Being raised in Northwest Arkansas, three things are a staple of our community. Walmart, J.B. Hunt, and Tyson Foods. Three powerhouse fortune 500 companies that are all headquartered right here where I was born.
Tyson Foods has always been a family ran business by the Tyson family. They’ve been pillars in our community, and my fathers company did a lot of business in the 80’s and 90’s with Tyson Foods hauling freight with his company all over the region.
For those that don’t realize. Tyson Foods is the largest Beef and Poultry producer in the world. They’re an Arkansas based juggernaut and a prideful American company.
They’re good people, so when they speak, we listen.
Tyson Foods is warning that “millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain” as the coronavirus pandemic forces more food processing plants to close.
In a full-page ad published Sunday in The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, John H. Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods’ executive board, stated that “the food supply chain is breaking.”
“In small communities around the country where we employ over 100,000 hard-working men and women, we’re being forced to shutter our doors,” Tyson wrote in the letter, which was also posted on the company’s website. “This means one thing – the food supply chain is vulnerable.”
Company spokesman Gary Mickelson told the Associated Press that the Tyson family thought it was important to explain their perspective.
“The letter encourages government leaders to unite to address food supply chain challenges,” Mickelson said. “We are taking a proactive approach to balance safety and production by moving aggressively with testing and plant closures when necessary.”
Tyson wanted to let America know what’s happening, and obviously they felt they wouldn’t get a fair shake with the media if they didn’t do it this way.
Tyson’s letter calls for the private and public sectors to unite to help find a safe way for their employees to work.
“We have a responsibility to feed our country. It is as essential as healthcare. This is a challenge that should not be ignored,” Tyson said in its letter.
Even though the limit of functioning plants will lead to a limited supply of Tyson meat products in grocery stores, the company said this will also cause a serious issue of food waste.
“Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation,” Tyson wrote.
When are Americans, our President, and our leaders in government going to wake up and realize that we have to get America open NOW. Not tomorrow, not in a week, NOW. Otherwise we may NEVER recover from this disastrous fear mongering known as the Coronavirus.
[…] This is why the national food supply chain is currently being dismantled. […]
You’ve got so many ads on this site that a person can’t even read the article. A little overdone. Most annoying.