Coronavirus
Technology Solutions
Avoiding Economic Nationalism in the Pandemic
Era
Demand for Air Purifiers in India Soars
Scottish Meat Processors Dealing with Many COVID
Cases
Automation is the Meat Processing Solution to
COVID
Chinese City Claims Imported Beef Tainted with
COVID
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Avoiding Economic Nationalism in the Pandemic
Era
Economic nationalism is not sustainable
according to Gary
Gereffi,
director of the Duke
University Center on Globalization, Governance &
Competitiveness.
“National economies can’t be self-contained
industries. They have to tie in to other parts
of the world. We can re-think relationships, but
we need to find a partnership model,” he said
back in 2017.
“Frequently a US company is dealing with
international production networks where the
assembly of finished goods is moved offshore,
while key components or subassemblies are
provided from the US,” said Gereffi. “Running a
company like that means knowing how to manage
global supply chains involving a variety of
firms. Many US companies that initially focused
on making everything at home have no idea how to
manage this form of coordinated production where
cross-border logistics need to be very precise
and the financing is decentralized. Also, even
if the same companies that left the US now
return, they are likely to bring back far fewer
jobs than before because production was probably
more labor-intensive in the earlier period.”
Raising tariffs on imports could have negative
ramifications on the US (as well as the
exporting country). Many companies have set up
regional and global production networks to make
finished products using a large proportion of
imported parts. Case in point: a car has about
30,000 distinct parts and an iPhone has hundreds
of parts, many of which are not available in the
US supply chain.
“If you try to raise taxes on all the inputs
that are made in different countries, you’re not
only affecting the parts producers abroad, but
also the final goods producers in the US,”
explained Gereffi. This is true for the US
automobile industry, where 40 percent of the $20
billion in auto parts imported from Mexico are
US-made parts and components.
While economic nationalism is not sustainable,
Gereffi believes that actions need to be taken
to support those who might view themselves as
impacted negatively by globalization. In
industrialized nations, the most vulnerable
groups often are workers whose skills and
experience are rendered obsolete by new
technology at home or low-cost imports from
abroad.
“Globalization creates winners and losers and in
the United States we don’t have a strategy for
the losers,” he said. “How do we re-build
workforces among certain industries? We haven’t
paid enough attention to this.”
Gary has recently addressed the question as to
whether the specific circumstances of the COVID
19 crisis change the views about economic
nationalism. In a phone call today with
McIlvaine he pointed to the fact that China is
again a
major exporter of meltblown media and
masks to the U.S. He is asking whether in the
future a reshoring policy for critical items
such as meltblown media and masks will be
necessary for national security reasons.
In an article appearing in the Journal
of International Business Policy Gary
analyzed the exports of various countries prior
to the
pandemic.
The market shares in exports had changed in the
2008-2018 period. Traditional exporters such as
the U.S. were surpassed by nontraditional
players such as Vietnam.
Gary points to the spectacular production
expansion of meltblowns in China in the first
few months of the pandemic. He asks why the U.S.
could not have acted similarly. Sinopec was the
company responsible for the biggest increase in
meltblown production. They are one of the
world’s largest energy and petrochemical
companies and were therefor capable of quickly
building melt blown lines to produce 12
million tons per day of media. Without
government funding no company in the U.S. would
take the risk of such a large increase in
capacity without assurance of a long term need.
McIlvaine answered Gary’s question about a
future solution and with the following. The U.S.
could quickly ramp up to produce large
quantities of masks but not to produce large
quantities of meltblown media.
Fortunately meltblown is only one medium for
masks. Membranes and nanofibers can also be
utilized. The present U.S. production of media
which could be used in masks is very large
compared to what is needed in masks. The
following chart shows the type of media by end
use. Even
with a huge increase in mask production in 2022
to $25 billion worldwide the media use would not
equal that of the other industries combined.
This is not the full story. In fact if the U.S.
and other nations used Comfortable, Attractive,
Tight Fitting, Efficient (CATE) reusable masks
each square meter of media would be 90 times as
effective as if used in a disposable mask. One
reason is that it would be used 30 times instead
of once. Also because of the tight fit it is
three times more effective than a loose fitting
N95 mask.
The CATE mask advantages can be
summarized
·
Much more effective in fighting COVID
·
Can use membrane, nanofiber, or meltblown media
·
Can be reused 30 times
·
Provides much tighter fit
·
Production can quickly be ramped up to provide
the needs in each country
·
Cost per use is no greater than for disposable
masks McIlvaine has asked Gary to keep us informed of his activities in this area so that we can report them. You can see his complete COVID analysis at:
Sales of air purifiers in many Indian cities
such as new Delhi are rising rapidly. Panasonic
has
seen a fivefold increase. Sales are rising for
low priced units at around 10,000 Rs and also
the high priced Dyson units at 50,000 Rs. Sales
at Samsung and Xiaomi are also up substantially.
