It was hard to think that the moratorium on high-capacity wells for farmers could get any more confusing (there are other words), but it has. In the interest of fairness a legislative committee has recommended that no rural business be allowed a new well until research has been completed to better understand the groundwater resource and how to manage it properly. Other than pushing new businesses to towns and cities with central water systems (from high-capacity wells) this is exactly where we were two years ago when a research project was first proposed.
Politicians have so much trouble with this because the moratorium has become a litmus test for the environmental credibility of political parties. Get it wrong and the stigma of caring more about Americans eating french fries than protecting precious water resources will stick for several elections. But now there’s a new challenge: get it wrong and risk the viability of farms throughout the province because of continuous summer droughts from climate change.
The urgency for farmers is pretty obvious, but we have to understand that for many others the moratorium is a bargaining chip, the one bit of control for those opposed to potato production. People concerned with the heavy use of pesticides, nitrate risk to streams and groundwater, soil erosion, fish kills and so on. They worry that take the moratorium off the table, and the industry will be free to do whatever it wants, including putting the province’s water resources at risk. It represents a total breakdown of trust.
There were times during the wild-west growth in potato production during the 1990’s that I shared these concerns, but several things have happened since that give me confidence that potato production is more responsible and sustainable now, and getting more so each year.
The pesticides being used are safer (not safe) and have evolved from the legacy WW2 nerve agents popular back then. The specialized sprayers many farmers use now are much more precise, and research at UPEI and elsewhere on “precision agriculture” will do even more to make sure the minimum amount of pesticide and fertilizer is used and only go where it’s needed.
There’s an even bigger hammer wielded on potato growers producing for the french fry markets. Fast food giants like McDonalds are starting to demand proof that farming practices are minimizing harm to the environment, and there’s no question that Cavendish Farms insists that its growers must not be the cause of fish kills. It just does not want the bad publicity.
Then there’s the growing relationship between farmers and local watershed groups, the living lab research projects on commercial farms looking at new rotation mixes and use of cover crops in the fall. All are designed to lessen the risk of damaging the natural resources we all depend on.
It’s still “show me” time for so many people, but driving good and bad farmers out of business IF water could be used safely and responsibly is simply unreasonable.
Here’s the thing. The research is needed even if the moratorium never ends. There are 308 high-capacity wells already in use in the province, 36 on farms established before the moratorium, and hundreds more used by cities, towns, food processors, golf courses and so on. We need ways to confidently judge when all these current users are taking too much water and have to stop. This research will help us get that.
There are 2 things that matter in all of this for me. We can’t let irrigation water and fertilizer push production on deteriorating soils. I think establishing a minimum soil organic matter level for a permit is one way to avoid this, but this has to be implemented fairly. Many will want a fixed number (3% and higher say) but what about farmers who have genuinely started the long road back to improving soils, but haven’t hit that number yet? Improved productivity would help to financially support the soil building we want to encourage. Can we get legal commitments on proper crop rotations as part of the irrigation permitting? Hey, maybe just enforce the 3 year rotation regulations, and soil organic matter testing and benchmarks the Roundtable proposed 25 years ago.
The other issue is preventing saltwater intrusion into aquifers. This will require intelligent placing of wells away from the coast.
The controversy over increased irrigation is dragging along a lot of baggage, and we have to be willing to let some it go. Yes it began 19 years ago with Robert Irving wanting to ensure the supply of potatoes to compete in a ruthless commodity french fry market that pits PEI against farmers and processors in western North America with virtually no environmental regulations, land ownership restrictions, and a long history of irrigation use . But now many other farmers, including certified organic producers, are saying irrigation is necessary to maintain food production. Islanders need to know if it can be done sustainably and regulated properly. Research will tell us that. Let’s use some common sense, please.
The Covid pandemic, which this November has turned into a nightmare in so many places, continues to have profound effects on farmers and consumers. I've been doing some writing on this and wanted to add these to the blog.
