May 4, 2020 — What is the biggest concern about America’s food-supply chain? The White House worries that shoppers, even before summer, may find supermarket shelves empty of steaks, burgers, sausages or chicken. Donald Trump invoked emergency powers under the Defence Production Act, declaring that closure of meatpacking plants threatens “critical infrastructure”, on April 28th. Supposedly that will oblige them to stay open, after more than 20 had closed because of coronavirus outbreaks affecting thousands of workers. At least 20 workers have died.
Mr Trump’s order, and a vow that all will have protein, came after big meat producers warned that supply bottlenecks would cause shortages. In mid-April the boss of Smithfield Foods, a huge pork firm, spoke of looming “severe, perhaps disastrous” effects on the food chain. It had just shut a big slaughterhouse in South Dakota. On April 26th the head of Tyson Foods, which dominates America’s chicken production, chirped up to greater effect. In full-page ads in national papers, John Tyson said a “vulnerable” food-supply chain is “breaking” and asked government to help. Tyson has closed plants in Iowa and beyond.
The White House took the alarm seriously. An official there suggested that some 80% of America’s meat-processing capacity might shut, at least for a while. Already a quarter of the pig-slaughtering capacity has closed. In recent weeks farmers and meatpackers in several states had begun culling millions of chickens and killing pigs to be rendered for fat and tallow, or just buried. Every year American farmers produce over 50m tons of beef, pork, turkey and chicken, and over 33m cattle, 120m pigs and 9bn chickens are slaughtered.
Just how the president’s order will keep slaughterhouses open is not clear, but one aim is to give legal cover for firms that do operate. As more workers fall sick, and some die, the presidential order could help limit their liability.