Even As Many Go Hungry, Farmers Dump Crops. Trump Administration Aims For Win-Win Fix With $19B Plan.
With the usual food distribution chain disrupted due to the coronavirus outbreak, farmers are plowing unused produce back into the field. Yet food banks struggle to feed millions of newly unemployed Americans. While a federal plan will throw $19 billion dollars at the problem, it must still overcome the transportation challenges that created it in the first place. Other food supply issues reports on the meat industry, food plant safety and alleged price gouging on eggs.
The Washington Post:
Trump Announced A $19 Billion Plan To Have The Government Play Matchmaker Between Empty Food Banks And Farmers With Surplus
Farmers in the upper Midwest euthanize their baby pigs because the slaughterhouses are backing up or closing, while dairy owners in the region dump thousands of gallons of milk a day. In Salinas, Calif., rows of ripe iceberg, romaine and red-leaf lettuce shrivel in the spring sun, waiting to be plowed back into the earth. Drone footage shows a 1.5-mile-long line of cars waiting their turn at a drive-through food bank in Miami. In Dallas, schools serve well north of 500,000 meals on each service day, cars rolling slowly past stations of ice chests and insulated bags as food service employees, volunteers and substitute teachers hand milk and meal packets through the windows. (Reiley, 4/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Grocers Hunt For Meat As Coronavirus Hobbles Beef And Pork Plants
U.S. grocers are struggling to secure meat, looking for new suppliers and selling different cuts, as the coronavirus pandemic cuts into domestic production and raises fears of shortages. Covid-19 outbreaks among employees have closed about a dozen U.S. meatpacking facilities this month, including three Tyson Foods Inc. plants this week. Other plants have slowed production as workers stay home for various reasons. Grocery executives at retailers including Walmart Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. COST -1.30% worry supplies of some products could run short just as demand is surging. (Bunge, Nassauer and Kang, 4/23)
Politico:
Save Your Bacon: A Real Meat Shortage Looms With Virus Shutdowns
Americans could start to see shortages of pork, chicken and beef on grocery shelves as soon as May as major packing plants swept by the coronavirus remain shuttered and the nation’s massive stockpiles of frozen meat begin to dwindle. Any empty shelves to date have been the result of bumps in the supply chain, with stores being unable to restock as quickly as customers are buying. But bacon, pork chops and ham could be the first to face actual shortages: The amount of frozen pork in storage nationwide — more than 621 million pounds — dropped 4 percent from March to April, the USDA reported this week. Slaughter rates are down 25 percent, and 400,000 animals are backed up in slaughterhouses. (Crampton, 4/23)
The New York Times:
Missouri Pork Plant Workers Say They Can’t Cover Mouths To Cough
Workers at a Smithfield Foods pork plant in Milan, Mo., say that for years they have endured repetitive stress injuries on the meat processing line — and urinary tract infections because they had so few bathroom breaks. But as the coronavirus pandemic has emerged, workers say they have encountered another health complication: reluctance to cover their mouths while coughing or to clean their faces after sneezing, because this can cause them to miss a piece of meat as it goes by, creating a risk of disciplinary action. (Scheiber and Corkery, 4/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
She Polices Social Distancing At Kraft’s Mac-And-Cheese Factory During Coronavirus
The coronavirus hit a Kraft Heinz Co. macaroni-and-cheese factory last month, forcing Brooke Burk to make a change that is a bit out of character for someone who deals with people all day. Ms. Burk, a human-resources staffer, asked to have a plexiglass shield installed around her desk to separate her from other employees while she meets with them. “It kind of looks like a fish tank in here,” she said during a recent interview from her office at the Springfield, Mo., factory. (Gasparro, 4/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Texas Attorney General Accuses Largest U.S. Egg Producer Of Price-Gouging
The Texas Attorney General filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing Cal-Maine Foods Inc., the nation’s largest egg producer, of price-gouging and profiting illegally off the coronavirus pandemic by selling eggs at more than 300% of their normal cost. “Cal-Maine is taking advantage of a disaster by offering for sale…eggs at exorbitant or excessive prices,” Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office alleged in a lawsuit filed in state court, charging the company with violations of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act. (O'Brien, 4/23)
