After 6 lessons, you would think we have everything we need at home to survive a pandemic and the necessary emergency services in place, but if you followed my articles since Lesson 1, you will know I left out one little minor aspect of survival: Food. Love and air is all you need; or maybe not.
I'll start out with the meat industry; if I start with vegetables and fruits, meat eaters feel immediately threatened by impending veganism. Meat grows on a farm, usually in form of an animal like beef, sheep, chicken, or pig. there have to be people who look after them, feed them, and clean up after them. The life animals aren't ready to be delivered home to feed the family. Most people are squeamish when it comes to slaughtering animals and preparing meat to cook. That means that butchers need to work as well as farmers and farmhands. And none of these are paid over the moon.
The fishing fleet is responsible to bring in fish and seafood. Fishermen aren't well paid for the time they spend at sea, get soaked, and get frozen over by the weather.
Talking about cereals, fruits, vegetables, and roots, then we talk about labor intensive crops. To get the harvest in, harvesters are needed in numbers. These harvesters tend to come from far away, get cramped lodgings, and are paid near to nothing. We call them harvesters, but they also carry, load, unload, sort and pack. It's tiring and monotonous work that kills knees and back.
All that food sitting in farms is not really doing anyone any good. Transport is key. Life animals must get to the slaughter house and meat to the shops or processing plants. Milk must find its destination. Fish must get to shops or processing plant. The other products must get to a shop, mill, or other kind of processing plant. All in all, we are talking about a lot of trains, trucks, lorries and vans that need drivers out in the pandemic. And none of these drivers has got a large wage check.
The processing plants receiving these goods are run by people who are mostly on minimum wage. While you buy ready meals for four Dollars or Pounds or for one, the workers will still get paid their minimum wages. I'm mentioning this just in case you had some weird notion you would be doing something for the workers by buying the more expensive pack. And the products are all the same. Feel free to buy the cheap one.
Finally, everything gets to the shops where the goods are piled into the racks and showcases. All these workers are on minimum wages, but without them, the shops would be empty as a merchants soul. For you to be able to buy these products, further people are needed. Most of them are on minimum wages, and that includes security. For being paid like they were animals, they stare the pandemic in the eyes every day.
Further reading
Covid-19 Lesson 6
Covid-19 Lesson 5
Covid-19 Lesson 4
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