Virus places stress on Canadian agriculture

Canada’s chronically understaffed agriculture industry says increased absenteeism related to the Omicron variant could severely stress the country’s food production systems.

Already, there are signs of strain. A slaughterhouse in Quebec opted to euthanize thousands of chickens that couldn’t be processed this week, blaming rising COVID-19 infections among employees as well as federal delays processing temporary foreign worker applications for its protracted staff shortage.

Mushroom farms are dealing with “unprecedented” levels of absenteeism that threaten some operators’ survival, said Janet Krayden, workforce specialist with The Canadian Mushroom Growers’ Association.

Western Canada’s beef industry is monitoring the status of Alberta’s large meat processing plants, which so far remain operational in this latest wave of the virus, but which were the site of some of the country’s largest outbreaks of illness in 2020.

Bob Lowe, president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said packing plants have put in many safety precautions since that deadly first wave, and both Cargill Inc. and JBS Canada have organized successful vaccination campaigns for workers.

Mary Robinson, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said there are very few aspects of food production that aren’t vulnerable to COVIDrelated labour shortages and interruptions.

“Dairy farms are a concern. The cows have to be fed, have to be milked, have to be cared for,” she said.

“The pork industry is a concern — you can’t stop a sow from farrowing. You’re going to have thousands and thousands of animals being born, you can’t slow that down.”