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An Idaho farm is giving away two million potatoes as coronavirus has hurt demand

2 points by prostoalex 7y ago

sigmaprimus 7y ago
Chickens one day feathers the next! I think it's great that they were able to share the potatoes before they went to waste. I have a nagging suspicion that not enough people are taking the threat of the looming food shortage seriously. The borders have all but shutdown, preventing migrant workers from working on the farms. Farmers in turn have stopped putting crops in. Meanwhile the meat processing plants are being shutdwn due to the virus, resulting in a glut of livestock and below market prices for it, which might seem good for the consumer but what it realy means is the farmers wont be raising as many animals for the fall and next spring. On and on the food supply chain is spiraling down into recession. If you think toilet paper was hard to buy and made people crazy, just wait till this fall when the meat is all gone. Unfortunately I don't have the solution, worse yet I can see how it is all going to play out and theres nothing I can do about it. Still, it is nice that the farmer shared the potatoes before they went to waste, too bad they couldn't have planted them all, we are going to need that food come winter.
- masonic 7y ago
  The borders have all but shutdown, preventing migrant workers from working on the farms H-2A workers in the country are being extended. There are over 250K legal H-2A Visa holders alone.
  - sigmaprimus 7y ago
    Thats great, I honestly hope everything works out! I am currently living in Canada and things are not going so well up here. I have read several stories about American farmers suffering and losing crops due to the pandemic and labor shortages, though truth be told I read those articles on the internet and it is possible that if I looked for good news stories I would find those too!! Sometimes I get sucked in by my own echo chamber! Not to mention the fact that farmers in general have an incredible ability to find something to complain about no matter what the situation. Eg. Too cold, too hot, just right?!? Just right is even worse as that just means low prices...on and on it goes. That being said, I believe this article covers most of what I see going on, and to some degree the point that my original comment was trying to make but feel it is a bit more fair and balanced rather than a "The sky is falling" attitude like my above comment had. https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Arizona-Farm-Bureau-COVID-19-Pandemic-Causing-a-Downward-Spiral-in-Arizona-s-Crop-and-Livestock-Pr--30381685/ https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Arizona-Farm-Bureau-COVI...
jelliclesfarm 7y ago
We need robots now more than ever. We did not automate food farms when we could...it’s still not too late. Small acreage farms are easier to automate and we should automate them ASAP! If anyone wants to chat/brainstorm, please ping me.
- clintonb 7y ago
  The issue is one of lack of demand, not supply. Automating farms (and increasing supply) would make the problem worse. If anything needs to be automated or improved, it’s distribution. Much of the food supply that normally goes to restaurants and cafeterias has no place to go.
  - jelliclesfarm 7y ago
    Automation won’t increase supply. Ag automation for food farms will only be optimized for small acreage farms and for local food supply chain distribution. It will tighten supply chain for local distribution and logistics leading to less food waste. Supply is not a problem with American ag. Waste is.
  - sigmaprimus 7y ago
    I have been hearing this new argument a lot lately and on both sides of the coin. "It's not a supply problem it's either a "not enough" or "too much" demand problem. The first time I heard it was regarding the lack of toilet paper in stores, now it's going to bankrupt farmers. I think it's actually a problem with the just in time delivery system currently being used. What 50 years ago would have been considered due diligence in having a couple months of food and consumables is now considered hoarding. Maybe the current delivery/storage system is causing these fluctuations in demand to affect the supply so drastically? Maybe it's small condos without closet pantry or freezer space in our over populated, "housing crisised" cities causing it? It's been a long time since I took a Consumer-ed / Home economics class and I don't even know if they teach it anymore (maybe it was replaced by coding classes?) but when I was in school "Supply and Demand" were tied together and you couldn't do any calculation with one and not the other let alone blame a problem on one.

2 points by prostoalex 7y ago

Chickens one day feathers the next! I think it's great that they were able to share the potatoes before they went to waste. I have a nagging suspicion that not enough people are taking the threat of the looming food shortage seriously. The borders have all but shutdown, preventing migrant workers from working on the farms. Farmers in turn have stopped putting crops in. Meanwhile the meat processing plants are being shutdwn due to the virus, resulting in a glut of livestock and below market prices for it, which might seem good for the consumer but what it realy means is the farmers wont be raising as many animals for the fall and next spring. On and on the food supply chain is spiraling down into recession. If you think toilet paper was hard to buy and made people crazy, just wait till this fall when the meat is all gone. Unfortunately I don't have the solution, worse yet I can see how it is all going to play out and theres nothing I can do about it. Still, it is nice that the farmer shared the potatoes before they went to waste, too bad they couldn't have planted them all, we are going to need that food come winter.

masonic 7y ago
The borders have all but shutdown, preventing migrant workers from working on the farms H-2A workers in the country are being extended. There are over 250K legal H-2A Visa holders alone.
- sigmaprimus 7y ago
  Thats great, I honestly hope everything works out! I am currently living in Canada and things are not going so well up here. I have read several stories about American farmers suffering and losing crops due to the pandemic and labor shortages, though truth be told I read those articles on the internet and it is possible that if I looked for good news stories I would find those too!! Sometimes I get sucked in by my own echo chamber! Not to mention the fact that farmers in general have an incredible ability to find something to complain about no matter what the situation. Eg. Too cold, too hot, just right?!? Just right is even worse as that just means low prices...on and on it goes. That being said, I believe this article covers most of what I see going on, and to some degree the point that my original comment was trying to make but feel it is a bit more fair and balanced rather than a "The sky is falling" attitude like my above comment had. https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Arizona-Farm-Bureau-COVID-19-Pandemic-Causing-a-Downward-Spiral-in-Arizona-s-Crop-and-Livestock-Pr--30381685/ https://www.marketscreener.com/news/Arizona-Farm-Bureau-COVI...

jelliclesfarm 7y ago

We need robots now more than ever. We did not automate food farms when we could...it’s still not too late. Small acreage farms are easier to automate and we should automate them ASAP! If anyone wants to chat/brainstorm, please ping me.

clintonb 7y ago
The issue is one of lack of demand, not supply. Automating farms (and increasing supply) would make the problem worse. If anything needs to be automated or improved, it’s distribution. Much of the food supply that normally goes to restaurants and cafeterias has no place to go.
- jelliclesfarm 7y ago
  Automation won’t increase supply. Ag automation for food farms will only be optimized for small acreage farms and for local food supply chain distribution. It will tighten supply chain for local distribution and logistics leading to less food waste. Supply is not a problem with American ag. Waste is.
- sigmaprimus 7y ago
  I have been hearing this new argument a lot lately and on both sides of the coin. "It's not a supply problem it's either a "not enough" or "too much" demand problem. The first time I heard it was regarding the lack of toilet paper in stores, now it's going to bankrupt farmers. I think it's actually a problem with the just in time delivery system currently being used. What 50 years ago would have been considered due diligence in having a couple months of food and consumables is now considered hoarding. Maybe the current delivery/storage system is causing these fluctuations in demand to affect the supply so drastically? Maybe it's small condos without closet pantry or freezer space in our over populated, "housing crisised" cities causing it? It's been a long time since I took a Consumer-ed / Home economics class and I don't even know if they teach it anymore (maybe it was replaced by coding classes?) but when I was in school "Supply and Demand" were tied together and you couldn't do any calculation with one and not the other let alone blame a problem on one.