Last year, when Covid came around, it was almost universally and immediately determined that paper products were labeled an "essential business."

As for tissue, I am old enough to remember outhouses with either (a) a sack of corncobs or (b) last year's Sears & Roebuck catalog (perhaps the iPhone of the day as you did your business). Neither was very satisfactory, although I would have to say that the slightly hydrophilic corncobs were probably superior to the hydrophobic and stiff catalog pages.

But let's ponder boxes, containers, and packaging for a minute. An incident that occurred last week got me to thinking about this.

Suppose an unfriendly force decided, through penetration of computer systems, to shut down the packaging business, from paperboard manufacturing through converting. From the glimpse we saw last week, which seemed to be a one-off incident, it appears possible.

No packaging--commerce grinds to a halt. Intercompany shipments between manufacturing segments stop. Retail packaging stops. The economy is brought to its knees without modern packaging. Packaging so ubiquitous we don't notice it, unless it is missing. Is this the next potential Covid-19, fully disrupting the economies worldwide? Let's hope not.

But it is time to preemptively consider the possibilities. I call on AF & PA to pull together a committee to explore this possibility and making sure our packaging businesses have the safeguards needed to function normally and fully, no matter the scope or intensity of any threats.

Jim Thompson is CEO of Paperitalo Publications.