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June 2, 2022 - Epoch Times
17:59
Massive Fire Breaks Out At Poultry Farm, FBI Warns of Targeted Cyber Attacks On Food Plants
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Good evening.
This right here was a large poultry farm in Howard Lake, Minnesota.
It supplied some of the nation's largest supermarkets with 3 million eggs per day.
However, the reason that I'm using past tense when I'm talking about this particular farm is because over the weekend, this poultry farm actually experienced a devastating fire.
According to the local county sheriff out there, this fire destroyed an entire poultry building with an estimated 200,000 chickens inside.
And then furthermore, according to a spokesperson representing the Forceman Farms, he said that the adjacent buildings were affected as well.
Here's specifically what the spokesman said.
Quote,"...overnight, a fire destroyed one of our barns at our Howard Lake farm.
No one was injured, and we are grateful that first responders were quickly on the scene to put out the fire.
Unfortunately, chickens were lost because of the fire.
We are evaluating the extent of the damage, which appears to be confined to a single structure, as well as investigating the cause of the fire." Now, although the fire marshals say that at this moment it's unclear how this fire started, what is clear is the impact that it will have on these supermarket store shelves, at least in that area, which are quite frankly already experiencing a tsunami of different problems coalescing together at the very same time.
And all of these problems, things like raging inflation, the rise in diesel price, and an outbreak of bird flu, which allegedly swept across 32 different states and killed some 37 million chickens and turkeys, well, all these factors came together.
And had the price of eggs skyrocket 41% year over year.
Here's in fact a graph up on your screen showing the price of eggs.
The green dashed line is the price last year.
The blue dotted line is the three-year average.
And the red line is the price in 2022.
And then furthermore, besides only affecting the price of eggs, when we look at the price of retail chicken breast, you can likewise see that the prices are the highest that they've been in the last 20 years.
However, for today's episode, let's set aside the inflation, the diesel prices, the shortage in fertilizer, and the alleged bird flu outbreak.
And instead, let's focus on the fire.
Because you see, if you've been paying attention, this massive fire over in Minnesota is not the only one to have taken place this year.
In fact, over the past year, across both the U.S. and Canada, there have been dozens of food processing facilities which have experienced some type of fire, some type of explosion, or even, in one case, a plane crash.
And these events were not localized in any particular area.
Instead, they were spread out across the entire country, including in states like California, Oregon, Arizona, New Hampshire, Texas, Illinois.
They happened in Tennessee, in Kansas, in Georgia, and so on and so on and so on.
Furthermore, as these different stories of fires and explosions damaging major food processing plants across the entire country were beginning to circulate on social media, the FBI's cyber division, they came out and they published an official notice warning Americans about the increased cyber attack threats on agricultural cooperatives.
Here's specifically what the FBI wrote in their statement, which was published just last month in April of 2022.
Quote, The biggest threat to the food supply in America are people who watch this video without smashing that like button, as well as people who don't subscribe to the Now, I am, of course, just kidding about that, but of course, it never hurts to smash that like button and also that subscribe button.
However, here's what the FBI actually wrote, quote, Ransomware actors may be more likely to attack agricultural cooperatives during critical planting and harvest seasons, disrupting operations, causing financial loss, and negatively impacting the food supply chain.
2021 and early 2022 ransomware attacks on farming co-ops could affect the current planting season by disrupting the supply of seeds and fertilizer.
A significant disruption of grain production could impact the entire food chain, since grain is not only consumed by humans, but also used for animal feed.
In addition, a significant disruption of grain and corn production could impact commodities training and stocks.
And so, as they mention in this statement, damage to the agricultural industry could translate to damage to the entire economy.
However, notice something.
In this statement, the FBI did not mention anything about the different fires and explosions, which actually kind of piqued my interest even more in the subject.
And so my team and I, we began to dig into what was really happening.
We wanted to test the theory about whether there was sufficient evidence showing that the food processing plants across the country were being burned down or somehow targeted as a part of a concerted effort to destabilize America's food supply.
Or whether these were just individual events that people were just happening to notice more often this year due to a variety of factors.
And so here's what we found.
Starting around April 20th of this year, many people on social media, including myself, began to see a lot of memes as well as screenshots of meatpacking plants, of food processing facilities, of cereal mills and other food-related buildings having been burned down or destroyed.
Here's an example of a tweet that went viral highlighting how 18 food processing facilities have burned down over the past six months.
Furthermore, around the same time as that tweet, there was a segment that aired on Tucker Carlson Tonight, viewed by millions of people, highlighting some of these cases.
And on that segment, Tucker asked the very obvious question, what exactly is going on?
However, all these different stories, they were coming amidst the backdrop of Joe Biden announcing that food shortages are coming to America, inflation hitting a 40-year high, gas prices soaring to the moon, supply chain disruptions causing quite literally empty store shelves, and with the presidents of major food companies coming out and sounding the and with the presidents of major food companies coming out and sounding the alarm about a And so seeing this general situation, I had two very natural questions.
