How the COVID-19 pandemic is sending American agriculture into chaos [PBS News Hour]
COVID-19 is disrupting agriculture on many levels. The Trump administration recently announced it will spend $19 billion to help farmers. But they aren’t the only group in need of support — undocumented immigrants are roughly half of American farmworkers, and they have been excluded from the federal aid. … In California, there may be some temporary relief, after Governor Gavin Newsom announced $75 million in state funding for undocumented workers. From the crop pickers to farm owners, COVID-19 is taking its toll. … The pandemic is making the already risky farming business even more unpredictable, not only for the people that make up the farming industry, but for the nation’s food supply.
Coronavirus spreads to farms, packaged-food plants [Wall Street Journal]
The coronavirus pandemic is deepening challenges for the U.S. food system, forcing plant closures and infecting farmworkers at a time when packaged-food companies say demand for groceries has never been higher. Production has been curtailed at a range of facilities across the country, including a Kraft Heinz Co. macaroni-and-cheese plant and a Conagra Brands Inc. frozen-meal factory. … The disruptions come amid heightened worry over the nation’s food supply chain as illnesses close meatpacking plants, curtailing output of chicken, beef and pork and limiting supplies at grocery stores.
Coronavirus: California’s strawberry industry could see a 30% revenue loss as demand plummets [KABC TV, Los Angeles]
California produces 88 percent of the country’s strawberries, but the industry is facing economic uncertainty with restaurants closed and shoppers more interested in products that last longer, such as canned goods. “We’re hitting this major peak of coronavirus about the same time that we start to hit our peak of production that we could see up to a 30% loss within that six week period,” said Carolyn O’Donnell with the California Strawberry Commission. … O’Donnell says this uncertain period for the industry rests on whether shoppers continue to purchase the product at grocery stores.
https://abc7.com/california-strawberries-strawberry-industry-fields-coronavirus/6111575/
Trump tweet saying he’ll suspend immigration amid coronavirus generates confusion [Los Angeles Times]
The morning after President Trump tweeted a potentially drastic change to the nation’s immigration standards, White House officials could not explain what he meant when he wrote that he planned to sign an order to “temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” … Trump’s tweet said a ban was in response to the coronavirus. An executive order imposing a ban could exclude farm workers, healthcare workers or other groups on whom key U.S. industries heavily rely. … Already, most entries into the U.S. have been put on hold.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-04-21/trump-restrict-immigration-coronavirus
Coronavirus brings new levels of misery to impoverished California trailer park [Los Angeles Times]
… Throughout the eastern Coachella Valley, the coronavirus pandemic has only amplified the daily struggle for the overwhelmingly immigrant and working-class people who call this place home. Farmworkers are losing their jobs. The demand for food assistance has nearly tripled. … Farmworkers in California make $26,000 a year, on average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the farmworker communities of Mecca, Thermal, Oasis and North Shore, more than a third live below the poverty line, according to census data.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-21/coronavirus-coachella-valley-farmworkers
Climate warming may hit Colorado River Basin farmers hardest as shrinking snowpack leads to less irrigation water [Denver Post]
Colorado River Basin farmers will be hardest hit by climate warming, along with food growers in Central Asia and the southern Andes, due to high dependence on shrinking snow as a source of irrigation water, new research has found. Century-old practices of anticipating drought by monitoring mountain snowpack will be increasingly precarious, researchers also found. And western agricultural leaders on Monday warned, in letters to President Donald Trump and Congress, that deteriorating pipelines, canals, reservoirs and other water infrastructure threaten the U.S. food supply.
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/04/21/colorado-river-basin-snowpack/
Justice Department set to approve dairy cooperative’s purchase of Dean Foods plants [Wall Street Journal]
Justice Department antitrust officials are nearing a settlement with a major U.S. dairy-farming cooperative that would allow it to buy dozens of plants from bankrupt milk processor Dean Foods Co., according to people familiar with the matter. The settlement with Dairy Farmers of America, which could be announced soon, would require the cooperative to shed some assets as a condition of government approval for the Dean Foods purchase, the people said. … Some farm groups have objected to the deal, saying it could lead to an excessive concentration of milk buyers in parts of the country.
