Governor 'monitoring' food chain
Smithfield closes Monmouth, St. Charles meat plants over COVID-19 concerns
Cows graze in a central Illinois farm field. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
The governor acknowledges he’s “monitoring” the food chain as meat plants close to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and experts warn of a national shortage.
The Associated Press reported Friday that Smithfield was temporarily closing meat plants in Monmouth along the Mississippi River and in suburban St. Charles. Smithfield said that a “small portion” of its 1,700 employees at the Monmouth meat plant tested positive for COVID-19, while the St. Charles plant was being closed into May for a thorough cleaning and reorganization to implement social distancing.
FarmWeekNow.com reported that an estimated 3 percent of U.S. fresh pork supplies are processed at the Monmouth plant, which also produces bacon. “Employees will be paid during the closure,” according to a press release.
Smithfield also closed meatpacking plants in Cudahy, Wis., Martin City, Mo., and Sioux Falls, S.D.
Gov. Pritzker acknowledged at his daily coronavirus news briefing on Monday that his administration is “monitoring” the situation, but that food supplies seemed firm, saying, “I don’t currently believe that we’re going to have a problem in the supply chain, but we’re monitoring.”
Yet the economic disruption brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has created bottlenecks and boomlets within the food chain for meat and livestock. FarmWeekNow.com reported in a separate story Monday that “the food supply chain continues to struggle to adjust to a massive shift in demand brought on by stay-at-home orders across the country. The shift sent the price of some products, such as pork bellies, plummeting while premium meat cuts and paper products continue to fly off shelves.”
The story quoted U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue as saying, “The food supply has been resilient while having to adapt quickly. More than half of calories were consumed outside the home (prior to the pandemic). It’s been a dramatic shift that’s created some real challenges.”
FarmWeekNow reported that “hog prices declined 49 percent, while cattle prices plummeted nearly 30 percent in recent weeks. That’s due in large part to the loss of food service business and exports, coupled with the recent slowdown and temporary closures at packing plants caused by COVID-19 cases among workers.”
Bill Even, chief executive officer of the National Pork Board, reported that retail meat sales increased 38 percent from March 9 to April 5, but food-service demand, which normally accounts for two-thirds of bacon sales, decreased 60 percent over the same time.
“Repackaging and distribution is a challenge,” Even said, as the meatpacking plants that are open try to shift from food service to retail sales.
Bloomberg News was less optimistic in a story published Monday, stating, “Plant shutdowns are leaving Americans dangerously close to seeing meat shortages at grocery stores. Meanwhile, farmers are facing the likely culling of millions of animals and mass burial graves could soon be dug across the heartland.”
The story quoted a blog post from John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. meat company. “The food supply chain is breaking,” he wrote. “Millions of pounds of meat will disappear. In addition to meat shortages, this is a serious food-waste issue. Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation. Millions of animals — chickens, pigs and cattle — will be depopulated.”
On Tuesday, a Hormel plant in McCook in the southwest suburbs announced it was furloughing 150 employees, effective Saturday — 30 percent of the staff of 500. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Fontanini Foods plant specialized in “Italian meats and sausages for restaurants, sports arenas, and other venues,” but it clearly was not making the transition to retail sales.
Also Tuesday, President Trump made use of the Defense Production Act — a tool he’s been reluctant to use during the coronavirus pandemic — to order meat plants to stay open as critical infrastructure. Unions, however, resisted the order. Bloomberg News reported: “Environmental Working Group called the order a potential death sentence. The United Food and Commercial Workers union said in a statement that if workers aren’t safe, the food supply won’t be either. At least 20 workers in meat and food processing have died, and 5,000 meatpacking workers have either tested positive for the virus or were forced to self-quarantine, according to UFCW.”
Farmers waiting for local meet plants and slaughterhouses to reopen face the task of having to feed livestocks while they wait it out. Bloomberg reported good news for those who do, however, pointing out that in recent days “meat prices are surging on the supply disruptions. U.S. wholesale beef has surged to a record, and wholesale pork soared almost 30 percent last week.”