Because consumers recently have changed the way they buy and consume food, various snags in the food supply chain have led to disruptions.
Restaurants have been shuttered for weeks. Farms have been struggling with labor shortages for years. And grocery stores have been running out of bread, meat and eggs.The short answer is that U.S. agriculture is strong enough to handle it, with farmers still farming and no major shortages in sight, experts say.
But then when the coronavirus outbreak flared in March, the U.S. suspended routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa processing services, raising concerns from American farms about being cut off from this labor supply. After hearing these concerns, the U.S. State Department since has eased requirements for these workers, much to the relief of farmers, who say they need their specialized help.
“Labor is always a concern for strawberries,” O’Donnell said. “They are hand-planted, hand-weeded, handpicked and hand-packed.”Farms in California will have about 20,000 workers in the fields in coming weeks picking berries for Driscoll's, the world's largest berry supplier. What if 15% of them get sick?
Prevention efforts still vary by farm. Many farmworkers also are undocumented, poor and not likely to stay home if sick because they need the money. Even if farm workers are young and might not get sick, the risk of a workforce reduction still looms over farms and their crops.
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