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COVID-19 has disrupted every aspect of our lives and economy – including our food system. Will COVID-19 change our food system for good? 

Climate One host Greg Dalton speaks with several guests:

Coronavirus outbreaks in food markets, food plants, and farmworker communities have put a spotlight on food insecurity. Farmers are hurting as supply chains for fresh, perishable foods shrivel, while food banks have seen a surge in demand. 

With restaurants devastated, food workers either unemployed or vulnerable, and trips to the grocery store now being highly-planned ventures into risky territory, the pandemic is having a broad impact on the way food is produced and consumed.  

“Farmers saw a lot of increased demand from consumers who are home and wanted food at home, direct to consumer,” says Lisa Held, Senior Reporter with Civil Eats, who covers the meat industry and other aspects of agriculture. 

“A lot of farmers went totally online, which was very effective, but requires extra labor, extra packaging -- just so much time essentially creating a whole new business model at the time when you're transitioning into harvest season.”

Helene York, who was an executive at companies that run food operations on corporate and college campuses before becoming a Covid layoff herself, admires the way many food producers have been able to pivot. But she also laments the lack of coordinated federal response to the pandemic.

“We all know some very good public servants in the USDA and many of them had their hands tied,” she says. “There could've been a 10-time improvement [in] efforts on how we support eaters as well as producers that could've come from more focused planning from the USDA.”

This program was recorded by the Commonwealth Club of California, via video on July 30, 2020.

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From the Commonwealth Club’s Climate One series, “COVID-19 and climate change: Implications for our food system.”

COVID-19 and climate change: Implications for our food system

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