Resilience and Vulnerabilities of the North American Food System during the Covid‐19 Pandemic

Abstract

Summary The coronavirus pandemic and consequent economic disruption have tested the resilience of the North American food system. The poorest Americans were put at risk of food deprivation as their incomes fell. Disruptions reverberated through the food supply chain as the pandemic escalated; meatpacking plants became disease hotspots. The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program ( CFAP ) provided US $ 16 billion of aid to farmers and ranchers based on falling prices. CFAP added to the counter‐cyclical safety‐net programmes legislated in 2018 and ad hoc support authorised for two years by the Trump administration. The CFAP support is reasonable in the context of the pandemic‐related economic collapse, but also raises concern about increased support tied to market conditions and current production, including support linked to unilateral US trade policies that have invoked retaliation by trading partners. As of early June, the hopeful scenario was that the worst challenges to the food system had passed. Grain and livestock inventories were relatively high and spring planting intentions were strong, but supply constraints in North America or internationally remained a risk. The pandemic has underscored the inherent fragility of an integrated world and the high stakes in the debate about globalisation that will inevitably follow.

Impacts of COVID-19 on Agricultural Production Branches: An Investigation of Anxiety Disorders among Farmers

“…The incidence of rate of severe anxiety was found to be lower in animal husbandry than in non-farmers, but the moderate anxiety rate was quite high in animal husbandry (72%). The results of similar studies on this subject are in line with our findings [29][30][31][32][33].…”

Causal Impacts of Epidemics and Pandemics on Food Supply Chains: A Systematic Review

“…New practices for food safety and social responsibility [16] Guidelines against price gouging [109] Guarantee the supplementation of food in distribution centers [136] Strong, focused country leadership [89] Food price monitoring schemes [75,78,84,109] Multiple sourcing [131] Government financial assistance for companies Government food prices surveillance; price monitor [10,89] Direct assistance to farmers [102] Crop insurance subsidies [133] Farm support payments [133] Food price subsidies [79] Cooperation and collaboration Information management and policy coordination with governments [12] Public-private cooperation [60] Adjusting marketing strategies [36] Strengthening their positions in retail and online markets [29,114] Diversification of product lines to fill alternative markets [56] Government financial assistance for companies Reduction of fees and taxes [66] Online infrastructures Food delivery app and logistics company [92] Online platforms [29,114,161] Cooperation and collaboration Link farmers and restaurants directly to food banks [58,114] Supply-side; logistics and infrastructure; management and operation…”

“…Panic buying; panic of food shortages [7,8,14,25,27,29,41,47,48,50,57,58,64,70,73,75,81,83,84,87,92,95,96,105,106,109,111,113,114,[129][130][131][133][134][135]139,152,155,161,165,169,170,177,188] Information sharing tools Efficient information sharing mechanisms [134] Publicly available food supply information [107,110,131] Transparent dissemination of information [10,95]…”

Les filières animales françaises face à la pandémie de Covid-19

“…Tout au long de ces deux années de crise sanitaire, la résilience du complexe agroalimentaire a été forte, tant en France que dans de nombreux autres pays (Swinnen et Mc Dermott, 2020), dont les États-Unis (Beckman et Countryman, 2021 ;Orden, 2020). Les denrées alimentaires étant des biens de première nécessité, la crise n'a pas entraîné un choc aussi violent sur la demande que cela fut le cas dans d'autres secteurs économiques où un arrêt complet (ou presque) de l'activité productive s'est imposé, comme dans l'aéronautique, l'hôtellerie-restauration, le tourisme, la culture, etc.…”