Pandemic's disruptions of food chain come at vulnerable time, especially for farmers who raise both livestock, crops

Chart from The Counter (formerly New Food Economy), adapted to add one plant

The spread of the coronavirus in rural America threatens not only rural populations, but the nation's agricultural and manufacturing sectors, Michael Warren reports for CNN. Smithfield Foods and other major meatpacking companies (Tyson, Cargill, and JBS USA) have all shut down plants because workers tested positive for the virus that causes covid-19.

Farmers and ranchers have been scrambling to shift supply chains after restaurants shut down, and meatpacking plant closures have left many with animals they can't sell at a profit. "Kenny Burdine, a University of Kentucky agricultural economist who specializes in cattle markets, said that because of the uncertainty and the slowdown in production, prices have dropped 15 to 20 percent from January, depending on the age of the cattle," Janet Patton reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Hog farmers are in a similar bind.

The supply-chain disruption is all the worse because the pandemic is hitting at the time livestock-and-crop farmers usually sell cattle and use the money to buy seeds and fertilizer for spring planting. That could have long-term repercussions for farm income and the food supply, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles told Patton. But while the processing-plant closures are a "legitimate concern," he said he believes it would take more to seriously disrupt the nation's food supply chain.

Some food manufacturers have temporarily shuttered because of sick workers, such as Flowers Foods, which recently closed a baked-goods plant in rural Tucker, Ga., after some of its 225 workers got the virus, Jesse Newman and Annie Gasparro report for The Wall Street Journal.