Good news for vegans: will there be any meat left to buy?
If there’s one place where they eat a lot of meat, it’s the US. And now a meat problem has emerged there: due to the consequences of Covid-19, the supply chain has been disrupted and the meat shelves may well end up empty.
It was a full-page advertisement in The New York Times and Washington Post: a letter from John H. Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods – the world’s second-largest producer and supplier of chicken, beef and pork – in which he writes that a number of their locations have had to close due to the coronavirus pandemic. Not because the animals aren’t there, but because more than 100,000 employees have fallen ill.
Millions less
The result: millions fewer kilos of meat on American supermarket shelves. At least until the closed production facilities can reopen.
For now, this is not an issue in the Netherlands and Europe. At this point, it really only concerns the US, where the virus is wreaking havoc mercilessly.
Food shortage?
Still, Americans don’t need to worry too much. Julie Niederhoff, associate professor of supply chain management at Syracuse University, says in a CNN report: “We won’t run out of food, but we may run out of our favorite food.”
And let’s be honest: for the environment and the health of many Americans, that might not even be such a bad thing.
Tyson Foods — the world's second largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef and pork — published an open letter in the NYT.
Say they can't guarantee to keep food factories open.
"The food supply chain is breaking.” pic.twitter.com/PBlyecTXtv
— HARLAN HILL 🇺🇸 ✝️ (@Harlan) April 27, 2020
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