By Lacie Armstrong
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the direct cause of discussions and debates about businesses, services, and even personnel that are deemed “essential workers”. At the beginning of March, there was discussion of the essential nature of those working in agriculture and those working in agriculture being deemed essential. It should come as no surprise that food is a necessity. Without farms, farmers, packaging, processing, truckers, retail, etc. Research shows that most people could live a month or more without food, but afterwards, the adverse effects of starvation begin to mount rapidly.
How Covid Changed Food Supply
Restaurants, hotels, schools, universities, hospitals, employer cafeterias, and other locations where large numbers of people were fed were immediately closed. Grocery stores and our food processing system are not meant to be able turn on a dime to meet this change in demand. More people have been forced to eat at home and prices have gone up. As a result, there have been food shortages in local groceries in certain locations.
How The Food Supply Affect Farmers
The main reason for interruption in food supply has been in processing. Much of our processing capacity for food was designed for bulk food purchases. Food packaging and processing requirements for restaurants and the food service industry are just different from what most families need to purchase in the grocery store.
With processing changing, news stories of farmers dumping milk as schools closed were frequently reported in March and April. The cows still had to be milked but schools were not able to serve the milk in 1⁄2 pint containers. Additionally, there
have been clusters of COVID-19 at food processing and packaging plants. This has caused de- creased production in the plant and therefore an oversupply of food products coming from farms to the plants. Local food processors are currently having difficulty finding workers in spite of many workers out of work and paying excellent wages.
In regard to other crops, such as fruits and vegetables, these often have a very short shelf life. Vegetable crops were destroyed in some locations because contracts were cancelled and the food could not be processed. This was especially true for those that had contracts tied to the food service industry. In some cases, animals were essentially sold at a huge financial loss to plants that had slaughter capacity and other animals actually had to be euthanized.
Furthermore, countries that would have purchased export goods from US agriculture also slowed their purchases which have driven commodity prices even lower. Within the past month, a major swine producer in our state has announced to their growers their intention to cease production of hogs because it is no longer profitable for the company.
Why Farmers Are Essential
Without the farmworker, the farmer cannot grow the food or product or make a living. Without the farmer, the farmworker would most likely not even be in the US or be earning a decent wage. Without the farmers and the farm workers, everyone would face extreme food shortages.
Our farmers, farm workers, and food production system is the most efficient and effective in the world. I continue to trust and believe that we will have food available.
