*This is part of our series on the nexus between COVID-19 and food systems.
Truthfully,
it’s been quite a life-defining and uncertain
year 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has continually posed an unprecedentedly
lingering impact on my eating habits as well as on the U.S. food and
socioeconomic systems. It is pertinent to note that even before the pandemic, the
small
farms were disappearing, a few banks were being bailed out, small agribusinesses
bankruptcy was rife, and U.S. - Chinese trade wars.
The food systems are also evolving due to inherent systemic
racism and police brutality. The inequality and randomness impact of food
systems was certainly aggravated by the murder of George
Floyd in the heat of COVID-I9 pandemic.
The
pre-pandemic food supplies and increased trade integration contributed to
geographic spread of agri-food supply chains in the U.S. Invariably, all food products including fresh groceries, bread, fruits,
vegetables, poultry, beverages, processed foods, red meats, fish and other
edible consumables were always available at the grocery stores –
Wholefoods, Safeway, Food Lion, Target, Costco, Walmart, Harris Teeter, etc. However,
the first month of the pandemic created acute shortage of food supplies in the
shelves.
The
pandemic crippled food ordering books for large and small groceries stores
throughout the spring and summer, thereby creating supply delays or backlogs.
At the start of the fall, groceries orders began trickling in again, but the
damage is done and making most food supply chain players with revenues
percentages losses compared to 2019 year’s levels. The pandemic shows that the
food systems are neither risk averse nor shock-absorbing to the COVID-19 disruptions.
By implication most of the food items such as groceries, sanitation items and
water were not available in these stores in the beginning of the pandemic.
As
an economist, my thoughts were how network models and other economics science
tools could identify sources of food systems risks stimulated by the pandemic
and provide workable policies to enhance antifragility, thereby appropriately
preparing for the future of food supply risks in the U.S in particular and the United States Mexico and Canada
(USMCA) trade space in general. The USMCA trade deal was robustly designed to
achieve colossal success, especially from a food systems viewpoint. In the
first three to five months of the pandemic, I was always at Costco Wholesale to
purchase yummy dino buddies
for the kids, and there were none. For many weeks running in summer until fall,
there was shortage of yummy dino buddies. When the yummy dino buddies supplies
finally arrived at Costco from Canada, a very strict rationing policy was
implemented so that one could only purchase one packet per family and until now
when you can purchase three packets per Costco card holders, bearing in mind
that the pandemic made most workers stay home without income and the U.S. government also closed its borders to all its neighbors in order to stem the
spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the absence of yummy dino buddies, it was
really challenging for the kids to adapt to other food items such as tinned
green peas and peanut butter.
Though
the 2007/8 global ‘black swan’ was a trio
food, fuel and financial crises, the fragility within the systems has not been
reduced but instead it has been multiplied with people incurring higher debts
with food, fuel and the financial crisis. In 2008, I was a regional agri-food
policy analyst at the Forum for Agricultural
Research in Africa (FARA) and the 2007/8
global food crisis was really critical. Today, the unsustainable solution
to the global 3F crisis has aggravated the current impact of this pandemic such
that the U.S food system is much more fragile than it was twelve years ago. By
implication, the food and socio-economic systems have become less robust and
shakier due to the pandemic. However, a few agri-food sub-sectors are better
off but the whole food systems is not. For instance, the food e-commerce was
better off, and as a prime member of Amazon, I embarked on online purchases for
groceries from Whole
Foods.
My
family totally missed our community farmers’ market which provided us with
fresh and organic foods. In 2019, we were looking forward to the Fall 2020
Farmers’ Market season at Archwood Green
Barns, Warrenton,
and Rappahannock
Farmers Markets. Invariably, we also missed the family get together space
for music and relaxation at the Warrenton
Farmers’ Market (Please see our picture at the music section of the
Warrenton Farmers’ Market).
