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Covid-19

With industrial meat hobbled, small producers are seeing a surge in sales. Can it last?

With industrial meat operations struggling to stay open, consumers are turning in droves to smaller producers to keep them in beef, pork, chicken and lamb, as Stephen R. Miller reports in FERN's latest story, published with HuffPost. Miller's story takes a close look at one operation, SkyPilot Farm in Longmont, Colorado, which is run by Chloe Johnson and her husband Craig Scariot. Since the outbreak, sales at SkyPilot have increased about 400 percent and the customer base has tripled.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>

Shoppers could see less meat at higher prices due to coronavirus

Beef and pork supplies at U.S. supermarkets could shrink by nearly 30 percent and prices may rise by a stunning 20 percent by Memorial Day, the result of coronavirus slowdowns and shutdowns at packing plants, said agricultural lender CoBank on Tuesday. "Shortages and stock outs in the meat case couldn't come at a worse time. Food inflation and a weak U.S. economy is a combination that will leave many consumers in greater financial strain."<strong>(No paywall)</strong>

Coronavirus pummels farmer confidence for second month

A majority of large farmers and ranchers expect worse financial performance on their farms this year than in 2019, nearly twice as many as before the coronavirus became pandemic and mitigation efforts sparked an economic slowdown, said a Purdue University poll released on Tuesday. Purdue's Ag Economy barometer, a monthly gauge of farmer confidence, fell sharply for the second month in a row, to its lowest reading since October 2016.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>

As craft beer struggles amid pandemic, so do barley farmers and malthouses

With much of the country under stay-at-home orders, the craft beer sector has seen a steep decline in sales. The consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic could be existential not only for this newly robust market and its thousands of employees but also for the malthouses and barley farmers whose ingredients are the building blocks of beer. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>

Coronavirus may bring lowest season-average corn price in 14 years

This year's corn crop could sell for the lowest price in years — probably around $3.10 a bushel — depending on how quickly demand for ethanol rebounds and whether or not farmers plant less corn land than they planned to in March, said an economist at Kansas State University. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>

USDA food boxes for charity called ‘inefficient’

The "farmers to families food box," a $3 billion part of the Trump administration's coronavirus relief package, may not be an efficient use of taxpayer dollars although it is aimed at two vexing issues during the pandemic – crops with no buyers and food banks overwhelmed by demand, said a panel of analysts on Monday.

Biden calls meatpacking plant conditions ‘inhumane and downright immoral’ 

Three pork plants are top U.S. priority for reopening, says Peterson

The Trump administration's top meat-industry priority is reopening three pork plants, now shuttered due to coronavirus outbreaks, that account for 12 percent of U.S. hog slaughter, said the House Agriculture Committee chairman on Wednesday. Labor and public officials said meat production will not revive nationwide unless workers feel safe in the processing plants. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>

Faith leaders call for stronger worker protections at meatpacking plants

The crisis faced by meatpacking and food processing workers amid the coronavirus pandemic requires further intervention, say faith leaders. More than 100 religious leaders have signed a letter to be sent to Congress and President Trump demanding additional assistance for rural communities and food system workers. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>

Farmers to Families Food Box will move from ‘truck to trunk’

The first deliveries of the USDA's Farmers to Families Food Box, a coronavirus relief initiative to move surplus commodities to food banks from U.S. farms, are expected in mid-May, said Agricultural Marketing Service officials on Wednesday. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>

‘The workers are being sacrificed’

new FERN investigation, published Friday in collaboration with Mother Jones, reporters Esther Honig and Ted Genoways tell the stories of workers in America's meatpacking plants who are facing high rates of Covid-19 — and of the industry's chilling disregard for its workforce. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>

As meat plants reopen, Iowa, South Dakota, Pennsylvania and Nebraska are coronavirus leaders

As many as 18 percent of workers in meat and poultry plants are infected with the coronavirus in Iowa and South Dakota, while Pennsylvania and Nebraska account for one-quarter of the Covid-19 cases nationwide, said CDC scientists and state public health officials. The CDC released the report as Smithfield Foods, one of the giants of the meat industry, began to reopen a hog plant that was a coronavirus hot spot three weeks ago.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>

Trump tariff payments went to big farm operators

When the Trump administration poured billions of dollars into rural America to mitigate the impact of trade war, "most of it bypassed the country's traditional small and medium-sized farms that were battered by the loss of their export market," said the CBS News program 60 Minutes on Sunday. It's just as likely big farmers will benefit in a big way when the USDA disburses $16 billion in coronavirus-relief cash to farmers and ranchers, said the program.

Trump signs order to keep meat plants in operation during pandemic

Advocates slam Trump order to keep meatpacking plants open

Environmentalists, labor groups, and animal rights advocates on Tuesday condemned President Trump's planned executive order to keep meatpacking plants open, despite reported outbreaks of Covid-19 at more than 60 of these plants across the country.

Packing plant reopenings will begin ‘maybe by the end of this week,’ says Perdue

Two days after President Trump ordered meat plants to operate during the pandemic, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said that some plants shuttered by coronavirus outbreaks will reopen "maybe by the end of this week, over the weekend." The labor union representing 250,000 meat workers asked state governors to set stronger safety standards than those proposed by the CDC. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>

The prospect of ‘depopulating’ the U.S. hog herd

Nationwide, pork production has dropped by more than 20 percent over the last month, and industrial farmers find their barns filling up. Now, the "end for hundreds of thousands of pigs is likely to arrive in an orgy of waste that turns the stomachs of even the most pragmatic," writes Elizabeth Royte, in FERN's latest story. "Asked to describe how a farmer decides to 'depopulate' — the word of choice — a barn full of market-ready pigs, David Newman, a Missouri pig farmer and president of the National Pork Board, sighs heavily. 'It’s a tremendously emotional time to be in the livestock business. We’re trying to be creative.'”<strong>(No paywall)</strong>

Coronavirus question: Spend more on food aid or farm aid?

Farmers and ranchers will need billions of dollars in coronavirus aid beyond the $16 billion in cash that USDA plans to disburse by June, 28 senators said in a letter to President Trump. At the same time, a band of university economists said USDA aid is weighted 4-to-1 toward producers and that the agency "should arguably show an equivalent amount of creativity to help the broader spectrum of struggling Americans with food needs."<strong>(No paywall)</strong>

California finds bird flu virus in raw milk

Public health officials in California's Silicon Valley said tests found the bird flu virus in a container of raw milk purchased at a local store and warned consumers on Sunday not to consume the milk. The supplier, Raw Farm, of Fresno County, issued a recall of the batch of milk that was involved.

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