WEBVTT - How Is Our Food Supply Chain Changing? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:10.040 Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbam here. If you've been to 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:12.920 a supermarket in the past month or so, you may 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:15.840 have been shocked by the empty shelves and curtains of 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.880 eggs that cost twice as much as usual. You may 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.480 also have seen the news that a major meat processing 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.360 plant had to shut down indefinitely because employees tested positive 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.520 for COVID nineteen and just in time for spring harvest. 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.080 Farmers are concerned about possible shortages of farm labor because 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.520 of hold ups and workers visas, which could mean blueberries 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:40.559 and other crops could rot in the fields. Even with 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:42.880 all of this grim news, the U. S Department of 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.280 Agriculture says that there is no nationwide shortage of food 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:50.360 due to the novel coronavirus, but these still escalating crisis 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.200 clearly has put stress on the supply chain that normally 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.520 enables food stuffs to get from farm fields to americans 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.720 dinner tables, and to do it so efficiently that many 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.840 of us probably barely even think about where our usual 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.920 bountiful supply of fresh fruit, vegetables, meats, and countless varieties 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.320 of pasta. Even comes from the risk of COVID nineteen 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.560 has forced food processing plants to utilize precautions that have 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.080 slowed production lines and reduced the variety of products in 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.720 the interest of efficiency. Additionally, as shutdown orders deter Americans 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.360 from dining out, the surge in demand for food that 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.160 can be prepared at home and the difficulty of making 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:32.080 it available to consumers while maintaining social distancing has compelled 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.720 grocery stores to revamp their ways of doing business on 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.920 the fly. Even after the pandemic eventually passes into memory, 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.640 the changes and innovations that resulted from it may permanently 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.200 alter the way that Americans get their food. One of 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.920 the biggest challenges has been that the pandemic forced a 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:53.920 sudden drastic change in where and what Americans eat. We 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.280 spoke with Doug Baker, the vice president of industry relations 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.440 for f m I that's Food Marketplace in core Paraded, 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.720 an association that represents the interests of food producers and 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.480 retailers across the supply chain and to the government. For 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.720 every dollar that Americans spend on food, fifty four cents 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.239 of that dollar goes to eating in restaurants or buying 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.080 take out meals, but starting in mid March, as states 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.160 began imposing lockdown and stay at home orders, all of 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.760 that abruptly changed, with schools and businesses closing down in 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.560 rapid succession. Americans of all ages soon we're eating all 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.960 of their meals at home and needing more and more groceries. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:36.359 Baker said it was almost a perfect storm. The sudden 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.919 change created massive problems for farmers and food producers, who 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.240 were used to growing and packaging a lot of their 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.840 output in industrial sized quantities for restaurants and school cafeteria kitchens. 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.960 As a New York Times article describes, without restaurants frying 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.679 onion rings of food that people seldom make it home, 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.920 there suddenly was no market for fifty pound sacks of 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.280 onions those are about twenty two kilos did for the 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.520 vast quantities of milk that go into Latte's and other 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.000 drinks of coffee shops. That left farmers with little choice 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:10.799 but to dump or bury their output. At the same time, paradoxically, 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.280 ordinary consumers were clamoring for different foods and other products 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.200 that they were afraid they might not be able to 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:21.480 get in the future. Baker said early on it was 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.160 home cleaning products, household care, personal health. Then as we 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.720 came into the major spike and people were asked to 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.920 be able to shelter in place, the concern became being 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.040 able to access food. Initially, people cleared the shelves of 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.680 perishable products such as milk, eggs, and bread, and gradually, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.160 as fears of quarantines rose, they began grabbing up canned 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.880 and frozen vegetables, pasta, ramen, noodles, and other stuff that 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.840 would last longer in a crisis. A poll conducted in 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.680 mid March on behalf of the online loan marketplace lending 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.119 Tree found that sixty three percent of Americans had purchased 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.960 supplies related to the coronavirus outbreak, such as food, cleaning 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.280 products and medication, with the average consumer spending a hundred 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.720 and seventy eight dollars and forty four cents. This unprecedented 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.560 surgeon demand peaked during the third week in March, with 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.480 the nation's grocery retailers seeing sales go up by thirty 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.720 Baker said it was sort of like having Easter every day. 