Carrie Stadheim
If Americans learned one thing from the Covid pandemic, it should have been that we need a more secure food system.
That is what North Dakota State University’s professor Kalidas Shetty, with the Global Institute of Food Security and International Agriculture, told TSLN.
A reported ransomware attack over Memorial Day weekend affecting JBS shut down all of their US beef plants and slowed pork and poultry processing in this country.
Shetty, a biochemist, said “The lesson from all of this is that the more centralized and more concentrated any part of the production system is, the more vulnerable it is to breakdowns which in turn pose challenges for consumers.
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Rounds says he and Smith encourage state leaders and organizations to join them in asking for the DOJ investigation.
Meanwhile, the North American Meat Institute is defending its members against the allegations of wrongdoing in the cattle market. Spokesperson Sarah Little told the Hagstrom Report USDA analyzed the effects of the 2019 Holcomb facility fire and the pandemic in July 2020. She says they found no wrong-doing and confirmed the disruption in the beef markets was due to devastating and unprecedented “black swan” events.
So far, at least two cattle groups with South Dakota members are applauding the request for a DOJ investigation.
Aug 31, 2021 to Sep 02, 2021
Max Armstrong offers insights on the rising talk about soil health, rangeland health, and the economic health of farmers and ranchers. James Halvorson would want you to know they re linked. Halvorson is executive director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association who shared his thoughts on his journey from crop land to rangeland and why he enjoys being a rangeland evangelist.
Farm Progress America is a daily look at key issues in agriculture. It is produced and presented by Max Armstrong, veteran farm broadcaster and host of This Week in Agribusiness.
Photo: Walter Bibikow/Getty Images