COVID-19 and The Jungle

I can’t pretend to know more about food supply issues than the readers of this publication. I have lived in McCook for more than 25 years now, have had a modicum of contact with the ag sector. I have absorbed what I can, but I am still a city guy. I’ll leave production issues to the big boys.

Yet I do have a coupleof quick observations about our current supply chain problem to share. The first, and most obvious is the apparent coincidence that COVID-19 was initially suspected to have originated in a Chinese food processing environment and that we are now having significant outbreaks at our domestic food processors. Personally, my money is on a non-engineered accidental release from the Wuhan lab, but that’s my personal bet. The wet market is still a working theory.

While illnesses at the domestic processing plants have caused considerable labor shortages and the resulting empty shelves to consumers, the Department of Agriculture does not believe that our food supply is tainted. A statement from USDA reads in part, “We are not aware of any reports at this time of human illnesses that suggest COVID-19 can be transmitted by food or food packaging. However, it is always important to follow good hygiene practices (i.e., wash hands and surfaces often, separate raw meat from other foods, cook to the right temperature, and refrigerate foods promptly) when handling or preparing foods.” That seems like sound advice under any circumstances. If you cook it, you can eat it, just be careful what you touch before it’s cooked.

The real situation underlying our current processing woes reminds me of Upton Sinclair’s influential novel, The Jungle, published in 1906. The fictionalized account portrayed difficult and unsanitary working conditions in the processing plants of Chicago during that time. There’s a great story told (that sounds too good to be true) that Teddy Roosevelt was reading the book over his morning sausage and eggs when he read about an unlucky chap falling into a grinder and becoming part of the sausage. I don’t know if that is true or apocryphal, but something motivated him to go after the meatpacking industry in much the same way that he pursued the break-up of oil, steel, and railroad monopolies.

T.R. was what was then called a “Progressive Republican.” There’s a term you don’t hear anymore. As the English language has morphed and mutated over the years, the progressive tag is now associated with the left of the left, leaving “Progressive Republican” as a contradiction in terms. It’s an oxymoron, like wild boar and jumbo shrimp.

The fact is, although Teddy was a Republican, he was no chamber of commerce Republican. He didn’t mind at all being a pain-in-the-sides of big business. Consequently, he went on to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as the Federal Meat Inspection Act, both in 1906. Teddy did make significant strides in cleaning up our food supply through a series of regulatory measures and launched a bureaucracy that remains a pain in the sides of my producer friends today.

What our current situation teaches us is that as much as working conditions may have improved over the years, the processing plant workers are still challenged by health and safety issues.

As of May 1, it was estimated that as many as 5,000 packing plant employees had contracted the virus in 19 states, resulting in twenty fatalities. The USDA also reported that 250 meat inspectors have fallen ill, with one fatality. The larger plants employ thousands of employees, which for the sake of efficiency, work in relatively tight quarters. Many tend to be minorities, who may live in crowded housing as well. Our current shortages result from people being quarantined, or folks who are just afraid to go to work. Workers have simply lost confidence in the safety of their jobs.

Call me a pollyanna, but I have always thought that good things could evolve from our current difficulties. This week, our Supreme Court held its historic first session by teleconference, and I see great leaps ahead for online learning. Meat processing, unfortunately, is not something we can phone in, but I do envision substantial changes in the layout and design of meatpacking plants that will improve not only the safety of the food products but working conditions for employees. Let’s hope so.