Same with the milk. It would be great if the milk could go to a plant to be dried or made into cheese but those plants are either full or not open at all. It would be great if the vegetables could go to a plant to be canned or frozen. This whole food problem is so intertwined that it will just plain collapse. Time for Victory Gardens in every home!
Tristan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I think it's related to the fact that there are often two (or more), separate supply chains. One includes the processing plants which prepare the product (milk, for example) for general market channels; this includes gallon, half-gallon and quart packaging, with transport to local hubs which then based on inventory gets transshiped to the stores where the lucky consumer gets to buy fresh milk like magic. The second, is in bulk for other factories which produce products from the milk, think cheese, Yogurt, dried milk, whey isolates, etc. etc. and so on. Perhaps a third may be a factory which has the machines and materials to package the milk in the little half-pint packaging for schools and institutions. See what I mean?
If those factories are closed, or their markets are not buying, then that channel is disrupted.
Farmers have contracts with certain channels and when there's a disruption of this magnitude those channels/supply chains get disrupted and can fail.
This is just an example. When you wonder why something can't be redirected to a different market, understand it can, but it can't always happen like flipping a switch.
In the future, we need to invest in resilience. A fragile supply chain is asking for trouble, such as we are seeing today.
But to quote Merlin in the movie "Excalibur": "For it is the doom of Men that they forget..."
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Members of the Coronavirus Task Force Hold a Press Briefing live
The White House
marsh
On TB every waking moment
1:04:22 min
What Will The Post-Coronavirus World Look Like? (Martenson, Rubino, Smith & Taggart)
•Apr 8, 2020
Peak Prosperity
If covid-19 is indeed hastening the permanent disruption of the status quo, what will life in a post-coronavirus world look like? This prognosticating session builds on last week's Economic Shockwaves roundtable: https://www.peakprosperity.com/econom... This time, John Rubino, Charles Hugh Smith and Adam Taggart -- also joined by Chris Martenson this time -- discuss the myriad ways in the future may be permanently altered by the disruptions happening right now. How will the economy, fiat currencies, jobs & the nature of work, as well as our general lifestyle, be forced to evolve? What new solutions will be required and what shape with they take? All this and more is addressed in this video (1-hour runtime). These roundtables are always a good time as John, Charles, Chris and I not only enjoy each other's company, but we find helpful value in tapping each other's thinking. The process always creates even more questions that we want to ask one another. After shooting this one, the group agreed that fertile future territory includes the housing market, retirement/pensions, which big cartels are most vulnerable to today's disruption (e.g., education, health care, pharma, finance) and what benefits would emerge from breaking their industry strangleholds. So, if you'd like to see this brain trust convene again to push deeper into this material, let us know in the Comments section below, along with any other specific topics you'd like for us to kick around.
Texican
Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
The lockdown is hurting everyone.
Texican....
-----------------------------------------------------
AMERICAS
How the coronavirus lockdown is hitting Mexico's drug cartels
Link: How the coronavirus lockdown is hitting Mexico's drug cartels | DW | 04.04.2020
The global coronavirus lockdown is making it hard for Mexican drug cartels to operate. With borders shut and limited air traffic, cartels are turning on each other. Sandra Weiss reports from Mexico City.
There's nothing you can't find on Mexico City's Tepito Market, locals say. In this maze of alleyways and stalls, you can buy anything from brand-name clothing, to flat-screen televisions, toys, glasses, drones, mobiles and much more. Wares produced in informal workshops are on offer, as are counterfeit consumer goods from China and even illegal drugs and weapons.
Tepito Market is controlled by a criminal gang called Union Tepito. And anyone wishing to sell products here must pay protection money. Each week, the mobsters rake in hundreds of thousands of pesos though this racket.
Rock-bottom prices
Usually, Tepito is hugely popular with shoppers due to its rock-bottom prices — even though buyers don't get receipts for their purchases, let alone warranties. But these days, there are just a few bargain hunters about. The supply of Chinese products started drying up two months ago due to the coronavirus lockdown. Speaking to Mexican broadcaster Televisa, local purse vendor Edson Navarro said that "because our middlemen have suspended flights to China, we're short on goods and making up for that with Mexican and US products."
Business has taken a hit, with sales down 50%. But the Union Tepito gang is still demanding vendors pay protection money, and has started abducting and even killing some of those refusing to comply. Mexican media have reported that some vendors are now calling on the municipality to dispatch the national guard to guarantee their safety.
Vendors at Tepito Market are struggling, with sales cut in half for many.
Drug production hit by lack of chemicals
The lockdown has also dried up the supply of imported Chinese chemicals needed to produce synthetic drugs. Prior to the virus outbreak, for example, China's Hubei province was a major exporters of fentanyl, an opioid. But now, Mexico's big Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) drug cartels are lacking the raw materials to produce drugs, as insightcrime.org reports.
According to Mexican weekly Riodoce, Sinaloa boss Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada has therefore hiked the market price for synthetic drugs. It reports that the price for 1 pound (just under half a kilogram) of methamphetamine, a stimulant widely known as crystal meth, has now shot up from 2,500 pesos (€95/$102) to 15,000 pesos.
Getting illegal substances into the United States has become much more difficult, too. "Five days ago was the last time we brought something across the border. Just three kilos," said a smuggler from Mexicali, speaking to blogdelnarco, a platform covering Mexican organized crime. "We have arrangements with border police and our smugglers know which borders posts to use. But now, many crossing have surprisingly been shut. That makes our business much more risky."
