coronavirus
SURVEY: We asked farmers how they’re dealing with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s what they said.
|
The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened some farmers' stress. A few shared how they're managing it.
Graphic of the Week
Graphic: COVID-19 has plunged more people of color into food insecurity
|
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, more Americans — and particularly Americans of color — have experienced limited or uncertain access to adequate food.
Bayer’s rejection of quick COVID-19 testing resulted in delayed isolation for migrant workers, officials say
|
At least eight migrant workers who were infected with COVID-19 waited several days before isolating because the company they worked for, Bayer, declined to pay for expedited tests, Champaign County health officials said.
Arkansas poultry industry
Arkansas poultry plants are struggling with COVID-19. Hispanic workers are facing the worst of it.
|
Maria Romero’s mother is among at least 4,627 Arkansas poultry workers to have been infected by COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. More than half of them, like Romero’s mother, are Hispanic.
Agribusiness
Graphic: Among agribusinesses, dairies received the most loans from federal Paycheck Protection Program
|
About 1 percent of all PPP loans went to agribusinesses.
Coronavirus
Thousands of students from states with higher infection rates may return to University of Illinois
|
As many as 25,000 students may return next week to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from areas with much higher infection rates of Covid-19 than Champaign County, according to a review of public health data by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The campus has a total of about 51,000 students, of which 5,508 attended online in the last academic year. The university is located in Champaign County, which has a population of about 207,000, has an overall positivity rate of about 2%, although recently rates have been below 1%.
The Midwest Center compared infection rates from public health data with student demographics and found:
More than 20,000 students came from 357 Illinois ZIP codes that have positivity rates over 5%. About 33,000 students from 1,050 ZIP codes attended the university in the last academic year.10,769 of those students are from Illinois ZIP codes with positivity rates above 8%.As many as 5,000 students may be arriving from 33 states that have positivity rates higher than 5%. Governments are advised to have a Covid-19 positivity rate at 5% or lower for at least two weeks before reopening, according to the World Health Organization.
coronavirus
Analysis: N.C.’s rural Covid-19 rate stems from meatpacking plants
|
While nursing homes and prisons made up most rural hot spots in the spring, growing evidence now points to a different major “engine of spread” that has lurked beneath the radar of public awareness and official recognition: meat-processing.
coronavirus
While Covid-19 upends supply chains, farms that sell locally thrive
|
Not all farms are struggling equally during the pandemic. Retail market farms, who sell directly to the consumer, are actually doing pretty well.
coronavirus
They warned OSHA they were in “imminent danger” at the meat plant. Now they’re suing the agency.
|
Frustrated by the lack of response to their complaint of the “imminent danger” posed by COVID-19, three meatpacking workers at the Maid-Rite Specialty Foods plant outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, took the unusual step Wednesday of filing a lawsuit against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia.
coronavirus
Covid-19 pandemic drives food prices up
|
More Americans have stayed home to cook during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they've paid a higher price for their home meals. While the cost of restaurant foods remained steady through the past few months, the price consumers paid for foods at grocery stores has steeply risen since March 2020.
As customers rushed to stock up on foods at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a sudden and sharp increase in demand for food, which led to higher prices. The dramatic reduction in restaurant traffic also resulted in increased demand for food from grocery stores, thus raising prices for food products, according to an April 2020 post by the USDA.
The Consumer Price Index – a measure of the average change in the prices paid by consumers for goods and services – rose 4.5 percent in June for food, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics . The index for food at home increased 5.6 percent in June, following a 4.8 percent increase in May, before seasonal adjustment.
While the price of poultry products – chicken and eggs – rose modestly, the cost of meat items – both beef and pork – rose sharply in June. The temporary closure of a number of meatpacking plants decreased the supplies of meat products, which eventually led to the steep rise in retail meat prices, according to the USDA report.