HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

Don’t raise a glass. With gas demand massively down in the U.S., ethanol producers have ramped down production — and thus the byproduct of ethanol, carbon dioxide, isn’t being made. Production has dropped by 20 percent and could fall as much as 50 percent, some predict. That’s bad news for producers of beer and sodas, who use it to make their beverages bubbly. Small brewers may have to shut down — or turn to old-fashioned processes no longer widely used, like allowing yeast to convert sugar to carbon dioxide. Another concern about the CO2 shortage: It’s used in water treatment, and though utilities are considered essential and given priority, there could be future shortages.

Elbow to elbow. Dozens of U.S. meat processing plants have been forced into temporary shutdowns as workers are infected and long-standing processing methods make social distancing impossible. Some plants, like Georgia’s Gold Creek Foods, have reportedly shifted the responsibility to workers, threatening to fire them if they don’t show up to work even with symptoms. While experts say there’s no danger of empty meat shelves yet, it’s a volatile situation.

Farm to table. At least half of America’s crop hands are estimated to be undocumented immigrants, who were notably left out of the federal coronavirus relief package passed last month. But workers are often forced to live in crowded conditions, meaning they’re at high risk of contracting and transmitting the virus. Meanwhile, farmers across the country say that without the schools, restaurants and hotels they normally sell to, they’re being forced to dump crops and milk unconsumed due to a lack of alternative supply chains. While some are able to donate, that’s complicated by the sheer volume of excess. President Donald Trump’s new immigration ban does exempt farmworkers — and he’s not the only one making exceptions, as Germany and the U.K. fly in planeloads of agricultural workers from Eastern Europe despite travel bans.

WHAT TO READ

Coronavirus at Smithfield Pork Plant: The Untold Story Behind America’s Biggest Outbreak, by Jessica Lussenhop on the BBC
“The closure of a large meat processing facility like the one in Sioux Falls causes massive upstream disruption, stranding farmers without a place to sell their livestock.”

Coronavirus Versus the Last Grocer in Town, by Valerie Bauerlein in the WSJ
“Any sneeze makes Mr. Timberlake flinch. He worries that if one of his workers got sick he would have to ask the rest of his employees to self-quarantine for two weeks. If that happened, food would spoil, and bills would go unpaid.”

WHAT TO WATCH