Covid-19 has caused disruptions in many parts of the food system, poverty, and costumers.
By: Rose 8.1
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents disruptions to the public health, business, food system and many more. The food system in particular, is drastically affected by the virus as agricultural production, procession, distribution of food, and consumption are all facing challenges.
Farmers are having difficulties buying intermediate inputs such as fertilizers, seeds and power supplies due to border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures. In Bangladesh for example, most of the small-scale farmers harvest potatoes in March and also start planting early summer crops such as maize, jutes and vegetables, but lockdown prevented them from checking their crops’ growth and buying necessary supplies. For similar reasons, developing and underdeveloped countries are having severe disruptions as they are lacking labour workers for temporary or seasonal employment. This is harming the vulnerable live hoods of agricultural laborers and wage earners in the countryside and also causing farmers to pay a 10 times higher cost for labor compared to the normal time. Moreover, crops planted earlier in the year are either being left to rot, plowed back into the field or composted. Daily farmers in America Co-operative reported that 14 million liters of milk are being dumped every day due to interrupted supply chain. With reduced processing plant capacity and no place for the excess animals, some farmers are even euthanizing livestock; an excess of crops and meat without buyers leave many farmers wondering how they will stay in business.
As consumers play an important role in the supply chain, changes in consumers' behaviors and habits due to the outbreak of Covid-19 strongly affected the food supply chain. Consumers are seeing the effects of the pandemic not only on their grocery shelves but in their wallets as well. Reports showed that purchasing food from supermarkets and using direct-to-consumer delivery services had the same ratio as 50% before the outbreak but it is almost 100% for supermarkets now. In addition, the lockdown restrictions increased the demand for food globally as people started panic buying. According to a study data, the demand for fresh bread increased by 76% and frozen vegetables by 52% in the week the pandemic was announced in European countries.
This is having the same impact on meat products as well. Initially, meat and meat products’ prices increased in the beginning due to panic buying. Whereas, later on, both meat production and demand decreased greatly due to restrictions and lower purchases power of consumers. In early April 2020, meat packing facilities started to shut down due to the rapid spread of Covid-10 virus among workers. On top of this, meat producers and processors faced difficulty in harvesting and shipment of products due to lockdown situations, decreased labor force and restrictions in movement of animals within and across countries. In the last week of April and the first week of June 2020 US, the processing numbers of pork and beef declined to 40% compared to the same periods of 2019, which resulted in huge losses to the producers.
As mentioned earlier, with people panic buying, the food waste level is getting higher, and the food price is rising significantly. The Covid-19 pandemic is creating devastating effects on global hunger and poverty-especially on the poorest and most vulnerable populations. The UN warns four countries Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen, are already experiencing famine-like conditions and nearly three dozen more counties could experience famine, pushing an additional 130 million people to the brink of starvation. The economic downturn (slowdown on economic activities) due to Covid-19 affected the availability and affordability of nutritious food. With nutrient rich food such as eggs, fruits and vegetables became 10 times more expensive than staple foods like rice or wheat in sub-Saharan Africa. So, vulnerable families in low-income countries turned to cheaper and less nutritious food to survive-contributing to the rise in malnutrition and obesity.
Like so many industries that have been upended by the pandemic, the future of the food supply chain is unclear. What is becoming clear is that consumers and suppliers alike need to make greater changes to the future of our food. While the industry relies predominantly on human labor, Covid-19 has highlighted the need to construct a more resilient model where the supply chain is less susceptible to disruption and waste. We may need to reimagine the food industry as a whole to ensure that our ‘new normal’ is better.
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