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Monday, April 06, 2020

Agriculture supply chains weaker, shifting due to pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a massive shift in how agricultural producers get their products to consumers and has highlighted the weak links in the ag supply chain.

Many farmers are set up to sell their products to restaurants and other intermediaries, but the closure of restaurants nationwide "has left chefs and farmers with tons of produce and meat to dispose of in a hurry," Jesse Newman reports for The Wall Street Journal. Some restaurants are staying open and offering curb-side pickup, others are selling their supplies in open-air "farmer's markets" to consumers, and others are donating food that would otherwise spoil.

In March, the Food and Drug Administration "gave restaurants and manufacturers a greenlight to sell packaged foods to retailers without the usual nutrition labeling requirements," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture. "Meanwhile, top grocers and foodservice distributors, like Kroger and Sysco, are teaming up to keep store shelves stocked and provide new job opportunities for furloughed workers."

Many producers, facing a sudden loss in demand for their products, are dumping out food to keep prices from going too low. For example, "a major vegetable producer that supplies restaurants such as Wendy’s Co. said plunging restaurant demand has spurred the company to plow under a few hundred acres of leafy greens in recent weeks," Newman reports. "The company, which also grows crops in Yuma, Ariz., and Salinas, Calif., has cut staff and reduced salaries for other employees. It is trying to collect money it is owed from distributors and determine whether it is eligible for federal assistance under the recent $2 trillion stimulus package."
Meanwhile, farmworkers have been declared "essential" workers by the federal government, even as many of them hide from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials still arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants, Miriam Jordan reports for The New York Times.

Farmworkers and meatpackers are at an increased risk of contracting the virus, which could endanger the nation's food supply, Greg Asbed writes in an op-ed for the Times. Asbed, who founded the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, is a vocal proponent of farmer workers' rights. 

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