Tag: politics

Covid-19 outbreak mapping

According to data collected by FERN, as of July 28 at 12pm ET, at least 528 meatpacking and food processing plants (372 meatpacking and 156 food processing) and 75 farms and production facilities have had confirmed cases of Covid-19. At least 48,248 workers (37,876 meatpacking workers, 5,240 food processing workers, and 5,132 farmworkers) have tested positive for Covid-19 and at least 191 workers (170 meatpacking workers, 14 food processing workers, and 7 farmworkers) have died.

Source: Mapping Covid-19 outbreaks in the food system | Food and Environment Reporting Network via Food Politics.

This… is pretty bad. A lot these places are almost exclusively staffed by immigrants, who are one of the hardest hit communities as they usually cannot access healthcare like everyone else. Immigrants already actively distrust the federal government under the Trump administration.

My fear and everyone else’s is that this will get worse.

Sadness

As the pandemic drags on, one thing is clear to me.

We were living through a renaissance that was cut short.

It will take a decade or three to recover. It hurts.

Wine Tariffs

The story is simple: The president has said he wants to protect American trade but the actions he has taken up to this point have proven he is just not up to the task. Which brings us to something a lot of people are not really prepared to deal with:

The potential upcoming tariffs (up to a 100%!) on articles of European origin. These would be on top of the tariffs started back in October of 2019.

Having gotten in a trade war with China the federal government is now getting into something that could be termed trade skirmishes, all because the president did not like something the European Union was free to determine for itself after a long-running legal fight that involved the World Trade Organization.

Please comment on this regulation at regulations.gov, and contact your Congress representatives to dissuade the U.S. Trade Representative from this levy.

I am just typing this up quick, but there are plenty of explainers out there. Just don’t believe that you specifically will be able to drink around it. There are many great and excellent wines made outside of Europe, yes, but they’re not the one you like, or the one you remember so fondly, or a myriad of reasons. Look around! Information is always there.

Be aware this levy is not only on wine. Other products are also affected: Cheese, olive oil, and oh yeah, whiskey and scotch.

Your local favorite restaurant with that wine you have not been able to find anywhere else will thank you for it.