Chad Hart, associate professor, was interviewed on April 24 on Iowa Press Special: Coronavirus, on a panel of experts who participated in a live discussion of the pandemic’s impact on mental health, food insecurity and the agriculture economy. Viewer questions were submitted via email, phone and social media.
Henderson: Chad Hart, let's talk about the meat packing industry. What is the depth of that going to be? Will there be meat shortages?
Hart: We will probably have selected shortages in certain products. What we have right now I'll call it a gigantic mismatch. We have plenty of supplies of animals, we actually have fair amounts of meat in storage already, but it's not in the package or it's not the cuts that we're seeing selling at the grocery stores. And so I've described it as what we're trying to do right now is rewire our entire food delivery system in the course of about a month.
April 22 article on WSHU-FM:
Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University, says that on a normal day, some 20,000 hogs are processed in the Waterloo plant. And he says farmers who ship their animals there and to other shuttered plants across the Midwest are in a bind. "These hogs, you can't just hold them for four to six months waiting for the market to improve, for the market to change. When a market hog is ready to be processed, you have to move fairly quickly."
April 28 interview on KBUR Radio:
Iowa State University ag economist Chad Hart says the temporary pork plant closures have created a real pinch point.
“We’ve got good supplies on one end. We’ve got good demand on the other, but you have to pass through the processing plants,” Hart says. “And with roughly we figure 30% of our processing capacity sort of off-line right now, that is creating a problem where we have too many hogs for too little processing capacity.”
In an April 30 Chicago Tribune story, "With schools and coffee shops closed, Illinois dairy farmers face tough choices in an economy battered by coronavirus."
With beef, for instance, consumers tend to eat either high-end (steaks) or low-end (hamburgers) when eating out, Hart said. Now, with more people cooking at home, he said there may be a boost for roasts or meats people can grill from home. Fast-food restaurants that remain open may keep demand for lower-end beef going, but a drop in visits to steakhouses or restaurants that serve fancier meals may hurt demand for high-end cuts of beef.
Hart said that while consumers may be noticing that beef prices at the supermarkets are running 10% higher, that does not necessarily translate into increased profits for livestock farmers. The price for livestock has fallen about 20%, Hart said, which means that much of the cost that is being passed along to the shoppers appears to come from increased processing and transportation costs during coronavirus clampdowns.
In a May 1 FactCheck.org story, "An April Filled with Repeats."
Under the deal, China agreed to increase agricultural purchases by $12.5 billion this year and $19.5 billion next year above the 2017 level, which according to the Department of Agriculture was $19.6 billion. That means total agricultural exports to China in 2020 and 2021 won’t add up to $50 billion a year, Chad E. Hart, an associate professor of economics and crop markets specialist at Iowa State University, told us in a phone interview in January.
“The document says $12.5 billion this year and $19.5 billion next year, and that would put [agricultural exports] at $32 billion this year and $39 billion next year,” Hart told us.