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Supply Chain Sparrow –Supply Chain News and Resources

The Perishables Ecosystem –Food, Wine, Cannabis & More

Food Supply Chain Transparency is Misleading

Lara L. Sowinski · April 2020 ·

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The people who comprise the food supply chain, including farmers, truckers, grocery clerks and food delivery drivers, are among those essential workers who are on the front lines, doing their part to get food to consumers in the midst of the C19 pandemic. 

They deserve our utmost appreciation. They also deserve safe working conditions.

As do another segment of food supply chain workers: the people who work in the fields and in processing plants. 

In April, various media outlets from the L.A. Times to The Guardian and BBC News reported on the extreme risks these workers are exposed to daily. Agricultural workers in California work side-by-side in the fields and pack houses; are crammed together in buses that transport them, and live together in close quarters. 

Meanwhile, the meat processing plants are shutting down operations around the U.S. and Canada as hundreds of workers are testing positive and deaths are rising. 

Tyson Foods suspended operations at its Iowa City, Iowa plant on April 22 after more than 180 of its 2,800 workers tested positive. Four people already died from C19 at one of Tyson Foods’ poultry processing plants in Georgia.

JBS USA shut its Worthington, Minn. plant on April 20 after seven workers tested positive. The company’s Greeley, Colo. meatpacking plant reported four deaths earlier this month. 

Cargill’s Fort Morgan, Colo. plant has at least 18 confirmed cases and one death. Meanwhile, on April 20, the High River, Alberta (Canada) plant was shut down after 484 cases of C19, linked to 360 plant workers, were reported, along with one death.

Smithfield Foods closed its Sioux Falls, South Dakota plant on April 15, after 644 cases were reported among workers and people who contracted it from the workers. The huge number of cases qualified the plant as the number one hotspot for C19 in the U.S. 

The common thread among agricultural workers and those who work in meat processing plants goes beyond their employers’ disregard for safety, training and information during the current health crisis. These workers share other attributes: they are mostly Latino, African-American or refugees who are paid minimum wage or less, and are subjected to some of the worst working conditions of any job. It’s dirty, dangerous, and repetitious, and it takes a toll on the body. 

For years, I have written about the global food supply chain, including tracking and tracing, visibility, and transparency. Technology enables us to pinpoint where a carton of strawberries were picked, who grew our coffee beans, or what temperature, humidity and shock our bottle of wine encountered on its journey. 

Why is it that the essential workers, especially those in the fields and processing plants, are so often left out and discounted? What can employers and consumers do to change this? Or perhaps, what will it take for this to change?

If we are serious about transparency in the global food supply chain, then we need to look at all aspects, and all the essential workers. 

photo credit: davispigeon-0

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Filed Under: Food/Beverage

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I VOTED (for cannabis)

No matter their political stripe, many Americans are in agreement with efforts to legalize recreational and medical cannabis.

On November 3, voters legalized marijuana for adult use in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota. Initiatives to legalize medical cannabis passed in Mississippi and South Dakota. The rapid expansion of legalized cannabis throughout the U.S. has a direct impact on the supply chain.

Let’s start by considering the food supply chain–a valuable case study with COVID-19 as the backdrop. Early on, Americans experienced food shortages at the retail level. Manufacturers and distributors scrambled to realign networks to supply grocery stores where demand was spiking, while shifting away from restaurants and the hospitality sector where demand was tanking. In a matter of months, online shopping and food delivery to consumers’ homes grew dramatically. As a result, the food supply chain is in the midst of reinventing itself.

The cannabis supply chain faces some similar challenges. Most importantly, there’s an opportunity now to learn and adopt best practices from the food and pharmaceutical supply chains with which it shares key commonalities.

What are the risks to the cannabis supply chain? California’s unprecedented fires this year threatened growers throughout the state. How quickly can infrastructure scale-up to meet demand, and at what cost? Commercial and industrial real estate is currently at a premium with the proliferation of e-commerce. What about transportation, distribution and logistics capabilities, including reverse logistics in the case of product recalls? Facilities, equipment, and skilled workers are in high demand, and as competition for these various assets tightens, what does that mean for the entire perishables sector (food, cannabis, wine, beverages, pharma, etc.) that need them? Collaboration and creativity can provide critical solutions across the board.

On a related note, a small handful of American and European companies are in talks with Rwanda now about exporting cannabis to the country to meet rising pharmaceutical demand. Supply Chain Sparrow has previously identified cannabis exports as a massive opportunity for the U.S., which of course, would require legislative changes at the federal level.

Vote. And keep on voting.

Be Brave. Fly Right. And keep in touch at info@scsparrow.com.

Lara L. Sowinski, Executive Editor

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