Society's ChildS


Cow

The super-centralized agribusiness model and supply chain is failing

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
farm
Over the past decades the organization of the entire world food supply from farm to consumers has been reorganized into a globalized distribution known as agribusiness. With most of the world in lockdown over the fears of spread of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, that global food supply chain is in danger of catastrophic breakdown. The consequences of that would dwarf deaths by coronavirus by orders of magnitude. Yet governments seem oblivious.

The imposition of unprecedented mass quarantine, school and restaurant closings, factory closings across most of the world is putting the focus on the alarming vulnerability of what is a global food supply chain to severe breakdown. Before the lockdown an estimated 60% of all food consumed in the United States today was consumed outside the home. That includes in restaurants, fast food places, schools, in university cafeterias, company cafeterias and the like. That has now been all but shut since March, creating huge disruptions to what had been a well-organized supply chain delivery. Large restaurants or company cafeterias receive supplies of everything from butter to meat in entirely different volumes and packing than a retail supermarket. A major vulnerability exists in the mammoth agribusiness concentrations known as CAFOs or Concentrated Agriculture Feeding Organizations.

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Question

Best of the Web: Hidden outbreaks: Amid signs the coronavirus came earlier, Americans ask: Did I already have it?

Julie Bosman, Amy Harmon and Thomas Fuller
Boston.com
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 20:09 UTC
coronavirus test street drive up clinic
© Juan Arredondo / The New York Times
In January, a mystery illness swept through a call center in a skyscraper on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Close to 30 people in one department alone had symptoms — dry, deep coughs and fevers they could not shake. When they gradually returned to work after taking sick days, they sat in their cubicles looking wan and tired.

"I've started to think it was the coronavirus," said Julie Parks, a 63-year-old employee who was among the sick. "I may have had it, but I can't be sure. It's limbo."

The revelation this week that a death in the United States in early February was the result of the coronavirus has significantly altered the understanding of how early the virus may have been circulating in this country. Researchers now believe that hidden outbreaks were creeping through cities like Chicago, New York, Seattle and Boston in January and February, earlier than previously known.

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Arrow Down

UK sees record declines in manufacturing and service sector output as pandemic continues


Scottish Finanial News
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 19:37 UTC
welding
Widespread business shutdowns at home and abroad in response to the coronavirus pandemic has unsurprisingly resulted in a rapid reduction in UK private sector output during April, according to latest IHS Markit/ CIPS Flash UK Composite PMI.

The data has signalled by far the fastest decline in business activity since comparable figures were first compiled over two decades ago.

At 12.9 in April, down from 36.0 in March, the seasonally adjusted IHS Markit / CIPS Flash UK Composite Output Index - which is based on approximately 85% of usual monthly replies - indicated that the combined monthly decline in manufacturing and services activity exceeded the downturn seen at the height of the global financial crisis by a wide margin. Prior to March, the survey-record low was 38.1 in November 2008.

Around 81% of UK service providers and 75% of manufacturing companies reported a fall in business activity during April, which was overwhelming attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Snakes in Suits

Best of the Web: 'Conjured up out of nowhere': Adviser reveals UK govt's 2-meter coronavirus distance instruction based on 'muddy science'

James Gant
Daily Mail
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 19:22 UTC
social distance
© Reuters / John Sibley
Social distancing orders for people to keep two metres apart to stop the spread of coronavirus is not based on any scientific research, a government adviser has warned.

Robert Dingwall, from the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said the rule was 'conjured up out of nowhere'.

The sociology professor at Nottingham Trent University said scientific evidence supports a one-metre gap, but the two-metre advice was a 'rule of thumb'.

Nervtag feeds into the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), which is spearheading the government's pandemic response.
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Yellow Vest

'Let me go to work!' Hundreds of protesters demand removal of fence on Polish-German border


RT
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 17:31 UTC
germany poland protest covid
Protesters have demanded the reopening of the border between Poland and Germany, which was closed due the Covid-19 pandemic. The quarantine rules have left them unable to commute to work and see their families.

Hundreds gathered at both sides of the border crossing between the Polish town of Zgorzelec and the German town of Goerlitz on Friday. Protesters held signs saying 'Let me go to work!' and 'Let me into my home', demanding the removal of the border fence erected after the countries closed their borders in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus. They also urged the Polish government to end the mandatory two-week quarantine for all Poles returning from abroad.

Demonstrators on the Polish side symbolically shook the fence, though according to German police, the rally was peaceful and ended without incident.
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Yellow Vest

Over 1,000 protesters flood Wisconsin Capitol to demand end to lockdown as every 8th resident out of work

Adam Edelman, Shaquille Brewster and Carol Eggers
NBC News
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 17:19 UTC
Residents protest Wisconsin's extended stay-at-home order
© Reuters / Daniel AckerResidents protest Wisconsin's extended stay-at-home order at the Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin, April 24, 2020
Thousands of protestors assembled on the state Capitol here Friday, expressing loud opposition to the extended stay-at-home order put in place by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The anti-government protest in Madison was organized by a tapestry of online groups, including a group of Wisconsin business owners, as well as several rightwing Facebook groups, like Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantines.

