Food supply: The virus hits meatpacking plants
Americans are “dangerously close to seeing meat shortages at grocery stores,” said Michael Hirtzer and Jen Skerritt in Bloomberg.com. The coronavirus pandemic has led to outbreaks in “some of the country’s biggest slaughterhouses” for pork, beef, and poultry, with at least 22 shutting down for some period. The union representing meatpackers says 5,000 workers have either tested positive or are self-quarantining after exposure. John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, the country’s biggest meat company, warned last week that the “food-supply chain is breaking” and “millions of pounds of meat will disappear” from supermarket shelves. With outbreaks threatening to shut down 80 percent of meat production, President Trump this week invoked the Defense Production Act to order plants to stay open, angering workers and labor unions.
The plant closures aren’t the only problem bedeviling America’s food-supply chain, said Niv Elis in TheHill.com. This intricate web of producers, processors, and retail distributors is “set up for normal times,” when people eat many of their meals in restaurants and “many kids eat lunch and drink a carton of milk at school.” With schools and restaurants largely closed, dairy farmers have had to pour thousands of gallons of milk down the drain. One Idaho farmer buried 1 million onions in a ditch. Some retailers are adapting, said Erica Pandey in Axios.com. With their walk-in trade diminished and grocery shopping up 26 percent, popular fast-food chains like Subway and Panera Bread “are turning into grocery stores and wholesalers.” Both are selling their ingredients directly to consumers, along with their usual sandwiches.
Still, the food supply has a potential weak spot, said Michael Haedicke in TheConversation.com: the millions of laborers who power America’s farm industry. They “pick the grapes in California, tend dairy cows in Wisconsin, and rake blueberries in Maine.” These workers often live in cramped dormitories and work side by side in the fields. The majority are undocumented and uninsured, with no paid sick leave, and thus are unlikely to “seek medical care” or self-quarantine if they feel ill. If lawmakers are serious about protecting the food supply, they should make sure this vulnerable population works 6 feet apart and is provided with gloves, masks, and guaranteed sick time. Otherwise, the food these workers put on our tables could disappear.