What’s Really Going On with These Food-Facility Fires? Nothing. It is a figment of Tucker Carlson's warped imagination.

by Rod Williams, May 6, 2022- What’s Really Going On with These Food-Facility Fires? Nothing. It is a figment of Tucker Carlson's warped imagination. I was perplexed when I started seeing Facebook posts about sabotage of food processing plants. Due to a health condition that is keeping me homebound for a while, I have not been able to socialize with fellow Republicans as I normally do, so I don't know if this conspiracy theory nonsense is gaining traction with everyday average Republicans or not. Based on a conversation with a fellow active Republican and from Facebook post, it apparently is. 

After seeing more references to this supposed plot to destroy America's food processing infrastructure, I learned the primary source of this was Tucker Carlson. Carlson is the most popular news pundit in America and has the top-rated show on Fox News.

If you are a National Review subscriber you can read all about this latest nuttiness and see the evidence that debunks it at this link.  If not, let me summarize and post excerpts of the most interesting facts.

In a typical year, there may be one or no planes crashing into food-processing plants. This year there have been two. Only two.

In one of the crashes, the only person killed was the pilot and damage was minimal.

In the other, in Covington Georgia firefighters responded to a plane crash that killed two people at the General Mills food processing plant. The small plane crashed apparently after taking off from the runway of the Covington Municipal Airport. Six tractor-trailers were damaged as a result of the crash. Both occupants of the plane died.

There have been several fires at food processing plants and the article lists them. One was a fire at a butcher shop in Center Conway, New Hampshire, and another was a soybean-processing tank that caught fire at the Perdue Farms plant in Chesapeake, Va.

In none of the cases were there indications that it was a terrorist attack or arson was the cause. There are a lot of fires at all kinds of places on any one day. Food processing plants are not overrepresented. 

The article says that as of 2017, the U.S. had 36,486 food- and beverage-processing establishments. Few have had fires or other damage. I would bet that I could equally build a case that Black chruches are the target of arsonists, or gay nightclubs, or Boy Scott camps or used car dealers. 

Near me. I have a Mrs. Grissom's plant, a coca-cola bottling plant, a bakery on 8th Avenue called Baked on 8th, and another bakery in Wedgewood-Houston. There are several craft breweries and distlleries in Wedgewood-Houston. Do I need to build a bomb shelter? Should I move?

Here are a couple excerpts from the article: 

If you were a terrorist or foreign agent attempting to choke off the American food-distribution network . . . would you start with an obscure potato-chip maker in Oregon? Then move on to the source of Hot Pockets in Arkansas? Then move on to a soybean-processing tank in Virginia? Are these the right targets if you’re trying to cripple America?

If you hated America and had the ability to crash two planes into separate targets . . . wouldn’t you pick something a little more high-profile? The last guys did!

This fear-mongering that some nefarious group or the U.S. government is attempting to destroy America's food infrastructure is pure unadulterated nonsense. It reminds me of a few years ago when conservatives were up in arms about Agenda 21 and everything from bike lanes to shady sidewalks to reintroducing wolves into the wild was seen as part of this massive plot to kill most of the world's population in the interest of saving the planet.  

I used to think that Republicans were the more sane and sober political party. Not anymore. Republicans put the Democrats to shame in being gullible in believing nutty stuff. 

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