Corona Virus impact on Ag
Food economists are just beginning to sort out the impacts of the Coronavirus on the US ag sector.
A CSU researcher says no one knows how it will impact agriculture in the long term. But she says much of the impact will be felt at the end of the supply chain.
Dawn Thilmany is a CSU Agriculture and Resource Economics professor. She says as a country we eat over half out food away from home. Two of the most immediate impacts will be on restaurants and on food delivery companies.
“DoorDash, one of the companies, has now waived some of the fees for a restaurant to participate with them, so that restaurants who feel like they’re losing customers have an ability to still get sales in a time when nobody is leaving their house. On the other side, you have institutional sales and by that I mean farm to school and all of a sudden all of those are shutting down.”
Several school districts in Colorado have petitioned and received permission from the USDA to continue breakfast and lunch programs while schools are closed.
