Why hello there, and welcome to a fairly short State of Catastrophe here, in honor of our currently unfolding Vegetarian week (I never called it Vegan week, and any evidence to the contrary are fabrications by Satan to make you doubt me, unless I DO use a Vegan recipe on Friday, in which case THIS is clearly the lie). I just wanted to touch base, and do a quick little sketch of some basic ideas, issues, and things that might be coming.

I have long maintained that I do NOT make plans, but rather I stumble drunkenly into particularly apt thematic arcs and windows of time. And this week is no different, if somewhat more tragic: If you’re not aware, there is a LOT of chaos unfolding in the American meat industry, and a lot of political debate over whether it’s being solved correctly. As a basic synopsis: a lot of meat-processing workers have become ill with COVID 19, partly because factory processing guidelines directly violate best practices for social distancing (factory workers often stand 3-4 feet apart…when American social distancing says you should maintain 6 feet of space). The factories are updating safety measures, but there are already many sick workers, and several factories have had to suspend production. The President has signed an order to mandate their re-opening, part of which includes removing factory liability, meaning that IF workers get sick, it’s legally not the company’s fault.

Look at their lack of PPE! These factowy workers a’ wunning woild!

I’m not going to get too deep into whether that’s the right tactic or not, as I legitimately don’t have the information to have much of an opinion. I don’t KNOW much about commercial meat supply lines. What I DO have the information about is the obvious: Logically, if you the factories running at full capacity needed people 3-4 feet apart, and now we need them to stand 6 feet apart, that’s going to reduce production capacity. Meaning we’re going to have less meat. The factories staying open will make the drop in production SMALLER (in that “it will be reduced” rather than “it will collapse”) but it will be felt. And while there are issues in other production lines as well, meat is particularly troubling, since meat is, to quote my food handling training from last night, a TCS food, meaning that it needs its time at given temperatures controlled. You can leave strawberries out at room temp for a couple days, and they won’t make people sick. Leave raw chicken on the counter for 2 days, and Oh BOY do the odds change.

Step right up to the WHEEL of SALMONELLA.

Now, I’ve talked before about the fact that there are perfectly rational reasons to reduce our meat consumption. With an incoming meat SHORTAGE, the reasons are going to be replaced with necessities: it won’t be that you CAN eat less meat, but rather that you HAVE to.

And that’s why I’m going to be extending Vegetarian/Vegan week. Not to spread some kind of message, but to try and help people adapt to the market forces. I’ll be adding Vegetarian and Vegan to the link tabs at the top of the page, and exploring some options for eating Vegetarian and Vegan in the coming days to help you and your loved ones get through this with a little less strain on your diets and wallets.

Carnivores, don’t think we’re totally abandoning you, though! I’m not going to be writing nothing but vegetarian/vegan recipes every post for the next several weeks. Indeed, if I get my way, next Monday’s post will be beef-focused. I’m just going to try and make at least one post every week either vegetarian/vegan, and/or include a prominent explanation on how to make an otherwise omnivorous dish more vegetal. And we’ll be exploring dishes that use meat frugally, where each portion is under ¼ pound of meat, letting you stretch a single pound over multiple meals, to keep it on the table without breaking the bank.

And who knows? Maybe most people won’t even notice. Beef being $3.90 a pound instead of $3.10 might not make a huge difference to many buyers. Bacon costs $5 instead of 4. It’s still very early in this process, so maybe solutions will be discovered this weekend. But in case they aren’t, and for those people who DO need that extra dollar, we’ll try and have options for you. Because we’re all in this together.  

FRIDAY: JON MAKES SOMETHING STARTING WITH A P, HOPEFULLY.

MONDAY: IF ALL GOES AS PLANNED, WE GET A REAL BUMMER OF A POST. WHY ARE WE HOPING FOR A BUMMER? WELL…YOU’LL SEE.