Lee Schulz, associate professor, was interviewed in the April 5 Sioux City Journal story, "Foreign markets eager for U.S. pork, beef despite COVID-19-related travel cutbacks."
“We have seen a massive run on ground beef, but we’re starting to see some balance as people realize grocery stores, for the most part, are going to stay open,” he says. “Labor was a challenge before we had this because we had a historically low unemployment rate,” Schulz says. “Now we are seeing the cost of doing business going up. I think marketings are relatively current, and we need to maintain that to continue to meet the demand and make sure product remains in the supply chain.”
Schulz was interviewed by KAKE.com April 7, "Cattle Farmers Call for Slaughterhouses to stay open."
"It is very grim compared to what we were forecasting in the beginning of the year," said Lee Schulz, an economist at Iowa State University.
He was also interviewed for an April 6 National Hog Farmer story, "Wanted: A viable workforce."
"Shortage exists when workers needed exceeds workers willing and available to work at the current wage rate," Schulz says. "In the short run, no feasible wage increase will attract additional workers; they're simply not there and cannot materialize in the time needed."
He was also quoted in an April 8 Los Angeles Times story, "The coronavirus is changing the way the world feeds itself."
“Biology prevents producers from instantly responding to price changes,” said Lee Schulz, a livestock economist at Iowa State University. “We don’t have the ability to slow down production.”