COVID-19 Threatens To Reverse Progress Toward Fresh, Artisanal Eating And Bountiful Food Industry Jobs

COVID-19 Threatens To Reverse Progress Toward Fresh, Artisanal Eating And Bountiful Food Industry Jobs

You know that organic local daikon you’ve started cooking into vegan steaks for your kids? Or the adorable specialty food shop that popped up in your hometown? According to some food-industry analysts, likely changes to the way the United States will produce and sell its food post-coronavirus mean you may have to bid farewell to some of this healthy progress.

It goes without saying that the nation’s food systems are scrambling to adapt to rapidly evolving safety regulations and extraordinarily uneven buyer demand. What’s less known is what will happen once the country opens back up and suppliers, consumers, ancillary businesses and regulatory bodies must find their way forward in an unfamiliar landscape rife with previously unforeseen contagions.

On April 23, right as meat suppliers started issuing serious warnings about an impending shortage, analysts at the New York-based Marcum public accounting and advisory firm dove deep into how U.S. food systems are reacting to COVID-19 and how we might expect to shop and eat in the future. Though they didn’t make this point themselves, their messages coalesced to suggest two conclusions: 1) corporate consolidation in the food chain has led to some of our most severe present-day problems; 2) in the “new normal,” Americans will likely revert to eating packaged comfort meals bought in huge grocery chains run on automation.