Plus some pervasive myths that can finally be debunked
In order to combat the shortage of farm labor, many governments launched aggressive recruitment campaigns to find “agricultural armies” closer to home.
Many countries around the world rely on temporary migrant workers for planting and harvesting crops. In Australia, for example, 50% of farmworkers are temporary migrants.
Even with such initiatives, the problem continues, and some have argued for a move towards the mechanization of planting and harvesting crops.
In New Zealand, the innovative company Robotics Plus has built a prototype of a robot that can pick kiwis. The company is currently working on robots that can pick other crops.
In terms of food processing, the main impact of Covid-19 has been seen in meat processing facilities, which have been heavily affected by social distancing and labor shortages.
The problem with relying on such robotized agriculture is that it is only accessible to the wealthiest of farmers and therefore does not provide a solution for those of lesser means.
Meat processing plants tend to be confined spaces, and so strict social distancing rules are necessary for workers’ safety. Enforcing these can significantly reduce operational efficiency.
This may be because the machines in processing plants are very noisy, which forces workers to shout and therefore expel more virus particles than usual.
In addition to labor shortages, there were early concerns about a shortage of fertilizers coming out of China. Since China came out of lockdown, however, these concerns have diminished.
Across the US, meat producers have been forced to take the drastic approach of euthanizing unsold grown animals in order to prevent overcrowding.
Transportation by container has been affected more than bulk shipments, but less than air freight. Commercial road transport in April 2020 was roughly 20% lower than normal in both Canada and the US.
Other food processing operations have been affected by Covid-19 too, although to a lesser extent. Grain handling, for example, is less labor intensive and has therefore taken a lesser hit.
While bulk shipments have seen no severe disruptions, the stark reduction in passenger flights has resulted in major disruptions to the air freight transportation network.
The food type most heavily affected by transport disruptions is therefore perishable goods, such as fruits and vegetables. Cereal supplies, by contrast, have not been severely impacted.
In terms of food transportation, there are three main ways to take food from A to B: bulk (ships and barges), containers (by boat, rail, or truck) and other road transport, and air freight.
The pandemic triggered a sharp increase in the number of people cooking at home. When lockdowns were enforced in the middle of March 2020, restaurant reservations fell to nearly zero.
Some local farmers are capitalizing on the way in which Covid-19 has affected the transportation of food supplies, and are using it to show that we should all be buying hyper-local.
In the same period in Germany, sales of packaged foods were 56% higher year-on-year. Similar changes in consumer behavior were also seen in other countries.
There was a sharp increase in the sale of frozen and packaged foods. For example, in the second half of March 2020 sales of frozen foods in France were 63% higher than the year before.
For example, restaurants tend to use more cheese on pizzas than people do at home, meaning that restaurants need bigger blocks of cheese than retailers do.
Like its pandemic predecessors before it, the Covid-19 pandemic has dealt the world a massive economic blow. When it comes to food supply, the key issue is access: with millions of people losing their jobs, more and more people are at risk of food insecurity, and assistance programs are more important than ever.
But the pandemic has also caused significant disruption to the food supply chain itself. Key areas for concern include food production, processing, distribution, and consumer demand.
Check out this gallery to find out more about how the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the global food chain.
Furthermore, despite the implementation of strict social distancing measures, clusters of the virus have been found in meat processing plants in several countries.
Cereals and oil seeds are normally shipped in bulk, meat and dairy in refrigerated containers and trucks, and perishable products in the carriage of passenger airplanes.
In many cases, plants have been shut down or made to operate at reduced capacity. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), cattle and pig slaughter in the US was 40% less in April 2020 than in April 2019.
In Europe, for example, it is estimated that there has been an overall shortfall of more than one million seasonal workers.
There has also been a renewed interest in the possibility of underground farming as a way to make better use of the resources available to us.
This brought with it a few important changes to the way food supply chains operate. As the sales of “food away from home” dwindled, the retail demand for food skyrocketed.
Such a shift in demand is not easy for supply chains to absorb, not least because products that would normally go to restaurants cannot always be sold to retailers for the same price.
Restaurants are also an important provider of resources to food banks, and with restaurants closed many food banks are going without at a time when their services are most needed.
(BBC) (OECD) (Oxford Academic)
See also: What are "essential items" in different countries.
In fact, the US appears to have been hit particularly hard when it comes to meat production, perhaps because their processing is concentrated in just a small number of plants.
The impact of Covid-19 on the global food chain
The multiple ways in which the pandemic has disrupted the food supply chain
LIFESTYLE Global economy
Like its pandemic predecessors before it, the Covid-19 pandemic has dealt the world a massive economic blow. When it comes to food supply, the key issue is access: with millions of people losing their jobs, more and more people are at risk of food insecurity, and assistance programs are more important than ever.
But the pandemic has also caused significant disruption to the food supply chain itself. Key areas for concern include food production, processing, distribution, and consumer demand.
Check out this gallery to find out more about how the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the global food chain.