Operations were paused at one of
Scotland’s main meat processing
plants earlier this week after a
number of its staff tested
positive for Covid-19, Scotbeef
confirmed the cases at its
Bridge of Allan plant and said a
phased return to getting the
facility up and running was
already under way
The Scotbeef outbreak follows news that a number
of employees at another meat plant – Kepak
McIntosh Donald in Portlethen, near Aberdeen –
had tested positive for Covid-19.
A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said the health
board was working with Kepak McIntosh Donald and
other partners to ensure all appropriate control
measures are in place within its workforce.
Meat processors trade body, SAMW, declined to
comment on the cases but said all of its members
had installed extra safeguards to observe
Covid-19 rules.
The spread of coronavirus throughout the
meatpacking industry, where tens of thousands of
workers have been infected in the United States
alone, is greatly accelerating plans by major
meatpacking companies to introduce automation
and robotics into the plants.
Nationwide, at least 48,000 meatpacking workers
have been infected and 245 have died. The major
meatpacking companies are framing their
investments in automation as a humane response
to outbreaks in their workforces. Management at
JBS’ beef plant in Greeley, Colorado were
revealed by two whistleblowers to have
deliberately allowed potentially infected
workers into the plant and threatened health
care screeners who sent symptomatic workers home
to quarantine. Even before the pandemic, the
meatpacking industry was among the most unsafe,
with massive rates of carpal tunnel and other
repetitive motion injuries.
Workers in a Hog Slaughter and Processing Plant
(Wikimedia Commons)
Instead, the coronavirus is being seized upon to
implement an “Amazonization” of the workforce,
using advances in robotics, in the manner
pioneered by the online retail giant, to greatly
intensify the exploitation of an already
low-wage workforce. No doubt a crucial aim is to
“thin out” the ranks of increasingly restive
meatpacking workers, who have carried out
wildcat strikes and protests at several
facilities in opposition to the companies’ “herd
immunity” policies.
Tyson Foods, the poultry titan of the meat
industry, has rapidly increased its investments
in automation. Over the past three years, Tyson
Foods has invested over $500 million, including
the founding in August 2019 of the Tyson
Manufacturing Automation Center (TMAC) in
Springdale, Arkansas, near its headquarters.
TMAC has been focused on developing automation
and robotics for the company production line in
order to help improve efficiency. This summer,
they tested a robot to perform such tasks as
moving chicken breasts from a conveyor belt into
tray packs for sale in grocery stores. TMAC’s
main focus is the development of an automated
deboning system for poultry. The efforts to
create and implement “robot butchers” is being
sped up, according to Tyson Chief Executive Noel
White.
Like Tyson Foods, Canada’s Lesters Foods was
forced to close many of its meat-processing
facilities early on in the pandemic. Lesters
Foods’ president, Henry Mizrahi, sought
automation as an alternative to maintain
production. Lesters Foods has invested millions
in a five-year plan to increase automation,
including an initial plan to install robotic
arms in one of its facilities capable of moving
packages into larger containers for shipping, to
reduce the rate at which workers remain in close
proximity to one another.
Mizrahi, capitalizing upon the pandemic’s
displacement of workers, is certain automation
is “worth the expense,” adding, “When we started
to see [COVID-19 affect other plants], I saw how
tragic the impact was on human health. The
pandemic has certainly accelerated our strategy
of planning for more robotic equipment.”
Automation, Mizrahi says, will allow “increase
food security and improve plant safety.” But in
reality, workers are being replaced, not
protected. The drive for automation no doubt has
the potential to free workers from laborious and
life-threatening tasks, particularly during a
pandemic, but the result of automation under
capitalism is to increase the exploitation of
workers through layoffs, speedup and wage cuts.
Meat plants account for $1 billion in global
annual sales of automation supplies and
services. Georgia-based Cantrell-Gainco, which
sells chicken deboning equipment manufactured in
Japan’s Mayekawa plant, has fielded double the
usual number of inquiries since the coronavirus
pandemic hit North America.
Mayekawa, which has manufacturing plants in
Brazil, Europe, India, Mexico, Serbia, South
Korea, and the United States, issued a statement
on global sales stating its chicken deboning
robot parts sales are set to rise by more than
$28 million from $32 million in 2019 to $45
million this year and $60 million in 2021. This
includes North American sales regarding
affecting Tyson Foods, Sanderson Farms, and Peco
Foods. In
Brazil, the country’s fourth-largest pork
processor, Frimesa, has intensified its
automation efforts as COVID-19 sweeps the
nation, spending R$20 million, or $3.53 million
USD, annually. Claudecir dos Santos, Frimesa’s
research manager, said that the automation will
receive a 5 percent annual increase in funding.
Frimesa’s Assis Chateaubriand plant under
construction in the state of Parana will include
five robots, costing approximately €500,000, or
$586,000, each.
