Canadians involved in food production and distribution need to be talking to each other to work out flexible plans to cope with the spread of COVID-19, say the agricultural economists at Agri-Food Economic Systems.
One of the major challenges will be employee absenteeism, they say, including Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors, truckers, etc.
In some cases, large processing plants be shut down if workers turn up with COVID-19. The economists point to the closure of the Toyota assembly plant in Cambridge when one of about 2,009 employees tested positive.
If a large meat-packing plant, for example, shuts down if, for example, there are no CFIA inspectors available, livestock will need to find another plant for slaughter. That means longer-distance trucking, so they say the government should temporarily suspend new regulations requiring shorter travel times without stops for water and rest.
They note that plant closures have already begun to occur in Brazil in some meat plants due to Covid-19; the fear of this occurring in the US appears to have roiled livestock futures markets. The effects of a plant closure could back up very quickly to the farm level in terms of much lower pricing and animal welfare considerations.
They recommend that all employers establish a pool of back-up workers so they can cope with absenteeism. It also means stripping work to the essentials so operations can continue with fewer staff.
“Similarly, it would be prudent for CFIA and provincial inspection agencies to recruit and train auxiliary staff to work under inspectors to build redundancy immediately,” they say.
“There is a need for a continuously operating dialogue among governments, industry leaders in all aspects of the agri-food chain, with policy research capacity attached to it,” they say.
“The dialogue must lead to the setting of priorities, immediate, short term, intermediate term, and long term/recovery.
“Governments will require continuous interaction with a wide range of people from involved industries, with their breadth of knowledge, to make this effective. “
