Source: Liz Crampton, POLITICO, 9/9/21

 Editor's Note:  Sarah Blacklin, director of NC Choices, NC Cooperative Extension was a panelist.

The Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t just been a health crisis, it has also been a food crisis. It has exposed serious vulnerabilities in the U.S. food system that many Americans didn’t realize were lurking until they encountered empty grocery store shelves in the spring of last year. Starting when the virus first began to spread, supply chain bottlenecks have caused breakdowns that are still ongoing in all parts of the U.S. food system, from farm fields to processing centers to grocery stores. Farmers, facing the sudden loss of places to deliver fruit, vegetables, livestock and grains, were forced to plow under millions of pounds of crops, slaughter herds or pour milk down the drain.

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