Category Archives: COVID-19 News

The coronavirus pandemic could threaten global food supply, UN warns

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This is a news article from CNN that is looking at the global food network chain and COVID-19’s impact on food security. The article begins by stating that while food scarcity may not be an issue yet, the delivery chain of food is being impacted on an international scale, and this could lead to shortages of international food goods on shelves in the very near future. But the article doesn’t stop there, it continues to go into detail, discussing how China managed their crisis somewhat effectively, and also showcasing some issues in the harder hit areas such as the pacific islands which rely heavily on imports for food, and Australia who has a significant portion of their economy based on food exports.

This chart shows the percentage of food imports which details the risk the pacific island nations face.

This chart shows the top customers for Australia food exports.

This article showcases just how global and interconnected our food supply is, and this virus has shown how easily this chain can be disrupted. The article mentions that those of lower socio-economic status would be more significantly affected, which may explain why things here in Washington still seem to be somewhat stable (even if we have seen some instances of price gouging). Ironically, the solution presented by the FAO for the issue relies even more heavily on globalized response- saying that governments should take action to mitigate the impacts; and says that “international cooperation and global trade is key”. We have to ask ourselves if our goal is to come out of this pandemic with things restored to how they were? Or should we push for something different- something that may be more resistant to such crisis in the future? Perhaps a less globally dependent system? What do you all think?

 

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/asia/coronavirus-food-supply-asia-intl-hnk/index.html

 

Food Waste amid Covid-19 Pandemic

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The new coronavirus has posted a variety of problems on our food system and ecology. One thing I concern the most is the increasing food waste these days.

Due to the newly carried-out policy that requires people to stay at home except for necessary activities, they are moving from eating out to cook more at home. Also, restaurants and shops are shutting down in response to the spread of the coronavirus. These shifts lead to less market demand for food resources. It’s reported that farm growers leave almost half of the crops in the field and are facing exacerbating supply bulge because the demand for their products decreases abruptly.

Thinking about the deep interdependence in our systems and its nonlinearity, we can see the non-predictable effects of the change of one factor on another. The shift in eating patterns drastically decreases the demand for farm products which increases farm waste as well as household food waste. As people turn to take-out and delivery, we also witness an increase in waste through packaging.  But despite these adverse impacts of the Covid-19 and the “stay-at-home” policy, it also significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Because of the travel ban and disallowed unnecessary going-out, the use of private cars, public transportation, and even planes has been greatly limited, resulting in a temporary environmentally friendly lifestyle.

From my perspective, to minimize the negative impacts of coronavirus, firstly government and relevant agencies should find a way to manage the food surplus and food waste. It can be donations to poor and food-insecure regions. Also, individuals should not buy an excessive amount of food and ask for paper bags instead of plastic bags for take-out and delivery.

Small Restaurants in the Age of Covid-19

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The Hood River Valley is an old logging community that now relies on the orchards and recreational tourism industries to stay afloat.

I live in a small tourist town that relies heavily on the popular summer months. As a stereotypical outdoorsy PNW town, the main attractions are hiking/biking trails, microbreweries, and wineries. With the COVID-19 pandemic, all of these things have been closed indefinitely and our community is left to wonder what is going to happen.

An op-ed in the New York Times written by New York City Restaurant owners questions the future of restaurants as we know them. “Independent restaurants employ more than 10 million people. And our fear is that these jobs may well disappear for good.” Restaurants have always been a risky business with large upfront investments, lots of employees to pay, slow returns, and seasonality. This is especially true in my hometown where the population doubles in the summer and most restaurants barely scrape by the winter months.

The popular farm to table movement is better for the environment, encouraging small scale organic farms and local supply chains. But in the age of Coronavirus, these operations are being hit the hardest. American food culture correspondent for the Times, Kim Severson, comments on this in her latest article. The $12 billion dollar industry is facing heavy losses as “these small farmers, like many others across the country who spent decades building a local, sustainable agricultural system, are staring at their fields and wondering what to do now that the table has been kicked out from under the modern farm-to-table movement.”

Farmers and restaurants alike have been looking to do what they can to minimize loses by sending food to farmer’s markets, or encouraging customers to do take-out or sign up for food delivery boxes. Everyone is scrambling to change their business model, but the question that remains is how long this will last, and will anyone be left to return to normal?