Olymel LP, one of Canada’s largest pork and
poultry processors, had a plan for automation
before the pandemic forced the company to
temporarily close its Yamachiche plant for more
than two weeks in late March, after nine out of
the more than 1,000 workers tested positive for
the disease. Upon the facility’s reopening, the
company decided to accelerate the plan, which
entails the use of robots to sort meat cuts,
pick and pack shipments, and stack crates.
Pilgrim’s Pride, a multi-national food company
mostly owned by JBS SA, is currently one of the
largest poultry producers in the United States
and Puerto Rico, and the second-largest chicken
producer in Mexico. After exiting bankruptcy in
December 2009, it moved its US headquarters to
Greeley, Colorado in 2011. The company said in
July it will use automation to double capacity
of a Minnesota plant to produce chicken sold in
tray packs.
Chief commercial officer Henrik Andersen of
Denmark’s automation manufacturer Frontmatec
said, “The outbreaks of [COVID-19] will put
extra spice into the need for automation because
the fewer people you have, the less likely you
are to suffer from these outbreaks.” In
2018, the global meat sector was valued at
$945.7 billion. It is forecast to increase to
$1,142.9 billion by 2023. Production of meat
worldwide saw an increase between 2016 and 2018,
from 317.2 million metric tons to around 330.5
million metric tons. The world is projected to
produce 60.8 million metric tons of beef in
2020, down 922K metric tons from 2019 due to the
coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities from the Chinese city of Jinan say
they have found traces of Covid-19 on beef,
tripe and packaging from New Zealand and a
handful of other countries, Reuters reported.
However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she
has been advised it was not a product from New
Zealand and officials were investigating
further.
Officials say the products and packaging that
have been found to have had Covid-19 have come
from New Zealand, Brazil and Bolivia, while two
other provincial capitals detected it on
packaging on pork from Argentina.
Ardern told TVNZ today she is "being advised
it's not our beef".
"We've been advised that's Argentinean beef, so
just trying to get to the bottom of what's been
reported there as we speak but rest assured
we'll keep doing that," she told Breakfast.
"But to this point I've been advised it's not
our beef but we'll keep working away on that."
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Trade told the Herald they have not
been informed officially of any coronavirus on
New Zealand products.
"There are media reports that the city of Jinan,
in China's Shandong province, has detected
coronavirus on beef products imported from New
Zealand.
"New Zealand has not been informed of this
officially by the Chinese authorities.
The packages entered through ports in Shanghai,
the city's municipal health commission said.
More than 7500 people who may have been exposed
tested negative for coronavirus, it said.
China is ramping up testing on frozen foods
after frequently detecting Covid-19 on imported
products.
It is not known how Covid-19 got onto the
products that came from New Zealand, with a
number of procedures taking place before it
leaves the country.
Frozen pork cases were also reported in the city
of Zhengzhou and Xian. It's not clear if the
cases are related.
The World Health Organization has consistently
said the risk of contracting Covid-19 from
frozen packaging is low.
The role of frozen food and cold temperatures in
potentially transmitting the virus was in the
spotlight in New Zealand when officials probed
the source of a mystery outbreak in August that
began with a worker in a cold store facility.
"We do know from studies overseas, that
actually, the virus can survive in some
refrigerated environments for quite some time,"
director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield,
told reporters at the time.
But how concerned should we actually be?
Having previously stated it's "highly unlikely
that people can contract Covid-19 from food or
food packaging", the World Health Organization
(WHO) reiterated its stance earlier this year.
"People should not fear food, or food packaging
or processing or delivery of food," WHO's head
of emergencies programme Mike Ryan told a
briefing in Geneva in August.
"I would hate to think that we would create an
impression that there's a problem with our food
or there's a problem with our food chains.
"There is no evidence that food or the food
chain is participating in transmission of this
virus. And people should feel comfortable and
safe."
"Advice from the World Health Organization is
that transmission by airborne droplets and
aerosols is the dominant pathway for Coivd-19
infection," she said.
"We are closely watching and reviewing
international developments about transmission
and taking advice from the Ministry for Primary
Industries and experts at the New Zealand Food
Safety Science Research Centre about how we
respond to these emerging risks as our knowledge
about the virus grows," Karapeeva said in a
statement.
Since the early days of the response to
Covid-19, the industry had been working to
strict protocols that were developed with the
Ministry for Primary Industries and provided
guidance and a minimum standard for processors
for operating.
"The protocol, which is consistent with other
industries and guidance from the World Health
Organisation, means we have a robust first line
of defense against the transmission of the
virus," Karaveeva said.
Under the protocol, employees observe physical
distancing. In situations where this is not
practicable, extra controls are put in place
including personal protective equipment, she
said. Employees also undergo temperature checks.
Karapeeva said companies are also recording who
is working at each site and in which team or
bubble they are operating in.
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