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.240 After that, demand eased off a bit, with people following 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.920 government orders to stay at home or else not feeling 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.520 comfortable going out and possibly risking infection, or else already 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.719 having a stockpile of supplies. But by then the shift 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.120 in consumption already had rocked the nation's food supply chain, 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.360 in which products passed through a variety of stages before 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.280 they reach the people who eat them. A food that's 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.160 grown on farms goes to processing plants, where it's made 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.800 into products and packaged. Then it's shipped to warehouses, which 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.599 in turn deliver it to grocery stores, where it's picked 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.960 off the shelves and tossed into shopping carts by the 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.960 eventual users. Usually, in normal times, the different parts of 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.200 the supply chain to maintain several months worth of safety 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.800 stocks so that they can cope with fluctuations in supply 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:09.120 and demand. But according to Baker, when the pandemic crisis hit, 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.240 those backup supplies throughout the system were used up in 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.800 just ten days, and replenishing those supplies of food has 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:21.040 been tougher because of the novel coronavirus. So far, only 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.440 a few facilities actually have had to suspend operations due 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.400 to COVID nineteen cases among the workforce, but staying open 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.800 has necessitated changes in practices that can slow down and 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:36.760 limit output. We talked about this via email with Gregory P. Martin, 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:41.080 a poultry Extension educator for Penn State Extension. He explained 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.560 these precautions are necessary to help protect workers who may 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:47.479 work in close proximity to each other on production or 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:52.120 processing lines. Hand sanitizing and dawning outerwear are normal practices 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:56.160 and food processing plants, so additional personal protection equipment would 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:00.800 be another layer of protection for the worker. Also spoke 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.040 with Martin buck Naviche, a senior food Safety Extension associate 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.040 in the Food Science Department at Penn State University whose 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.400 name I hope I said correctly. He told us it 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.880 has been an adjustment for facilities to adjust, for example, 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:18.240 to enact spacing where possible and other precautions. We may 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.480 be able to tell more after a few more weeks 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.960 regarding supply chain issues. In order to keep production rolling 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:29.200 with those added measures, Bucknevitch said, quote, many operations have 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.320 simplified their product offerings, and this is one thing that's 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:35.920 noticeable at the grocery store. Less selection, for example, and 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.960 fewer sizes. In order to cope with the demand, food 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.359 manufacturers started cutting the warehouse step out of the chain, 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.520 shipping from their plants directly to supermarkets. But at the 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:52.480 retail end, other challenges emerged. Stores rushed to install plexiglass snees, 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:57.200 shields for cashiers and equip employees with protective gear. Consumers 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.320 increasingly begin ordering their food online, either from stores or 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.160 food delivery services such as Instacart, Fresh Direct, and Peapod. 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.200 According to Baker, before the pandemic, about three percent of 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.280 grocery stores business was e commerce, and while hard figures 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:17.040 aren't yet available, retailers have seen rises ranging from twelve 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:22.160 to twenty. This is significant because buying groceries over the 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:26.640 Internet turns out to be surprisingly labor intensive. The seemingly 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:29.840 fairly small job of your going physically to the store, 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.920 selecting items from shelves and bringing them to a register 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:36.040 for checkout and bagging turns into a flood. When so 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.800 many people offload the work onto grocers, there's only so 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.000 much labor to handle those orders, which is forcing grocery 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.280 stores to schedule curbside pickup and delivery windows days in 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:50.480 advance due to the demand. Additionally, the sudden surge in 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.120 e commerce means that store employees or delivery service workers 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.200 are grabbing groceries and products off the same shelves that 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.480 old school in person shoppers are still rely ing upon, 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.200 so there's not as much there for them. To fix 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.240 that problem, Baker says, some retailers have been setting up 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:11.440 separate automated micro fulfillment centers, which get their own shipments 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.760 of groceries. The micro fulfillment centers are grocery industry trend 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:20.040 that will most likely accelerate, according to Baker. Additionally, even 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.240 before COVID nineteen, retailers such as Walmart had begun to 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.680 look at using autonomous vehicles to make deliveries. At some 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:28.840 point in the future, it may be that when you 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.400 order groceries online, robots will handle much of the process 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:34.440 of getting it to you. That could make it a 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:38.840 lot easier to get food during future pandemics. But for 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.000 the present, the American food supply chain will continue to 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.040 depend upon human labor, even with added precautions. That means 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.719 our supply chain is vulnerable to COVID nineteen, especially if 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.680 the virus rapidly spreads in rural areas the way that 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:57.040 it has hit urban populations. We spoke via email with 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.840 Karan Grotra, a professor of Operations, technolog G and Information 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:05.320 Management at Cornell University. He said categories which are produced 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.840 an indoor, large scale labor intensive plants such as meat, 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.200 are most at risk as social distancing is harder in 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:17.040 these factories, Employees are financially insecure, labor is often migrant labor, 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.839 and there's limited access to healthcare for these employees, so 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.040 they are vulnerable, and given the high level of consolidation, 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.800 even one facility or one breakout can take significant supply 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.720 off the market. Labor is the weakest link in these categories. 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.400 Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Tiger and produced 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.520 by Tyler Clang. For more in this and lots of 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.400 other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.280 production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.120 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:51.360 listen to your favorite shows.