Victims of Green Energy? Massive California meat processing plant about to close, utility bills – Raise money on that?
Essay by Eric Worrall
Next time Californians wonder why their supermarket shelves are empty, perhaps they should consider the distance California’s crazy green energy policies are adding to deliveries.
Smithfield Foods closes meatpacking plant in California
Meatpacking giant Smithfield Foods says it will close its sole California plant next year, citing escalating business costs in the state.
By Associated Press
June 12, 2022, 8:02 amVernon, Calif. – Meatpacking giant Smithfield Foods said on Friday it will close its sole California plant next year, citing escalating costs of doing business in the state.
The Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon, an industrial park south of Los Angeles, will close in February, with its 1,800 employees receiving severance pay and job placement and bonuses. those who choose to stay in business until closing, said Jim Monroe, the company’s vice president of corporate affairs.
…
Monroe said operating costs in California are much higher than in other parts of the country, including taxes and prices for water, electricity, and natural gas.
“Our utility costs in California per capita are three and a half times higher than our other locations where they do the same kind of work,” he said.
Monroe said the shutdown will not reduce supply or increase costs for the products and that Farmer John Products will still be sold in California.
“There won’t be any impact on our customers,” he said.
…
The article mentioned that Smithfield was fined $60,000 for exposing their workers to Covid.
Jim Monroe, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, has promised there will be no impact on availability or pricing.
I’m sure Jim means what he says, and the much lower cost at their out-of-state factory would obviously help. But if that meat must be shipped from another state, rather than sourced and processed in California, fuel bills and compliance California’s draconian road traffic environment laws may add to the cost.
There is another potential problem.
The The UN is predicting an impending global food crisis, because of the disruption caused by Russia’s war with Ukraine. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, For now, it looks like the impact on the US will be minimal. But if the situation worsens, the last place I want to go is at the end of a very long supply chain.
In my opinion, this closure effectively helps Californians move further to the back of the queue when it comes to distributing food supplies, should the upcoming food crisis unexpectedly affect food availability. real in the United States.
[Note from Charles]
Eric, based under him, will sometimes miss the broader plot of US news. Utility costs are a convenient politically neutral issue for Smithfield Foods, which they blame for their factory closures. Another reason for their migration, and perhaps the main one, from California is described in this article.
https://www.cagw.org/thewastewatcher/california-declares-war-pork
In 2018, California voters overwhelmingly through the Proposition 12, Farm Animal Confinement Initiative. By law, no business owner in California may sell the meat of “a covered animal brutally confined or the immediate offspring of a cruelly confined concealed animal. ” Regulations require each pig to have at least 24 square feet of space to avoid being seen as a sheltered animal from being confined in a “cruel” manner. Although the law applies to both calves and laying hens and many producers in these industries have taken steps to comply, compliance poses the greatest burden on pork producers.
The law went into effect this past January.
[/Note]
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