A SpokenFood Exclusive by Carmen Del Rey
UPDATE: Since this story was published, another 2 food plants in America have sustained damage through what authorities are calling “suspicious circumstances,” and investigations are underway. Since pre-Covid to now, there have been over 100 confirmed incidents of destruction in food or associated plants.
In all of 2021, there were approximately 10 plant fires or destructive “incidents,” in the U.S. In 2022, that number jumped to 87. That’s right: 10 one year, 87 more the next year, for a grand total of at least 97 food manufacturing facilities destroyed by fire in 2021-2022 alone.
Here at SF, we speculate on many things. For instance, “When will the price of food go down, finally? Does an extra egg yolk make for a better and gooier Caesar salad dressing? Who makes the best food processor, hands down? Did I over-knead the dough for the pizza story we ran last week?” We talk and schmooze all the time, all day long. Lots of questions, lots of speculation.
We’ve known about these plant “accidents” since they were first reported, and we don’t want to let the significance die:
Were the majority of these plants–a full 85-90%–destroyed intentionally?
I don’t have to don my Nancy Drew hat to riddle that one. Overall, every year, there are roughly a six to twelve food manufacturing “destruction events” that take place. It’s just the nature of the steel beast in manufacturing. Think about it: High voltage electricity, concentrated tanks of ammonia for cooling/freezing, gas lines everywhere, fork trucks that run on propane and for the ones that run on batteries, those bad boys weigh upwards of 1/2 ton apiece and when they explode, you will pray to your personal savior to spare you. Danger abounds, which is why OSHA and plant safety managers have a job.
But…87 fires in one year? Eso es pura caca la toro. (Translation: That is pure bullshit…and the boss said I could write it like that.) Look at the two blocks below. I Googled, “food manufacturing plant burned down,” and got rows and rows of images.
We’re not going to do an in-depth analysis of each individual plant case-but it might be fun to call some local law enforcement in those areas to see how each settled out three years later. Were there arrests? What was the result of each investigation?
No, we’ll just add this to the nasty, rotten Conspiracy Stew that took place during the previous administration and drags on into this one, along with the food pricing issue that began then as well. Politicians campaigned on this very subject, but we’ll bet dollars to donuts not a single one elected to their respective political seat has lifted a finger since. Remember, “supply-chain-this” and “supply-chain-that” as the reason for those first price spikes? BigFood got tons of mileage out of that one, and they’re still blaming gas for the most part.
Unfortunately, that’s a fire no one has yet to put out. It’s still blazing, still burning a hole in your bank account, every time you checkout at the grocery store or pay your bar and restaurant tab. Smell that smoke? That’s your money going up in flames.
Do you believe in coincidence? In this case, I’m going to make an exception, evidenced in the answer below. Someone WANTED these plants burned down, to add stress to an already stressed regional and national food supply chain, to stir up prices and keep them up, to devastate local economies, many of whose citizens lost their income when their plant-employer didn’t reopen. The bottom line applies as well. There was money involved; lots and lots of money. The smoke from these plant fires is now extinguished, but the thought no one can yet prove: Was it was done intentionally? THIS is what you should take away from this article. We know the ‘what’. It’s the ‘who’ we want to find.
There’s been zero news on any arrests for these 100+ acts of felonious arson, because we would have heard about it, but you know what? I think I’ll dial call on some of the local cops and see what’s what. Who’s responsible? Either for the fires or robbing you at the grocery? It’ll always be the same ones. The problem is, they’re robbing you in broad daylight while the real crooks don’t sit in the back room of some tavern. They sit in a C-suite or not far from it. More’s the pity. As always, we’ll keep our spotlight on the issue. -CDR
Sources: Google Images, Newsweek, National Association of Safety Professionals. Graph courtesy of WLT Report, video by Rumble.