• Food

Will The Pandemic “Cure” America’s Addiction to Cheap Meat?

• Beyond Burgers
• COVID-19
• food
• meat
• meatpacking plants
• plant-based meat

Eating meat is as American as apple pie, so baked into our culture and identity that President Trump declared meatpacking plants so essential that he ordered them to stay open. Some grocery chains such as Costco and Kroger are limiting the amount of meat consumers can buy, and prices are spiking too.  Meanwhile, plant-based meats are flying off the shelves.

Why This Matters:  Thanks to the virus, Americans may now be forced to learn how to eat less meat and why that might be good for them.

• Food

Coronavirus Forces a Conversation About Industrial Animal Agriculture

• agribusiness
• agriculture
• animal welfare
• CAFOs

We wrote the other week that the coronavirus epidemic is wreaking havoc on the meat industry forcing farmers to euthanize animals. This coupled with new research showing that the next global public health crisis could come to us through industrial animal agriculture has made it clear that we need to rethink large-scale animal farming. As […]

• Food

Hero of the Week: Smithfield Foods Whistleblower

• #COVID19
• coronavirus
• food safety
• meat
• OSHA
• workers

This week an anonymous employee at a Smithfield Foods meat processing facility wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post exposing the dangers that workers are subjected to in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak at the plant. The meat processing industry has been a hub of coronavirus outbreaks and workers are terrified to have to […]

• Food

Will COVID-19 Lead to A Global “Hunger Games”?

• conservation
• crabmeat
• food
• food insecurity
• Indonesia
• science
• supply chain
• Walton Family Foundation

Global leaders are warning that breaks in the global supply chain for food imports to the U.S. could have devastating impacts in developing countries.

Why This Matters:  Thanks to the President ordering meat plants to re-open, we are focused on food supply chains here at home, but there many people around the world supplying us necessary food items (like fresh fruits and vegetables and seafood that can’t be grown here now) as well.

• Food

Fishers Caught In Coronavirus Storm, Some Change Business Model While Others Sit It Out

• #conservationist
• fishing
• lobster
• seafood

With many fishermen all around the U.S. forced to stop fishing due to restaurant closures and lack of tourism caused by the coronavirus, many are changing their businesses to sell directly to supermarkets and other retailers for home consumption. 

Why This Matters:  Like family farms, in the U.S., family-owned and small fishing businesses almost all struggle to stay in business due to stiff competition from cheap imports, and that was before COVID -19 struck.

• Food

Food Safety Rules Being Rolled Back During Pandemic

• EPA
• FDA
• food safety
• USDA

At a time when there are growing concerns over future food shortages and food waste, the added worry of food being unsafe to eat is one more reality Americans must face in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.  As Civil Eats reported, the FDA, the EPA, and the USDA oversee the nation’s food safety net […]