Bob Tarantino, the leader of a group of business owners who helped plan the Madison rally, said his goal was to bring attention to the fact that Wisconsin's "small businesses are suffering unbelievable financial harm."

"The kind of harm that they may not recover from," he told NBC News in an email.
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Car Black

Wrong side of the road: Airman's car crashes at the same site of unresolved Harry Dunn fatality

Patrick Wintour
The Guardian
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 07:23 UTC
RAF sign
© RFIEntrance to US Air Force Base in Northamptonshire, UK
A car driven by an active duty airman has crashed close to the scene of the death of Harry Dunn, the 19-year-old motorcyclist who died after a collision with a car driven on the wrong side of the road by the wife of a US diplomat.

The report of the new crash highlights concerns that overseas personnel are not trained sufficiently about UK driving laws, especially driving on the left.

The crash that led to Dunn's death occurred after Anne Sacoolas had been driving for some distance on the wrong side of the road. The local MP Andrea Leadsom has been contacted by the Harry Dunn campaign and said she would be in touch with Northamptonshire police over the latest incident.

Radd Seiger, the spokesman for the Dunn campaign, tweeted a picture of the right-hand drive crashed car that had ploughed into a wall after turning a corner. No one appears to have been injured. Seiger complained:
"Unbelievably, under current legal arrangements, even though US bases are on sovereign UK soil, UK authorities are unable to exercise any control over what goes on there. Several disasters have occurred, including that of Harry Dunn. How many more does there need to be?"
Dunn's family are campaigning for the extradition of Sacoolas back to the UK to face a charge of death by reckless driving.

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Bulb

India and Pakistan join growing list of countries that are easing lockdown restrictions


AlJazeera
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 16:45 UTC
India covid-19
© Aijaz Rahi/APIndia imposed a lockdown for its 1.3 billion people on March 25 and it is due to end on May 3
India allows limited reopening of retail shops while Pakistan permits some industrial and commercial activities.

India has allowed a limited reopening of shops in neighbourhoods and residential areas, a month after the nation went into lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, officials said.

The federal home ministry announced on Friday that retail shops could start operations from Saturday with a 50-percent reduction in staff, and enforcing appropriate physical distancing, wearing of masks and gloves during work.

The sale of liquor and other non-essential items will continue to be prohibited, and no shops in large market places, multi-brand and single-brand malls will be allowed to open for business till May 3, when the nationwide lockdown is due to end.
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Megaphone

Best of the Web: Elbe Day 75th anniversary is a powerful reminder that Russian-American friendship IS POSSIBLE

Neil Clark
RT
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 16:41 UTC
April 24, 1945
© RIA NovostiApril 24, 1945
On April 25, 1945, Soviet and American troops warmly embraced each other at the Elbe in Germany. The friendship between the two superpowers that existed then needs to be revived if the world's greatest problems are to be solved.

It's one World War II anniversary that, if you live outside of Russia, you probably haven't heard of.

Elbe Day, when the soldiers of the Red Army 5th Guards, commanded by General Alexey Zhadov, and the US First Army of General Courtenay Hodges met up at the famous German river, was not only an important step towards the ending of World War II and the defeat of the Nazis, it also held out the hope of a better future and close superpower collaboration after that conflict was over.

The sight of American and Russian troops with their arms around each other would horrify foaming-at-the-mouth Russophobic neocons today. But it really happened. The Americans actually arrived on the Elbe weeks before the Soviet troops did. They could have gone on to Berlin themselves, but waited. "Once they recognized us, we were all buddies," one Cpl James J. McDonnell recalled. "We couldn't speak Russian, and they couldn't speak English, but the hugs and handshakes said it all."
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Bulb

Sweden resisted a lockdown, and its capital Stockholm is expected to reach 'herd immunity' in weeks

Holly Ellyatt
CNBC
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 16:05 UTC
sweden covid-19 lockdown
© Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty ImagesWho's looney now? People walk among the cherry blossoms at Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. Sweden has stayed open for business, with the most laid-back approach to containing the SARS-Cov-2 virus than anywhere else in the West
Its neighbors closed borders, schools, bars and businesses as the coronavirus pandemic swept through Europe, but Sweden went against the grain by keeping public life as unrestricted as possible.

The strategy — aimed at allowing some exposure to the virus in order to build immunity among the general population while protecting high-risk groups like the elderly — has been controversial. Some health experts liken it to playing Russian roulette with public health.

But now, the country's chief epidemiologist said the strategy appears to be working and that "herd immunity" could be reached in the capital Stockholm in a matter of weeks.

"In major parts of Sweden, around Stockholm, we have reached a plateau (in new cases) and we're already seeing the effect of herd immunity and in a few weeks' time we'll see even more of the effects of that. And in the rest of the country, the situation is stable," Dr. Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden's Public Health Agency, told CNBC on Tuesday.
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