For one, was the number of fires this year higher than the average?
Because 18 fires might sound like a lot, but let's say there's 40,000 facilities across the country, and so it's all relative.
And then secondly, what was the actual cause of the individual fires, and were they somehow connected?
And so, our team, we dug through these cases one by one, and we even called up some of the food processing plants themselves to see what was really happening there, and I will tell you what we found after a quick word from today's sponsor.
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Now, as I mentioned, our team dug through these different cases of explosions, fires, and the plane crash one by one, and here's exactly what we found.
On January 11th of this year, you had a fire at the Delhi Star in Fayetteville, Illinois.
This is a processor of deli meats.
It was a five-alarm fire at their 75,000-square-foot processing plant, and it was a total loss.
Now, that plant employed 130 people.
However, there was no one that was actually injured.
And they are actually expected to replace the entire facility by sometime this year.
They had contingency plans in place to secure production capacity from different processing plants in the region to fulfill the commitments that they had to long-term customers, which includes further processors, national restaurant chains, as well as other retail suppliers.
Now, the sources of the fire are still under investigation.
However, the police chief in that area said that the fire is not considered suspicious.
Then, two days later, on January 13th, you had another fire at Cargill Neutrina Plant, which is in Louisiana.
Now, this plant manufactures feed for pet food, aquaculture, beef, poultry, dairy, and wild game markets.
There were no injuries reported in this fire.
There's actually no word on the damage, although the building from the outside at least still looks intact, and the source of the fire is still under investigation.
Then, about two weeks later, you had another fire on January 31st over at the Winston Weaver Company located in the Carolinas.
This is a fertilizer plant.
It actually forced the evacuation of 6,500 residents within a mile radius of the fire.
The fire was discovered at a loading dock and consumed the entire building, meaning the entire thing was a total loss.
And the source of the fire is still under investigation.
Then about two days later, on February the 2nd, you had another fire at the Wisconsin River Meats plant, which is located in Mauston, Wisconsin.
This is a meat processing facilities.
It forced 20 of their employees to be out of work temporarily, at least.
However, no one was injured.
They were able to open a new storefront as soon as April, so about only two months later.
And the cause of this fire is also still under investigation.
Then two weeks later, on February 16th, you had another fire at the Louis-Dreyfus Company located in Indiana.
This is actually the largest U.S. soybean processing facility, as well as biodiesel plant.
No injuries have been reported, and we could not determine the cause of this fire.
Then, about a week later, on February 22nd, you had another fire occur at the Shearer's Food Company over in Oregon.
Now, this was a potato chip factory employing about 230 people, and unfortunately, six people here were injured, although thankfully no one was reported as being killed.
And although we were not able to ascertain what caused the fire, the company did say that within a year, they are expected to rebuild and resume operations.
Then about a week later, on March 1st, you had another fire at the Nutrien AG Solutions, which is located in Washington.
This was a fertilizer plant.
They reported no injuries, and according to the official account, the cause of the fire was a pile of sulfur, which ignited into a chemical fire that wound up consuming one of the industrial buildings.
Then, about two weeks afterwards, on March the 16th, you had a fire at a Nestle plant located in Arkansas.
Now, this was one of Nestle's packaging facilities.
They packaged things like Hot Pockets, Lean Cuisine, DiGiorno, and Tombstone products.
No injuries were reported.
Apparently, the fire broke out inside of a cooler at the plant, and it was difficult for the firefighters to get to.
That's why it got so big.
At the moment, the facility remains closed to assess damage.
And the employees are currently paid while the closure is ongoing.
And the cause of the fire is still not exactly determined.
However, the local fire chief said that they do not suspect malicious intent.
Two days later, on March 18th in Indiana, you had a fire at a Walmart fulfillment center.
Now, Walmart reported that they will not be reopening this facility, and the source of this particular fire is still under investigation.
Then, about a week later, on March 24th, you had another fire at the Benipscat McCrum, located in Maine.
Now, this is a potato processing plant employing 175 employees, none of whom were luckily injured.
And the source of the fire is officially suspected to be a large friolator machine, which caught fire.
Then, five days later, on March 29th, you had a large-scale blaze at the Maricopa Food Pantry, located in Arizona.
Now, this is a food pantry that experienced a total loss to the plant, meaning the entire thing is awash.
Luckily, no one was injured.
However, 50,000 pounds of food were caught up in the blaze.
Now, at this moment, the fire is still under investigation.
It's not exactly sure how it got started.
However, there were 100-pound diesel containers that were used in coolers, which wound up feeding the flames.
Then, two days after that, there was another fire on March 31st, located in San Juan, Texas, at a Rio Fresh.
Now, this is an onion warehouse located there in Texas.
It's a family-owned, third-generation company.
There were no injuries reported, thankfully, and the source of this fire is still under investigation.
Then, two days later, on April the 12th, you had a fire at the East Conway Beef and Pork Company located in New Hampshire.