The
Liberty Community Church, its
leadership and members provided the ecosystem to reflect on our spiritual and
nutritional growth in the sense that its pantry section provides food items for
community members. Thereafter, there are hot cups of coffee and tea with church
members every Sunday morning as well as the mid-week services.
Given
that children have been home without going to schools for about seven months
and now are resuming virtual learning since Fall 2020, this has implications
for household food and snacks consumption, expenditure, budgeting, and health
outcomes. The increased consumption of snacks and continuous compliance with washing
hands incessantly makes one intensely aware of how we forget to follow these
precautions before eating snacks most times. In spite of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Virginia
State Health and Human Services and Fauquier
country public schools collaborative efforts to promote fresh fruits and
vegetables consumption among kids through the Fauquier Reaches for Excellence in School
Health (FRESH), unhealthy snacking behavior
is incongruent with the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans DGAs 2020 – 2025 Agenda. Further, it is relevant
to note the crucial role of the Fauquier
Community Food Bank and Thrift Store in reducing the fragility of our
community food systems during the pandemic.
At this juncture, food
banking plays a great role in enhancing the capacities of food systems, as well
as strengthening institutions towards eliminating hunger, food insecurity and
malnutrition for the vulnerable population, especially in the emergency
situations like this COVID-19 pandemic. According to Feeding America, a slow economic recovery and food supply chain challenges
will exist throughout the year 2020. Most food banks that have been
providing feeding and other nutrition needs experienced about 120 per cent
increase in need, with a 45 per cent increase in new clients.
The
COVID-19 pandemic and its inherent implications on fragile communities have
rattled food systems experts to the point that they are looking beyond
traditional solutions towards embracing innovative processes, approaches ideas,
knowledge, and technologies. In response to these challenges, and in an attempt
to reduce the randomness and disorders of the food and nutrition security
policy space in the U.S., the No
Hunger Food Bank and Systems Corporation (NHFBS) was established during the
Summer 2020. NHFBS aims to deploy the most innovative technologies to enhance
nutritional security among minority populations towards realizing the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) Agenda in the U.S. In addition, a similar
initiative, known as the No Hunger Food
Bank Initiative (NHFBI) was formalized with the goal of eliminating hunger
and realizing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) II for
Africa.
Regardless
of how the U.S. food systems have evolved during this pandemic, the ‘black
swan’ outbreak has given all food systems stakeholders a reason to reevaluate
how to make farmers’ markets and food supplies chains more innovative. In
addition, this will make agri-food actors more prepared by identifying better
ways to accomplish community shared food supply chain strategies which are well
enabled with the systems not only in the US, but also all over the world.
Digital, medical (vaccines) and scientific approaches as well as social distancing and stay-at-home restrictions are being deployed to flatten the COVID-19 curve and decrease the rate of new cases. In spite of the containment policies being enforced by the U.S government to crush the virus, the number of infections has risen dramatically since the first week of March. In fact, the U.S has more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country worldwide. By implication, the food system is under great pressure towards making agri-food value chain actors evolve to become more antifragile. In response to the disruption wrecked on the U.S. food systems largely due to the unprecedented impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the socioeconomic, the U.S. Government implemented the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The Act is the first national emergency program to reduce the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on Americans, including farmers, ranchers and the food systems. Although not entirely novel, and as a preparedness strategy for the future, it is crucial to reinvent the food systems policies and approaches towards making them more antifragile through increased consumer-centered and community driven food systems and by data driven insights. According to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the U.S and global approach should not be to eliminate the virus but rather to de-multiply the spread of the pandemic. Optimistically, there has been encouraging news on vaccines discoveries and distribution, thereby shaping 2021 as a likely better year even if the food shortage and safety precautions that have been in place since March linger throughout the first half of the next year.
Gbadebo Odularu, PhD
Bay Atlantic University & Socio-Economic Research
Applications and Projects (SERAP), Washington D.C
godularu@bau.edu;
Gbadebo@serapllc.com