We knew that it was coming — we had to.  This morning, I read in my county's e-newsletter that the county's health department was shutting down the Smithfield Foods processing plant in my town as a precaution.  This shutdown has now put 325 people out of work indefinitely, with the reporting of one person who may have contracted COVID-19 in the plant.  This is in addition to the processing plant in Monmouth, IL also shutting down.

Smithfield said in a statement on Friday that it will indefinitely close its plant in Monmouth, IL, after "a small portion" of the 1,700 employees there tested positive for COVID-19.  The Monmouth plant processes about 3%t of the U.S. supply of fresh pork, and also produces bacon, according to media reports. Smithfield plants also have been closed in Sioux Falls, SD, where 5% of American pork is processed, as well as in Wisconsin and Missouri.

This is the latest salvo in a potential food shortage crisis in the offing, while the mainstream media (MSM), which remain focused on Trump and his disinfectant gaffe, have paid little attention.  But then, given how the MSM have scared a significant portion of the nation's population with their reporting, we may all be better off if they ignore this oncoming debacle.

Tyson Foods, the largest meat processor in the country, has already shuttered 13 plants nationwide in an attempt to contain the corona virus spread as the company works to implement mitigation standards.  John Tyson, president of Tyson Foods, said in an interview this past Sunday that the "nation's food supply chain was breaking." 

John Tyson said 'millions of pounds of meat' will fail to reach stores and there will be a 'limited supply of our products available in grocery stores' until they are able to reopen facilities currently closed. 

It comes after it was announced two million chickens will be killed in Delaware and Maryland because of lack of employees at processing plants. 

Tyson Foods announced last week that it was shuttering two pork processing plants, including its largest in the United States, to contain the spread of the coronavirus. 

With the restaurant industry shuttered except for those who are capable of carryout and delivery and schools closed (thus no lunch programs), the decline in demand for food supplies is causing the nation's farmers to plow under fields and destroy crops, with unprecedented food waste, at the same time as demand at food banks soars.

Lettuce producer Mark Borba, in Huron, Calif., said he has had to plow under 230 of 680 acres of recently harvested lettuce since the pandemic swept the country a month ago.  He said demand fell off so sharply from restaurants, schools and other large customers that his crews had to unpack 9,000 cartons of lettuce from a warehouse where they had awaited shipment and dump them back in the fields to be plowed under.

In a concentrated effort to help America's agriculture industry, President Trump recently announced his administration's $19-billion Coronavirus Food Assistance Program — $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers and $3 billion for bulk purchases of food to be distributed through food banks.  Agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue said he is hoping the checks can be distributed by end of May.

While private industry is stepping up efforts to provide assistance through monetary donations to hunger relief campaigns, for the rest of us, whether working or not, the inevitable food price rise will provide sticker shock for all and food shortages in some areas, as we deal with the doomsday news report of the week.

Nine states are now easing their lockdown requirements, and people are getting back to work in certain business sectors that can limit the amount of human contact and where social distancing can be maintained.  Some might call this lifting of restrictions "in the nick o'time," yet not soon enough for the majority of our population.

With that said and the looming potential for additional pain in the coming months, we'll conclude with this question concerning whether the economic and social damage of this virus was based on man-made created mass hysteria based on faulty data and socialized groupthink.  In this brief video, published three days ago and already with close to five million views, two emergency physicians who have been testing and collecting data on their patients provide their perspectives that, in so many words, says the government has got it all wrong, and there's something more sinister going on here, as in "control."  Calling Governor Whitmer...

Update: YouTube has removed the video mentioned in the last paragraph.  Fox News's Ingraham Angle presents YouTube’s reasoning for doing so.  Shall we call this censorship?  Mind control?