meat processing plant fires....?

[Abigayle]

I didn't follow the time line as closely as you did 8 beans, good job.
Barn fires are much more difficult to trace.  Some small farms still store their fertilizer in the barn. Hay is sometimes stacked too  early and heat builds.  One year, Thor and I had to put up our our hay, in the barn, since we could not get kids that year.  The fair hit at the same time the hay was ready.  We would have liked to leave it in the field longer, but rain was coming.  Our hay was a little on the warm side.  Rain came in the right direction so we could leave a big door open.  We also restacked some and spread it out.  Several in the area lost barns that week, due to hot hay.  I almost started a fire with a heat lamp that shifted in a barn and rolled against a stud stall wall.  I happened to go out and catch it.  So many things in a barn can cause sparks.  Lightening is a common threat.  It would be easy to make a purposeful fire appear to be an accident.  Farmers are aware of patterns that are forming (in many cases).  I am guessing many are more watchful than ever this year.  The coffee shops are full of early morning chatter.  Shotguns are being cleaned and at the ready.  Like farmers don't have enough to worry about!

[8greenbeans]

While 100% correct, the barn fires I mentioned are big factory animal farms and chicken houses. Loss of thousands of animals at a time. A few here in the US, many more globally.

ETA IceAgeFarmer has been covering this very thing for three or more years. That's how I've kept up with it!

[Surveyor1]

Add another to the list!  Fortunately it sounds like it was contained with minimal damage!

https://www.foxnews.com/us/firefighters-extinguish-industrial-fire-at-perdue-farms-facility

[RWS]

A barn that housed tens of thousands of chickens on Forsman Farm in Howard Lake, Minnesota, one of the nation’s largest egg producers, was set aflame late Saturday night.
The fire at the commercial egg farm in Minnesota is the latest food production facility to mysteriously go up in smoke over the past year as inventory on store shelves across the United States become increasingly bare amid a fertilizer and food shortage and historic inflation.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/one-largest-egg-factories-us-torched-middle-night-amid-outbreak-fires-food-processing-facilities-across-nation/

[Surveyor1]

A barn that housed tens of thousands of chickens on Forsman Farm in Howard Lake, Minnesota, one of the nation’s largest egg producers, was set aflame late Saturday night.
The fire at the commercial egg farm in Minnesota is the latest food production facility to mysteriously go up in smoke over the past year as inventory on store shelves across the United States become increasingly bare amid a fertilizer and food shortage and historic inflation.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/one-largest-egg-factories-us-torched-middle-night-amid-outbreak-fires-food-processing-facilities-across-nation/

Eggs are considered a “super food” and up until recently were very cheap for the nutrition they provide.  I’ve said many times “I quit believing in coincidences a long time ago!”…. Wayyyyy to many things going on right now for this not to be coordinated!  Tik Tok Tik Tok Tik Tok….

[RWS]

Largest Pork Company in the US Shuts Down California Plant Due to High Costs

Food processing corporation Smithfield Foods will shut down its Vernon, California, plant and scale back operations in California, Utah and Arizona, the company announced Friday.

Smithfield “will cease all harvest and processing operations in Vernon, California in early 2023 and, at the same time, align its hog production system by reducing its sow herd in its Western region,” the company said in a Friday news release.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/largest-pork-company-us-shuts-california-plant-due-high-costs/

[Surveyor1]

Good for Smithfield!  Sounds like a very good business decision. The regulatory requirements in California does not make it very business friendly and this is especially true for agriculture processing facilities.  Personally I miss the good old days where many counties had their own processing facilities that serviced the locals.  I would welcome a return to those concepts and I’m sure one could be quite successful in that type of endeavor!  Let’s face it, the less the transportation cost and fresher the product, the better off we are.  It’s past time to push hard for decentralization of our resources and start producing more at the local and regional level.

[RWS]

Largest Pork Company in the US Shuts Down California Plant Due to High Costs

Food processing corporation Smithfield Foods will shut down its Vernon, California, plant and scale back operations in California, Utah and Arizona, the company announced Friday.

Smithfield “will cease all harvest and processing operations in Vernon, California in early 2023 and, at the same time, align its hog production system by reducing its sow herd in its Western region,” the company said in a Friday news release.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/largest-pork-company-us-shuts-california-plant-due-high-costs/

[RWS]

Another One  “Firefighters initially took a defensive stance and held the fire from spreading to any other nearby structures. After a significant amount of resources worked to access the burning areas, the fire was declared knocked down at 8:00 p.m. At the time of this posting, the cause of the fire remains under investigation,” the post concluded.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/another-one-poultry-processing-plant-caught-fire-montebello-california-video/

[Surveyor1]

I guess we can add another significant fire to the list….  Losing 18,000 cattle is staggering to say the least!  At a replacement cost of $1,500 per dairy cow, that’s a 27 million dollar hit just in the cows alone not to mention the daily hit for production losses…. Not good!

https://www.theblaze.com/news/dairy-farm-explosion-kills-at-least-18000-cattle-critically-injures-worker

[Abigayle]

That seems very suspicious.  The building wasn't a tinder box. I don't think insulation would go up like that.
Not only is there the expense noted, but it takes a very long time to develop a strong herd.  This guy may well have inherited on and built it even bigger.  None-the-less, his parents and or grandparents had to put a lot of time and labor into it.
When Thor and I started an Angus cow/calf operation, we had to study rotational grazing, fertilization, watering systems....it took a lot and we were just over 210 acres.  I studied, asked a lot of questions and sat at a lot of breed sales, including for bulls.  I bet they had an A.I. service and paid a vet, in order to use the best lines.
Our neighbors had a good sized dairy, family owned and run.  Nothing, in the farming industry, to my knowledge is more labor intensive.  I had one milk cow that I milked by hand and I felt like I was married to it.  These people must be in shock.