food supply

A Mountain Of Potatoes With Nowhere To Go

Nickolai Hammar

A potato farmer in Idaho decides to give away millions of potatoes when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the usual channels through which he sells them.

People in the Andean city of Puno, Peru, lined up earlier this month to withdraw funds from their pensions. The World Food Programme says the number of people experiencing severe food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean could quadruple.

14 Million People In Latin America, Caribbean At Risk Of Hunger, U.N. Report Says

Austin Horn

The World Food Programme estimates that the number of people experiencing severe food insecurity in this area, where the coronavirus is spreading quickly, could quadruple in 2020.

A farmer leads dairy cows from the pasture to the milking barn at a creamery in Gallipolis, Ohio. The USDA launched a $3 billion plan to distribute food to families, called the Farmers to Family Food Box Program.

USDA Secretary Says Despite Plant Closures, He Does Not Anticipate Food Shortages

Steve Inskeep

Sonny Perdue says he expects "85-90% production in probably a very few days or weeks." He also says the government is stepping up efforts to buy food from farmers and distribute it to families.

With meatpacking plants reducing processing capacity nationwide, U.S. hog farmers are bracing or an unprecedented crisis: the need to euthanize millions of pigs.

Millions Of Pigs Will Be Euthanized As Pandemic Cripples Meatpacking Plants

Tim Mak

As the pandemic wreaks havoc on the meat industry, hog farmers anticipate they'll soon be forced to euthanize millions of pigs unable to be sent for processing.

Employees and family members protest outside a Smithfield Foods processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., on April 9. Smithfield is being sued over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Workers Sue Smithfield Foods, Allege Conditions Put Them At Risk For COVID-19

Sebastian Martinez Valdivia

Smithfield's South Dakota plant, which handles 5% of U.S. pork production, has become a coronavirus hot spot, with 783 workers testing positive for the virus so far and two of them dying.

Another Pork Plant Shuts Down Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Dan Charles

Tyson Foods is halting work at a processing site in Waterloo, Iowa, because people have tested positive for the virus. Other plants also have closed, cutting U.S. pork production by about a quarter.

Children displaced by the war in Syria's Idlib province sit, wearing face masks during a COVID-19 awareness campaign this week in Dana. The World Food Programme warned that people living in displaced-person camps could be "particularly vulnerable" to the pandemic's physical and economic effects.

The Population Living In Acute Hunger May Double This Year Due To Coronavirus

Colin Dwyer

Some 135 million people globally lived on the edge of starvation last year. The World Food Program fears the effects of the virus could balloon that number to a staggering 265 million this year.

Amazon Puts New Grocery-Delivery Customers On Hold As Demand Explodes

Alina Selyukh

The company also plans to hire 75,000 additional workers. And it says it will devote some hours at Whole Foods to online orders only and make other changes to keep up with a crush of demand.

U.S. Meat Supply Is 'Perilously Close' To A Shortage, CEO Warns

Jim Zarroli

A Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota that produces 4% to 5% of the nation's pork supply has become the latest meat processing facility to shut down as COVID-19 sickens plant workers.

Workers pick apples in a Wapato, Wash., orchard last October. U.S. farms employ hundreds of thousands of seasonal workers, mostly from Mexico, who enter the country on H-2A visas. The potential impact of the coronavirus on seasonal workers has the food industry on edge.

COVID-19 Threatens Food Supply Chain As Farms Worry About Workers Falling Ill

Dan Charles

COVID-19 has turned one end of the food industry — stores and restaurants — on its head. At the other end, food production hums along as usual, but that could change if workers catch the virus.