COVID brought challenges, changes for agriculture

Five years ago this month, many aspects of life ground to a halt or saw major changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Agriculture faced challenges getting food from farms to grocery stores, and for many farmers the familiarity of turning on a tractor for spring planting was a welcome return to something normal.

In the half-decade since, agriculture has seen both ongoing challenges as well as some new opportunities that have risen from the disruptions of COVID-19, such as a growth in local meat processing facilities and increasing rural entrepreneurship.

Chris Chinn is a northeast Missouri farmer who serves as Missouri’s Director of Agriculture. She remembers those uncertain days in March 2020 and how the Department of Agriculture worked to keep the food system operational.

Local focus

“It was a very hectic time,” she says. “There were some challenging issues. We were trying to keep our meat processing plants open to keep meat in our grocery stores.”

Livestock, dairy and poultry producers faced difficulties getting their products hauled to market during those initial weeks. Chinn says the industry responded quickly and adapted, but those days highlighted the narrow timing margins of the food supply.

“It really opened consumers’ eyes to the just-in-time we have here,” she says.

The outbreak did lead to consumers re-evaluating their preferences and thinking about buying more meat locally and having it in their freezer, she said. Many states saw a rise in meat-processing facilities in the wake of the pandemic.

Chinn says Missouri had 26 inspected meat-processing facilities before COVID, and it now has 51. There was also a growth in the number of “custom exempt” meat-processing facilities, which are those used to process meat for personal use or non-paying guests. She says the state invested in expanding local meat production, as has the private sector.