COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts

Organic groups ask Congress, USDA to protect organic food and agriculture during COVID-19 pandemic

The National Organic Coalition (NOC), Organic Farmers Association (OFA), recently called on Congress to include provisions in the next coronavirus relief package to help organic farmers, farmworkers, retailers, certifiers, and other businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the Organic Trade Association (OTA) sent a letter to USDA secretary Sonny Perdue urging that his agency support […]

We have plenty of food, so why are grocery store shelves so empty?

Food supply chain deficiencies are being dramatically exposed during the coronavirus pandemic. Dairy farmers are dumping milk down drains, egg prices are on a roller coaster, meat plants are shutting down due to worker illness—and folks are finding food shortages at groceries, exacerbated by consumer hoarding. The market for food service distributors—restaurants, schools, hotels, etc.—has […]

Organic farmers fill national food system holes revealed by COVID-19

The organic sector is getting creative to remedy America’s unwieldy food system, while trying to stay afloat amid the demise of restaurants. Dave Bishop of Illinois’s Prairie Erth Farm is grateful for local sources: he sells his vegetables to CSAs, delivers grain to an organic mill, and fills his grocery accounts in nearby Chicago. “All […]

Consumers embrace local, organic foods amid pandemic

According to Stonyfield Farm chairman Gary Hirshberg, the “silver lining” in the COVID-19 pandemic is that people are learning that “we are what we eat,” which is driving demand for local and organic foods. In a podcast by FoodNavigator USA, Hirshberg says that as a result of the pandemic more people want locally produced foods […]

As food supply chain breaks down, farm-to-door CSAs take off

While some American farmers have been forced to dump milk or plow under crops due to loss of markets during the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers of community supported agriculture (CSA) programs are thriving. A reporter contacted Judith Redmond, a founding partner of the 450-acre, organic Full Belly Farm, wanting to see produce rotting in the fields. But […]