How does the US manage its food supply during COVID-19?
Anika H. Ahmed, MD August 2020
The massive pandemic of COVID-19 started from China and spread like a wave across the globe, infecting humans, shaking economies, crippling businesses, and shutting down operations in all commercial locations, forcing people to stay in quarantine and isolation. With the start of the pandemic the first instinct of the people across the globe was to stock up on food with the worry that the food supply chain will be disrupted leading to scarcity of essential items. It immediately led to scenes of hoarding and empty shelves in supermarkets, grocery stores and wholesale warehouses. While we are still in the midst of the pandemic and remain unclear on the COVID-19 vaccine availability, the main question on everyone’s mind is how will the US manage its food supply during COVID-19?
It is comforting to know that in the United States, the food industry is supplied from the following three sources:
- Domestic production with a key role played by farmers, agricultural workers and agriculture plants workers processing meat, wheat, and dairy products. This involves a network of manufacturers and distributors to process all the agricultural products, prepare them for human consumption, move products from farms to processing plants and finally get them to consumers.
- Imports- The United States imports meat, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and dry rations from across the globe.
- Storage- The US Department of Agriculture has strict guidelines on workers handling food products at processing plants and storage. Test kits have been supplied with close monitoring of all workers, shutting down of plants and warehouses with positive cases, imposition of quarantine for 14 days, and permission for getting back to work only when negative and asymptomatic, while still maintaining basic operation at food storage facilities.
So far there has not been a break in the chain of food supply and consumers have been able to get basic food supply of fresh groceries and dry rations. The question then arises as to why we saw empty shelves in grocery stores, especially in March and April? This was basically triggered by immediate reaction of panic and anxiety of COVID-19 among people, leading to hoarding and purchase of more goods than usual. It toppled off the balance between supply and demand and retailers could not keep up with the sudden increased demand of customers. Restocking with increased supplies of basic food as well as cleaning supplies with disinfectants and bleach products on top of the list calmed down the anxiety among the public and led to more control over the market. Human behavior generally decides the course of action for the future. The more anxious the people are, the lesser the supplies appear. Quarantine, lock downs and isolation have shut down restaurants which were big buyers in the food industry. No restaurant supplies meant more food supplies to retailers of grocery stores and wholesale markets, and hence more food for the people. At this point it can be concluded that there will be no food shortage as far as domestic production is concerned. However, imports may be affected with delay of supplies due to restrictions on flights and shipments.
So far, the US Department of Agriculture has assured us that we are fine on food supply on the domestic production front, imports, and storage. Even countries massively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to ship supplies, although there may be a few days’ delay due to limited essential workers on the job.