Fewer flights, more checks
As many commercial flights have been canceled and air traffic has declined across Latin America, it has now become easier for authorities to spot planes carrying illegal drugs. Several days ago, for example, a light aircraft from Colombia carrying drugs was detected when it crash-landed in Honduras. The plane had been registered as an ambulance aircraft.
The repercussions of the coronavirus lockdown are making it increasingly difficult for Mexican drug cartels to operate, reports insightcrime.org. But the platform also says that "large organizations like CJNG, who operate in many illegal business sectors and regions, are finding it easier to adapt to these challenges and to withstand the recession."
Even though coronavirus-related news is dominating the headlines, this of course doesn't mean there have been fewer violent incidents in Mexico lately. On Tuesday, a hit squad mowed down a Veracruz journalist. And since Mexico introduced its first safety measures to curb the virus outbreak on March 23, 646 people have been murdered, according to official statistics. Last year, an average 95 individuals per day died a violent death in Mexico.
There has also been a rise in looting in recent weeks. And turf wars have broken out once more in Guerrero and Michoacan state between different drug cartels. Javier Oliva, a professor of political science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, expects tensions between cartels to grow amid the coronavirus lockdown, and also predicts a spike in street crime and burglaries.
Texican....
-----------------------------------------------------
AMERICAS
How the coronavirus lockdown is hitting Mexico's drug cartels
Link: How the coronavirus lockdown is hitting Mexico's drug cartels | DW | 04.04.2020
The global coronavirus lockdown is making it hard for Mexican drug cartels to operate. With borders shut and limited air traffic, cartels are turning on each other. Sandra Weiss reports from Mexico City.
There's nothing you can't find on Mexico City's Tepito Market, locals say. In this maze of alleyways and stalls, you can buy anything from brand-name clothing, to flat-screen televisions, toys, glasses, drones, mobiles and much more. Wares produced in informal workshops are on offer, as are counterfeit consumer goods from China and even illegal drugs and weapons.
Tepito Market is controlled by a criminal gang called Union Tepito. And anyone wishing to sell products here must pay protection money. Each week, the mobsters rake in hundreds of thousands of pesos though this racket.
Rock-bottom prices
Usually, Tepito is hugely popular with shoppers due to its rock-bottom prices — even though buyers don't get receipts for their purchases, let alone warranties. But these days, there are just a few bargain hunters about. The supply of Chinese products started drying up two months ago due to the coronavirus lockdown. Speaking to Mexican broadcaster Televisa, local purse vendor Edson Navarro said that "because our middlemen have suspended flights to China, we're short on goods and making up for that with Mexican and US products."
Business has taken a hit, with sales down 50%. But the Union Tepito gang is still demanding vendors pay protection money, and has started abducting and even killing some of those refusing to comply. Mexican media have reported that some vendors are now calling on the municipality to dispatch the national guard to guarantee their safety.
Vendors at Tepito Market are struggling, with sales cut in half for many.
Drug production hit by lack of chemicals
The lockdown has also dried up the supply of imported Chinese chemicals needed to produce synthetic drugs. Prior to the virus outbreak, for example, China's Hubei province was a major exporters of fentanyl, an opioid. But now, Mexico's big Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) drug cartels are lacking the raw materials to produce drugs, as insightcrime.org reports.
According to Mexican weekly Riodoce, Sinaloa boss Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada has therefore hiked the market price for synthetic drugs. It reports that the price for 1 pound (just under half a kilogram) of methamphetamine, a stimulant widely known as crystal meth, has now shot up from 2,500 pesos (€95/$102) to 15,000 pesos.
Getting illegal substances into the United States has become much more difficult, too. "Five days ago was the last time we brought something across the border. Just three kilos," said a smuggler from Mexicali, speaking to blogdelnarco, a platform covering Mexican organized crime. "We have arrangements with border police and our smugglers know which borders posts to use. But now, many crossing have surprisingly been shut. That makes our business much more risky."
Fewer flights, more checks
As many commercial flights have been canceled and air traffic has declined across Latin America, it has now become easier for authorities to spot planes carrying illegal drugs. Several days ago, for example, a light aircraft from Colombia carrying drugs was detected when it crash-landed in Honduras. The plane had been registered as an ambulance aircraft.
The repercussions of the coronavirus lockdown are making it increasingly difficult for Mexican drug cartels to operate, reports insightcrime.org. But the platform also says that "large organizations like CJNG, who operate in many illegal business sectors and regions, are finding it easier to adapt to these challenges and to withstand the recession."
Even though coronavirus-related news is dominating the headlines, this of course doesn't mean there have been fewer violent incidents in Mexico lately. On Tuesday, a hit squad mowed down a Veracruz journalist. And since Mexico introduced its first safety measures to curb the virus outbreak on March 23, 646 people have been murdered, according to official statistics. Last year, an average 95 individuals per day died a violent death in Mexico.
There has also been a rise in looting in recent weeks. And turf wars have broken out once more in Guerrero and Michoacan state between different drug cartels. Javier Oliva, a professor of political science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, expects tensions between cartels to grow amid the coronavirus lockdown, and also predicts a spike in street crime and burglaries.