More evidence the virus is causing outbreaks of common sense in USA

Soda, the wine delivery dog

The evidence for a resurrection of common sense can be buried in news reports but seek and you'll find it.  Take for example this 4/3 report from Reuters grimly headlined U.S. dairy farmers dump milk as pandemic upends food markets. 

Despite strong demand for basic foods like dairy products amid the coronavirus pandemic, the milk supply chain has seen a host of disruptions that are preventing dairy farmers from getting their products to market.

But wait --    

Mass closures of restaurants and schools have forced a sudden shift from those wholesale food-service markets to retail grocery stores.

This, as Reuters notes, has created "logistical and packaging nightmares for plants processing milk, butter and cheese." Yet the shift in food distribution from wholesale to retail outlets is evidence that many Americans are now preparing their own meals. As Michael Snyder noted on 3/30 at his blog:

Normally, Americans get a lot of their food from restaurants. In fact, during normal times 36 percent of all Americans eat at a fast food restaurant on any given day.

That's just takeout food; the stat doesn't include meals at sit-down restaurants.  But it all adds up to the fact that a great many Americans have been setting their paychecks on fire just to eat.    

As to hoarding -- it used to be called 'stocking up.' Stocking up when you visit the grocery store, as distinct from buying only one or a few items of a product you know you'll use several times in a year or even in a month. That type of inefficiency also adds up to wasted money not to mention wasted time.

Synder's report, headlined "Supplies Are Starting To Get Really Tight Nationwide As Food Distribution Systems Break Down," discusses another important shift that points to breakouts of common sense in the USA:

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, more people are showing an interest in starting home gardens. Oregon State University‘s (OSU) Master Gardener program took notice of the growing interest.

To help citizens who want to grow their own food, the university kindly made their online vegetable gardening course free until the end of April. OSU’s post on Facebook has been shared over 21,000 times.

Food is only going to get more expensive from here on out, and growing your own food is a way to become more independent of the system.

But if you don’t have any seeds right now, you may want to hurry, because consumer demand is spiking. 

“It’s the largest volume of orders we have seen,” said Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, Missouri. Peak seed-buying season for home gardeners is January to March, but the normal end-of-season decline in orders isn’t happening.

Customers are gravitating to vegetables high in nutrients, such as kale, spinach and other quick-to-grow leafy greens. “Spinach is off the charts,” said Jo-Anne van den Berg-Ohms of Kitchen Garden Seeds in Bantam, Connecticut.

So instead of paying for membership in a gym Americans with the lawn space can get their exercise doing vegetable gardening. (Those without the space, light permitting, can also raise some vegetables indoors.) They can also set up a chicken house so they can have fresh eggs. 

As to who will guard the chickens while the family isn't at home, well, a great many American dogs have become neurotic -- even requiring medication -- because they don't have anything to do all day while the master is away during the day. The family dog can be taught to guard the chicken house. 

They can make themselves useful in other ways, as well.  Here's a report about a Boxer dog now making curbside deliveries for the owner of a wine store whose customers practice social distancing in the time of the virus.

In  consideration of all the above and much more, I do have one quibble with Michael Snyder; his blog is called "The End of the American Dream."  The American Dream is resurfacing, not ending.  We were conditioned to act stupidly. Now a virus is forcing us to wise up.

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