Governor Mike Dunleavy urged Alaskans to support the local agricultural market, during a Wednesday evening press briefing, in a response to the nationwide stir caused by infections among workers in meatpacking plants in the lower-48.
According to a press release on Tuesday from the United Foods and Commercial Workers International Union, at least 20 meatpacking and food processing workers have been confirmed dead and at least 5,000 meatpacking workers and 1,500 food processing workers directly impacted by COVID-19.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday compelling the nation’s meat packing plants, many of which have closed because of COVID-19 outbreaks among workers, to stay open as part of “critical infrastructure” in the United States. He believes his efforts are solving liability issues in the industry: “We have tremendous product. We have ample supply. But there was a bottleneck caused by this whole pandemic. It was potentially pretty serious, and I just got off the phone with the biggest in the world – the biggest distributors there are, and the big companies that you’ve been reading about, they are so thrilled. They’re so happy. They’re all gung-ho and we solved their problems.”
Despite the executive order, Tyson Food suspended operations of its largest pork production plant last week. Smithfield Foods also suspended operations at some of their plants.
Governor Dunleavy feels that the potential shortages coming from a disruption in the supply-chain, as well as general concerns about food safety, make for a great reminder that there is an agricultural industry in Alaska to support: “If you have a number of those plants shutting down, it’s certainly going to impact the supply-chain and potentially the cost of things like chicken and beef and pork. The reason I bring this up is – its a small industry – but we do have an agricultural industry in Alaska, and I would encourage you to think about that when you’re thinking about shopping, in terms of vegetables, things like carrots and potatoes and so-forth, and even meat here in the state of Alaska. It’s grown right here, we don’t have to worry about shipping it up. With regards to those closures, we believe that those will be temporary, but they may cause an increase in the cost of food coming to Alaska. Nonetheless, we do have an industry here and I think you’d be surprised at what you can actually buy here in Alaska.”
Photo used courtesy the U.S.D.A.
