Understanding Supply Chains

I must admit I am learning a lot about supply chains. Our new Ambassador to China is an expert and he has put that to good use very quickly it appears. I am still hoping that our local industries though can eventually take over our needs with regard to vital supplies. Once they are established then we should use them in preference going outside only when they can not supply. Our hospital system in Ontario and the hospital system in Quebec are huge though so time will tell on that. We do need to have PPE for our front line workers and that includes all hospitals with ERs. COVID-19 doesn't just live in the cities, it can go anywhere and will.

A rather sad sight on the News Channel was rows and rows of cars lined up waiting for food baskets (I believe it was Virginia). Likely that doesn't happen normally; these are unusual times even bordering on Depression Level. I think if we lived in an area with two growing seasons we would definitely grow a lot of our own food. Living in Canada where the snow covers our gardens for at a minimum of five months of the year (or else the frost is so hard that the ground is frozen and that for six to seven months of the year), growing food is a challenge. Digging the gardens up is hard manual labour which I have actually done for quite a while but approaching 75 I will do less of that labour but perhaps this is when we really should get back to growing more. However, it is not likely to happen. But as a country many are dependent on food stuffs coming from particularly the United States and Mexico. We do not necessarily have to be as we could live on stored and frozen vegetables and fruits. We did a lot of that when we were children. Coming from a large family we did buy oranges in a crate around Christmas time which lasted for a bit; but we ate a lot of apples which grow here and store well. Our meat was mostly local but we have now, seventy years later, gotten used to fresh seafood in particular although much of that does come from our maritime areas. It is the raw vegetables though that comes across the borders; the fresh fruit especially and for some the products of food grown and manufactured in the United States.

Another couple of months and our farmers will have plenty of fresh food for us but this in between time is perhaps worrying for many.