Shoppers could see less meat at higher prices due to coronavirus – May 6, 2020

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.

Coronavirus pummels farmer confidence for second month

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. A majority of large farmers and ranchers expect worse financial performance on their farms this year than in 2019.

Five times as many ‘Meals to You,’ says USDA

The “Meals to You” program, launched in March in Texas to deliver meals to rural low-income children whose schools were closed due to the coronavirus, soon will be delivering 5 million meals a week, five times the original goal, said the USDA.

 

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 whose sales have increased about 400 percent and customer base has tripled since the outbreak.

TODAY’S QUICK HITS

Demand OSHA rule for meat workers (Center for Food Safety): The Food Chain Alliance and Center for Food Safety filed a legal action demanding OSHA issue an emergency temporary standard to protect meatpacking plant workers from the coronavirus.

 

Authorize SNAP for local foods (Pingree): More than two dozen House Democrats signed a letter that supports use of SNAP benefits to buy food from small farms that sell food locally and would provide every SNAP household with additional benefits that could be spent only for direct farm-to-consumer purchases.

 

Sorghum to Vietnam possible (USGC): U.S. and Vietnamese officials have approved a pest risk assessment that opens the door for exports of U.S.-grown sorghum to Vietnam for high-value uses such as pet food and liquor as well as aquaculture, poultry and swine feed.

 

China moves slowly on ag purchases (AFBF): China purchased $3.1 billion of U.S. agricultural exports in the first three months of the year, well below the pace needed to meet its pledge under the two countries’ trade agreement.

 

Ag panelist worth $300 million (Atlanta Journal-Constitution): Appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and her entrepreneur husband have a net worth of at least $300 million, according to a financial disclosure report.

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