Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) says that the country is “weeks” away from seeing food shortages.
“We are weeks, not months, away from farmers euthanizing animals that would have been sold for meat/food,” Massie tweeted on Monday morning. “Also, fruits and vegetables are going to rot in the fields. A drastic change in policy this week could ameliorate this inevitability.”
We are weeks, not months, away from farmers euthanizing animals that would have been sold for meat/food. Also, fruits and vegetables are going to rot in the fields. A drastic change in policy this week could ameliorate this inevitability.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 13, 2020
Listen here:https://t.co/bCzTX763r1
He also shared an interview he did with a local radio station where he warned about the prospects of shortages, “You have people running the government that have no clue about how the economy works and how their food gets to the table.”
Massie continued to say that he was on a conference call with the secretary of Agriculture, where officials discussed the food supply in the country.
“The shocking thing is that farmers are watching the value of their hogs and steers, cows, go down. In fact, they’re going to some of the lowest levels ever,” he said.
He continued:
“So the question is: Why is the price of meat going up in the supermarkets and the price of cattle going down at the auction ring? It’s because our supply line is brittle. You have to take cattle, steer, beef, whatever, hogs, to a processing plant. And these processing plants, like much of industrial America right now, are shutting down because of absentees, which has been exacerbated by the unemployment program the federal government has instituted.”
Massie noted that several meat processing plants, including one that was processing 1,900 cattle day, have shut down since the coronavirus outbreak.
He continued to say that he is afraid that farmers will go bankrupt and that “cattle and hogs” will be “euthanized or incinerated and buried” while there are shortages at the market.
“And you talk about civil unrest when you start seeing that. And it’s all because of the brittle food supply chain,” he added.
Additionally, Massie noted that he has been pushing for legislation that would solve what he believes are some of the underlying issues with the food supply chain.