A recent report that nearly 20% of Wendy’s locations around the country are out of beef and pictures of empty grocery shelves floating around social media has consumers worried about a meat shortage in the United States.
Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron says consumers need to know, “There is not a shortage of food here. It’s a logistics issue getting it processed and getting it to the store. The American farmer has done a phenomenal job, and I think we’ve got to make sure they understand there is plenty of food here. It’s a logistics issue. Not a food issue.”
Jeanette Merritt, Director of Checkoff Programs for Indiana Pork, echoes Kron’s sentiments.
“We know there’s pork in the chain and we know that there is supply. There may be some disruption with some hiccups, but I don’t want consumers to panic that they’re never going to see pork on the grocery store shelves.”
Meat processing facilities in Logansport and Delphi opened last week as well as other meatpacking facilities around the country to help bring the supply chain back closer to normal. Kron says “normal” might look different when this is all said and done.
“This will lead to a discussion at a later time about packers and concentration. There are going to be a lot of discussions after this is over about what agriculture and the processing system should look like, but let’s get through this now and then we can have those discussions.”