Now, this is a butcher shop and slaughterhouse, and the building was completely burned to the ground.
It was a total loss.
Luckily, though, no one was injured.
And although the cause of this blaze is still under investigation, there is no official source.
It is worth noting that this same facility actually burned down 10 years prior as well.
Then one day later, on April the 13th, you had another fire at Taylor Farms in California.
This is a bulk salad packaging facility that provided food services for various local institutions, including hospitals and prisons.
Now, the building was a complete loss.
About 85 to 95 of the building was burned down.
And the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
However, there were 35,000 pounds of ammonia that were kept on site, which kept fire crews out due to fears of explosions.
And then lastly, five days after this fire in California, there was another fire at the Azure Standard in Oregon.
This was an independent distributor of organic and health food.
Luckily, there were no injuries, and the impact of this fire to the general company-wide operations is expected to be limited in And temporary.
Only the headquarters building and a few product lines were affected.
Most of the general operations were unimpacted and the source of this particular fire is also unknown and is currently under investigation.
Furthermore, here are a few things that at least I believe are worth mentioning.
For one, while some of the fires do still have open investigations by local authorities, none of the fires which took place thus far this year had arson identified as the source.
But again, granted, many of them are still under investigation by the local departments.
The second point to note is that as we were going through the list, we noticed that some of the fires which made it into the various memes actually took place in the years 2020 and 2021, which kind of created a false impression that there were more fires happening in a shorter span of time.
And then also we noticed that the types of places that experience these fires, they don't really fit the profile of a good target if you're looking to destabilize America's food supply.
That's because if you look at the list of companies that got burned down, well, they really run the gamut, including things like a food pantry, fertilizer companies, potato chip manufacturers, bulk salad processors, mom-and-pop butcher shops, a deli meat processor, and so on.
Meaning that if someone was looking to target the food processing centers in America to inflict maximum national damage, well, these are not really prime targets.
Now, of course, you can make the argument that these targets were just distractions from the actual targets, but I don't get into speculation.
Regardless, while these fires might hurt the local economies in these particular areas and perhaps the surrounding neighborhoods, it's quite frankly not likely to have much of an effect on the national food supply.
Here's, for instance, what Mr. Todd said.
Tom Super, great name, senior vice president with the National Chicken Council, here's what he said regarding these fires.
Quote, I can only speak for chicken, but like any manufacturing plant, there are generally a few fires that occur each year across the country.
Most of them are contained rather quickly, and certainly not enough to affect the chicken supply.
There are about 200 federally inspected chicken slaughtering plants in the U.S., and thousands more that further process chicken.
I would not categorize this as an alarming trend.
And also, in regards to the number of fires as a percentage, well, a representative for the National Fire Protection Association said this, quote, But the National Fire Protection Association does not see anything out of the ordinary in these numbers.
Now, according to a 2019 report that was released by the USDA, it showed that in 2019, there were over 36,000 food and beverage processing establishments throughout the country.
Meaning that even if this trend continues, even if we continue seeing fires at the same pace that we're seeing now, We're good to go.
And so that is what we discovered in regards to these fires.
If you'd like to read our research and perhaps go through the individual cases one by one, I'll throw all that documentation down into the description box below this video so you can peruse it for yourself.
And of course, I'd like to give a big shout out to both Mr. Eric Schumacher, because he helped put together all this research, as well as Mr. Alan Stein.
He actually called some of the individual food processing centers themselves to see what was happening there.
And also, I'd love to know your thoughts.
Do you think we missed something in our research?
Do you believe that there is something nefarious going on behind the scenes that we missed?
Or do you think that these are just most likely accidents that have just gotten widespread attention?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
I'll be reading through them later this week.
And then in closing, since we're on the topic of food shortages in general, I'd like to mention that earlier today we published a relatively spicy interview between myself and the president of a black farmers association where we talked about the causes behind the food shortages that we're seeing across the country, as well as the spike in food prices.
Not fires that he mentioned, but things like the rise in fertilizer price, the war with the Ukraine, the policies of the Biden administration, the rise in diesel, and so on and so forth.
Here's a trailer.
You know, food is independent.
You know, land knows no color.
Land knows no politics.
So there's an urgency here now, and the administration isn't moving quick enough.
You're gonna have to do something to bring some aid in.
You know, we sent $50 billion of aid to Ukraine, and I'm certainly not against having those displaced families and people in a time in need of war.
You also have to do something for your own people.
And we take for granted that we can just walk into the supermarkets and grab things off the shelves and they're automatically going to be there.
But there's a process by which a farmer produces that commodity.
And when farmers don't pop in the ground, it's a real risk that we're going to have a food shortage.
Yes, we import certain commodities in this country.
But we're still the number one producer for cornweed and soybeans.
And we have to do all we can to make sure that farmers get those crops in the ground and have the resources readily available at the time of planting and harvest.
If you'd like to check out that interview in its entirety, you can do so over on Epic TV. The link will be right there at the very top of the description box.
And then until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times.
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