Where's the Beef? It's Local

While Valley County has not a single confirmed case of COVID-19, the local community is still feeling the effects of the global pandemic in other ways. The county went through the state-wide shelter-in-place directive ordered by Governor Steve Bullock and many local businesses shuttered their doors temporarily. Even before the directive, local grocery stores saw a surge of stockpiling, struggling to get and keep some items, such as toilet paper, on the shelves.

Now another shortage is happening as the food supply chain has been disrupted as towns across the country with meat processing plants find themselves as emerging coronavirus hotspots. Meatpacking plants are reopening after temporary closings due to an executive order from President Donald Trump under the Defense Production Act declared the industry to be an essential service. Even though the plants are slowly reopening, many are operating at less than full capacity due to worker illness and/or newly implemented safety precautions, including physical distancing.

Area residents have taken notice of the issue and have begun to seek alternate sources of beef and pork. Some ranchers have taken to social media to offer up animals for direct sales that can then be taken to a a local butcher for processing, bypassing a large chunk of the supply chain. In Glasgow, Treasure Trail Processing owner Doug Wixson laughed when asked about his business, "Oh it's definitely been busier."

Few local meat processing businesses are authorized for resale under federal regulations, but some governors and lawmakers, including Bullock, have called on the USDA to ease restrictions in order to avoid food waste and get food to those most impacted by the pandemic. Treasure Trail Processing is one of those businesses restricted to personal sales only and says the requests have not yet affected him. Wixson has been staying busy with locals buying locally though. "I do have a waiting list right now," he said.

He explained that the waiting list is not the result of recent news only. "It's been a perfect storm for me, what with the place in Wolf Point burning down about a year ago and in this neck of the woods it seems most everyone is retiring," he ruefully laughed. "And now this all blew up the past two weeks or so. Yeah, I've been busy."

Tyson Foods, Inc., JBS SA and Cargill Inc. control approximately two-thirds of America's beef market and processing the vast majority of that beef happens in a few dozen plants, according to reporting from Bloomberg. In just over the past half century, the number of processing plants has dropped by 70 percent. A statement from the White House said the closure of a single beef processing plant could result in a loss of more than 10 million servings of beef in a single day.

Processing meat on a massive scale, as is done at those plants, has made America incredibly efficient at keeping the food supply chain going for decades, but the pandemic has highlighted how such an event can disrupt the system. Even Wendy's, with their famous tagline, "Where's the beef?", has begun promoting chicken sandwiches over hamburgers because of the shortage of fresh meat.

Meat shortages thus far have been reported as mainly occurring in urban areas while rural areas may find themselves in a better position to deal with and adapt to the shortages. Consumers in areas with access to ranchers and butchers are seeking out local meat for their families.

Valley News Live in Fargo, N.D., reported on local ranchers there selling product and consumers who are looking for local beef. The renewed focus on local has also raised the ongoing issue of reinstating Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) which labels meat products to let customers know exactly where their purchase was raised. Valley News Live quoted Ranchers Rebellion Beef Company customer David Boelke, "I think it's a good time to get back to our roots and try to buy local. Try to buy from our farmer neighbors and produce from our gardens that are local rather than supporting our global machine at this point."

Businesses, producers and federal agencies are working to adjust to the food supply chain disruption, seeking ways to avoid food waste and get food to consumers. Governor Bullock released a letter to Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue asking that USDA authorize some local processing using temporary and measured steps. He further requested the agency encourage new ideas for reducing barriers to meat processing and improving markets for rural producers beyond the pandemic. Senator Steve Daines has also requested an easing of federal regulations, specifically asking that smaller meat processors be allowed to ship across state lines.

According to reporting from AgWeb, Beef Alliance has begun discussions to institute a Fed Cattle Set Aside program designed to alleviate the bottle neck at beef processing plants. With Congress looking at another round of stimulus money the group is hoping to gain traction on the program with cooperation from partners in the cattle industry and trade associations. The proposed public-private partnership would be overseen by USDA and would compensate producers for voluntarily removing some cattle that are nearing market ready weight out of the pipeline for a period of time. The compensation is intended to cover costs for feeding cattle, operating costs and other fixed costs producers might incur for an additional 75-day period in which they would keep the cattle out of the pipeline.

On May 8, Secretary Perdue announced that more than a dozen meatpacking facilities were reopening or planning to resume operations across the country. The announcement came soon after the executive order declaring the operations to be critical infrastructure and directions for the processors to implement guidelines specific to COVID-19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Though plants are reopening, Secretary Perdue said that shortfalls could still run as high as 15 percent as rates of employee absenteeism remain higher than normal and new physical distancing guidelines prevent as many workers on the floor. Bloomberg reported on USDA data showing that cattle slaughter was down 35 percent and hog slaughter was down 39 percent compared to the same dates a year ago.

Despite processing plants coming back online, Treasure Trail Processing can expect to stay busy as potential changes come to federal regulations and as the traditional butchering season looming. In addition, consumers may choose to stay with a local supply of beef, knowing where it comes from and keeping local money local.