Opinion: Meat Shortage May be Worse Than Virus

It arrived faster than any virus.  Last week I was reading about a potential beef shortage.  The writer explained it could arrive in a few weeks.  Well, it’s already here.  Other meats are also popping up in short supply.  Wendy’s restaurants are coming up short with beef.  Some of the chain’s locations have pulled hamburgers from menus.

This morning I was listening to a newscast between live on-air segments (I believe 7:00 A.M.) when the news anchor mentioned both Costco and Kroger are planning to limit customer purchases of beef. 

We’ve got two Kroger owned stores in Twin Falls and a Costco, and that accounts for almost one third of the city’s grocery stores.  A friend says one of the Kroger shops is already limiting beef purchases but he doesn’t say which one.  Kroger is the parent company of Fred Meyer and Smith’s.

Look, I’ve got a freezer stuffed with meat.  Pork roasts, fish (even salmon), chicken, beef and some chorizo.  Care to make me an offer?

Joking aside, this is a serious crisis and for many people could be worse than ever catching the coronavirus.  Healthy people deal with the infection.  They don’t stay healthy if they can’t eat.  While the liberals will recommend beans as a substitute, there are no guarantees we’ll have beans and vegetables in ready supply.

So far, the cure is looking much, much worse than the disease.

By the way, the critics of red meat tell us there are better alternatives but they mostly dislike the beef industry because of its large footprint.  Which they believe could be used instead as acreage for lentils.

It was beef that allowed our troops to tower over our enemies in World War Two and the size of our men intimidated the Germans and Japanese during the occupations of those countries.  Which made life a lot easier for the occupying troops.