Quote:

---

Virus outbreaks at food plants
One vulnerable spot in the nation's foods supply chains is processing plants, where workers often stand in close quarters as they prepare food to be delivered to grocery stores and wholesale customers.
The close proximity has increased the risk of outbreaks in the plants.
Last week, Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, shut down a pork processing plant that accounts for up to 5 percent of production after more than 500 of its workers were infected. One worker has died from COVID-19.

---

Tyson Foods has also had virus outbreaks at their plants.

Quote:

---

Agricultural reliance on guest workers
President Trump announced Monday that he would "suspend immigration" but is reportedly not planning to include guest worker programs in the ban.
One likely reason is that America's agricultural sector depends heavily on foreign workers to pick crops. Last year, nearly 250,000 foreign workers were employed in American agriculture.
The pandemic and some of the policies surrounding it could be a problem for farmers and their workers.
"I've marveled at how well the produce section is stocked, but I'm hearing that problems are coming because of immigration problems," said Connie Weaver, an emeritus professor of nutrition science at Purdue University.

---

Travel problems also are causing delays in agricultural workers coming in to pick crops. And there seems to be no real progress on this yet, except for paying off farmers instead of incentivizing production. Canada also has the same problem due to lockdown/.travel restrictions.

Quote:

---

Supply chain mismatches

Even as some grocery store aisles are empty and food banks clamor for donations, some agricultural businesses are resorting to spilling or throwing away huge quantities of food.

Some $5 billion of fresh fruits and vegetables have already gone to waste, according to the Produce Marketing Association, an industry trade group. Some dairies have been pouring thousands of gallons of milk down the drain.

The reason is that the country's supply chains are set for normal times, when people get a significant amount of food from restaurants and many kids eat lunch and drink a carton of milk at school.

---

If you walk around the produce section of your grocery store you will see a lot of produce, while paper products and pasta seem to be in very low supply. I believe the market can adjust to this albeit gradually when consumer patterns post CV 19 are better known and some normalcy returns.

Quote:

---

Increased food insecurity

Even before the pandemic began, 37 million people were considered food insecure, according to Monica Hake, a senior research manager at Feeding America, a hunger-prevention group.

In late March, Hake projected that a 7.6-point rise in the unemployment rate would increase the number of food-insecure people by 17.1 million.
So far, more than 20 million people have applied for unemployment, which economists say translates to a roughly 15 percent unemployment rate, up 11.5 points from before the pandemic.
Democrats pushed to expand nutrition assistance in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that was signed into law last month, which could help.
But with most schools closed through the end of the year, children who often rely on school meals face particular challenges.

---

This problem adds stress in lower income folks and will likely them to get out more seeking income for food or spend time in food bank lines, increasing their potential exposure to CV 19 if on foot.

Quote:

---

Crunch on delivery capacity
As more and more cities have locked down, the problem of how to get food into people's homes has grown.
People practicing stringent social distancing have resorted to grocery deliveries, leaving delivery services strapped for workers.
Grocery stores have had to implement new cleaning and social distancing guidelines and in many places are limiting the number of shoppers allowed in at a time. They require customers to wait in lines outside, six feet apart, and wear face masks in the stores.
That's taken a tough toll on the grocery store workers, whom states such as Minnesota have deemed essential.
Delivery people and grocery store workers alike face increased risks of getting sick

---

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/494014-five-threats-to-us-food-supply-chains