April has been an exciting month for news outlets. From the Depp/Heard trial to Elon Musk owning Twitter and now several reports of food processing plants starting on fire due to unexplained explosions. The incident that led to all the news was on April 21st in Covington, Georgia at their General Mills food processing plant. Four trailers were hit by a plane killing the pilot and passenger. No one else was hurt or killed in the crash. An incident prior on April 13 was the plane that crashed in Idaho on a potato farm and food processing plant. These two incidents were oddly similar but sparked the realization that there have been multiple other incidents at a food and fertilizer processing plant, a feed mill, and a food pantry in the past few months.
Cargill-Nutrena feed mill in Lecompete, Los Angeles on January 13- Explosion and fire
Winston Weaver Company fertilizer plant on January 31- Explosion and fire
Wisconsin River Meats near Winston-Salem on February 3- The meat processing plant lost its storefront to a fire
Louis Dreyfus Company soybean processing plant in Indiana on February 14 - Fire in bag house
Bonanza Meat Co. in South El Paso on February 15- Building on fire
Shearer’s Foods, south of Hermiston, Oregon on February 22- Boiler explosion
A Sunnyside fertilizer plant in Washington on February 28- Chemical fire
Hot Pocket Plant in Jonesboro on March 16- Inside a large piece of a production line cooler a fire started
Walmart District, Plainfield, IN on March 16- Fire in the warehouse
Penobscot McCrum in Belfast, Maine on March 24- Fire started by a machine
Maricopa Food Pantry in Maricopa, Arizona on March 28- Fire destroyed around 50,000 lb of food
Rio Fresh in San Juan, Texas on March 31- Produce warehouse on fire
East Conway Beef & Pork in Center Conway, New Hampshire on April 11- Fire destroyed butcher shop and killed two cows
Taylor Farms in Salinas, California on April 13- Structural fire
Azure Standard in Dufur, Oregon on April 19- Fire at the headquarters
Fertilizer company in western Kansas on April 19- Fire
When doing some digging it seems that in 2021 there were also food processing plants going up in flames. Maid-Rite Steak Co. in Lackawanna County, Tyson's plant in Hanceville, Alabama, Deli Star Corp. in Fayetteville, and Patak Meat Products in Cobb County. Even going back so far as 2020 where there was an Illinois food-processing plant also heavily damaged by a fire.
There are some theories that are circling that all of these are connected to the food shortages across the country and the ones we need to be planning on having. Another theory suggests that this is happening because Bill Gates is buying all the farmland. Whether they all connect or it is only coincidence, the question is will this trend end, or will it continue to spread until there are no processing plants left?