18 August 2016 (02:29 UTC-07 Tango 01) 28 Mordad 1395/14 Dhu I-Qa’da 1437/16 Bing-Shen 4714
On 16 August, while conducting search ops in Saint Amant, Louisiana, the U.S. Coast Guard spotted a herd of cows nonchalantly walking down the flooded main street of town:
Since 13 August, the U.S. Coast Guard has rescued more than 2-hundred people and at least 57 pets from the record level flooding in Louisiana!
LOUISIANA MILITIA RESCUES FLOOD VICTIMS & THEIR PETS!
U.S. COAST GUARD, 226 YEARS OLD!
18 February 2016 (04:35 UTC-07 Tango 01)/29 Bahman 1394/09 Jumada al-Ula 1437/11 Geng Yin 4714
Possibly due to record exports of New Zealand beef, the people of Kiwi-Land are now suffering a beef shortage!
In the 1st quarter of the 2015-16 New Zealand beef export season a record $682-million NZD was brought in. But that was due to a record volume of red meat leaving New Zealand and heading to Taiwan (Republic of China), not due to higher commodity prices.
The result is that local meat factories have shutdown production lines due to a lack of beef in their home country! China owned Oamaru Meats is keeping 40 employees on a longer furlough than normal due to the beef shortage, up to 14 weeks longer. Some employees were shifted to their lamb butchery. Union reps revealed this was the 4th furlough in the past 12 months, which they described as “quite unusual”.
Another beef butcher, Invercargill’s Prime Range Meats (which is also China owned), shutdown without warning last week. 130 people suddenly furloughed!
However, some local politicians think its more than just a shortage of beef cows and are demanding answers. Oamaru Meats was taken over by China’s Binxi Foods Oamaru/Binxi Cattle Industry Company in December, resulting in an immediate layoff of up to 80 employees. Prime Range Meats was taken over by several Chinese investors in 2014, but apparently there have been legal wrangling over who is responsible to pay the debts of the company. A manager at the Prime Range Meats facility suspects that’s the real reason for their sudden shutdown.
So, officially the new Chinese owners of New Zealand beef plants are blaming lack of beef for their shutdowns and furloughs, yet it sounds like incompetent corporate level administration could be to blame. The result will be less beef for New Zealanders to buy, which will drive up the local retail price of red meat. Perhaps that’s the real reason for the shutdowns?
New Zealand probably sold-out to Chinese investors after a terrible 2010 season.
U.S. Food Crisis January 2016: “We were not ready to close 10 years ago, but we’re ready now.”