Why Perfectly Good Food Is Being Tossed Out By The Megaton While Millions Line Up At Food Banks

Milk being dumped from vats at one Wisconsin Dairy

The economic toll exacted on the nation was compellingly expressed in a leading piece in Sunday's NYTimes. i.e.

 "...millions of people across the country are risking their health to wait in tense, sometimes desperate, new lines for basic needs ....In western Pennsylvania, cars stacked up for miles on Monday as hundreds of people waited to collect a week’s worth of groceries from the Pittsburgh Community Food Bank."


These desperate fellow citizens - and desperate is what they are -  have been let down by a system that while it reaps profits in good times,   generates an appalling waste of food in bad times. Or in times wherein one beholds 'black swan''  events like the Covid -19 pandemic.  For proof, one need only to have read the Wall Street Journal article (April 10, p. B1): 'Farmers Dump Food As Demand Drops'  wherein we learn:

"Farmers are plowing under hundreds of acres of vegetables in prime U.S. growing regions, Chicken companies  are breaking eggs rather than hatching them and raising the chicks to slaughter  - to avoid selling at  a loss, and dairy farmers are dumping millions of gallons of milk into manure pits."

In respect to the last, the Dairy Farmers of America estimates that 3.7 millions gallons of milk are being dumped each day. That amounts to more than half the nation's  milk supply wasted per day. This is what it's come to in our food supply system, as a result of a pandemic which has crippled the vast volume demand associated with hotels, restaurants and schools - to which most bulk sales had been allocated.

One of the basic elements of macro-economics  we've learned in this pandemic is that our modern industrial food  production and supply system is not designed to scale down to accommodate a radical change in demand.  Especially given farmers had earlier (before the pandemic) depended on more than half their yearly crops going to bulk sales at hotels, schools, and restaurants.  That enormous crop value for bulk marketing and sales, however, has little value in selling to supermarkets for household use.

The problem? The former involves huge supplies and often  containers to match, bulky but ideal for mass consumption, such as would be needed in a restaurant, school cafeteria or hotel. Thus, as we learn (ibid,)  cheese makers "would be hard -pressed to convert their 10- pound bags of bulk, shredded cheese - destined for pizza chains-  .into the zippered 8-ounce bags home shoppers are accustomed to".   Similarly in the poultry market, raising too many 'big bird",  food service chickens is no longer profitable. This according to Joe Sanderson the chief executive at Sanderson Farms.  True, while some restaurant-bound chickens are being processed for sale in supermarkets, most aren't. It would be just too much of a profit hit to dispatch these big birds - almost the size of small turkeys - there, and sell for remotely the same price.

Analogous problems appear with the collapse of the pork bellies market - used for bulk production of bacon - and ordinarily for breakfasts at Denny's, IHop and McDonald's.  But with no equal demand for the product from home shoppers, there is no alternative other than to attempt to convert to other uses - such as sausage - or just convert all or most into lard.  The latter option being the least costly of all.

Again, it's all about costs to produce and profit margins for the farmers, processors. The inability to alter from the bulk products to smaller configurations - more apt for groceries, and hence home use- means huge waste is the result.

Matt Herrick, a senior vice president at the International Dairy Foods Association, said that unlike other sectors of the economy, dairy farmers can’t  just shut down — their cows continue to produce milk. But unlike meat or grain, milk cannot be frozen or stored for long periods of time. That means the dairy industry is facing the possibility of millions of pounds of food waste a week, now that milk is no longer in demand from the restaurants, ice cream stores, coffee shops and concession stands,

What about repurposing dairy processing plants,  say to put cheese into 8 ounce bags  instead of 50 lb. blocks?  Or milk in gallon bottles instead of five gallon containers? Hence, to have products packaged in more individualized portions, which might be sold in supermarkets.   While a nice idea it would require millions of dollars more in investments to rework processing plants which no one is prepared to spend.  (Some processors "have concluded that spending the money isn't worth it")

Nor is the problem easily solved just by giving food to food banks or other charities (e.g. Meals on Wheels). For one thing there is only so much perishable food that charities with limited refrigerators (and volunteers) can absorb. Further, the cumulative cost of harvesting, processing, then transporting produce and milk to food banks is much more than most farms and producers can afford  -especially in the wake of Trump's trade war  - which has taken a fearsome toll.

It is true that many food banks have tried to shift from offering mainly processed meals to offering fresh produce.  But the problem is the pandemic has caused a shortage of volunteers, making it more difficult to serve fruits and veggies.- which are time consuming and expensive to transport.

Lastly, there is a new problem that's emerged in that some farms and companies are also seeing shortages of truck drivers and migrant laborers, who typically plant and harvest fruits and vegetables.  Without the critical (migrant) labor to harvest crops millions of acres are now being allowed to go fallow, there's no other option.

It appears that Janice's  simple retort to this sad news: "If y'all could put a man on the Moon, you could certainly fix this!"  is much easier said than done.

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