Coronavirus: Some Experts Say US Could See Shortages Of Certain Food Items, Others Not So Sure
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — One month into the coronavirus pandemic and grocery stores across Southern California have plenty of food, though some who track the country's food supply said consumers might start seeing shortages of certain food products.
In South Dakota, Smithfield Foods closed its plants after 200 workers tested positive for COVID-19. The facility is the largest in America, producing more than 4% of the country's pork.
At least two other pork plants have closed this month — one in Iowa and one in Pennsylvania — and there's more.
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"There's been another big plant in Greeley, Colorado that is a big beef slaughter plant that has had to shut down temporarily, and there have been poultry plants around the country that have been forced to close temporarily because of COVID-19," Tony Corbo, senior lobbyist for the food campaign at Food & Water Watch, said. "So there are going to be shortages, temporary shortages, in the meat supply."
But a representative for America's meat industry said plenty of plants are still operating.
"We have lots of food in storage, lots of meat in storage — pork, beef, poultry in storage — and on our way to grocery stores," Julie Anna Potts, president and CEO of the North American Meat Institute, said.
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And those in the meat industry are not the only food producers suffering as a result of the pandemic.
"I may overproduce, and it may get thrown away or it may get sold at the market," Greg Burris, owner of Burris Farm Market, said.
The pandemic has led some farmers to dump milk and eggs originally slated to go to restaurants that have since closed their doors.
A dairy farm in Idaho poured about 4,000 gallons of milk that could not be sold down the drain, even as struggling families across the country line up at food banks.
And at grocery stores around the U.S., workers have gotten sick and some have even died.
The pandemic has touched virtually every facet of the American food supply chain, and while nobody has said the nation is running out of meat, there is only so much refrigerator space.