Pandemic brings attention to U.S. food supply chain

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Pandemic brings attention to U.S. food supply chain

The coronavirus pandemic has brought attention to how the U.S. food supply chain operates.

Minnesota Farm Bureau president Kevin Paap tells Brownfield he’s hesitant to say anything good has come out of the pandemic.

“But one of the things is I think we’ve got more consumers now that for the first time in their life they’ve experienced empty store shelves (and) consumers now understand that good healthy fresh meat they’ve been eating was maybe walking 70 to 90 hours before that.”

He says that’s an example of the “just in time” food system the U.S. needs to protect.

“And we certainly hope that all essential employees, whether it be food, whether it be healthcare, that all of them have that access to having the vaccine as soon as possible.”

The CDC has designated frontline essential workers, including those in the food and agriculture industries, as part of the second phase of COVID-19 vaccinations.

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