Bullies in the Food System
Of course it’s the big food retailer from the Maritimes that gets it right. We may be Canada’s poor cousins but we know when we’re being pushed around. Nova Scotia based Sobeys is the sole supermarket chain to say no to unilaterally hiking fees to suppliers. As has been widely reported Sobey’s boss Michael Medline called this move by Loblaws, Walmart, and the wholesalers for Metro “hard to believe and repugnant.”
What I found even more reprehensible was the justification by Loblaws for doing this, to help consumers during the Covid-19 crisis. “As we face pressures, one option is higher prices for customers, but we don’t want to take that approach as Canadians are facing enough financial pressures,” Loblaw Companies spokesperson Catherine Thomas told the Toronto Star. “Instead, we’re asking primarily our biggest suppliers to help us keep prices low.” Thanks for thinking about your customers (and your shareholders), but what about all the others along the food chain who aren’t big enough to pass their costs onto someone else, especially the group at the bottom: farmers.
My blood pressure always goes up when I read stories like this, but I’m also glad that the daily, grinding imbalance in economic power that permeates so much of our economy gets fully exposed. Walmart initiated this in July. Now the other big chains other than Sobeys are joining in arguing they need to invest a lot of money in “e-commerce, in-store and digital operations” and they clearly believe someone else should pay for the investment. Why didn’t farmers who need new equipment, or moving companies that need new trucks, think of this before? They didn’t, and they don’t because no one would pay, they’d simply look elsewhere. I’ve argued many times before that governments in Canada and the U.S. have abandoned previous notions of maintaining fairness in the economy using anti-trust laws to scale back companies that get too big. Many argue it’s because consumers (the vast majority of voters now) have benefitted as large retailers like Walmart and the like offer extraordinary value to their customers and find their profits by squeezing suppliers instead. This is exactly what Loblaws, Walmart, and Metro are planning to do now, and they control enough “shelf space” to pull it off.
It’s the response to the Covid-19 pandemic that’s driving this. Thankfully not so much here on PEI, but shoppers in big cities where Covid infection rates are high like the idea of shopping for food on-line, having it delivered, or ready to pick up. Big retailers are responding and this is behind the substantial investment they say they need to make.
Then there are the food delivery services (Doordash, Uber Eats, Skip the Dishes, etc) which allow families to order from local restaurants, again from the comfort and safety of home. And don’t forget the boxed uncooked meals that get brought to the door (like HelloFresh) and include all the ingredients and recipes for a family gathering.
Obviously all of these new services have costs, companies that expect to make money. I’m still trying to understand their impact on farmers, but with more hands out along the food chain, and companies trying to find a price point that will grow their businesses, I imagine like most costs, a lot will have to be absorbed at the farm gate. I’m going to write more about this when I’ve done more research.
There’s much more Covid-19 fallout. Dalhousie University’s Agri-food Analytics Department (run by the very smart Sylvain Charlebois) has done important research on Canadians’ appetite for supporting local food production. Consumers certainly realize that the pandemic has disrupted supply chains, and they like the idea of increased food security that comes from local production, but the results also point to what’s called the ‘local food paradox’. In a country wide survey 79.5% of consumers say they’ll pay a premium for locally grown produce, but then only 25% say they actively seek out local products and consider where food is produced being important. In other words price continues to be the main driver for most food shoppers. This is completely understandable as individuals and families struggle after Covid-19 ravaged the economy, but it sends very mixed signals to farmers.
Charlebois warns food production and distribution is a high-volume, low-margin business and doesn’t easily attract the kind of capital needed to adapt to Covid-19 disruptions. This is why most of the big supermarket chains are trying to get the needed investment from their suppliers. Sobeys has issued the challenge to governments to bring in a code of conduct to prevent this kind of predatory behaviour. Will there be others who will stand up for smaller players against bullies in the food chain, like farmers? After all that’s what we do in the Maritimes.
Who Will Pay?
I believe we’re facing 2 disasters in this annus horribilis 2020: the worldwide pandemic, and the predicted impact of climate change. Both have human hands all over them. Both are affecting all of us, but especially the people growing our food.
The impact of this summer’s drought will be easier to grasp. It’s certainly not uniform across the province and some crops have come through OK but with smaller yields, especially ones that like heat: corn, grapes, soybean, grain crops that got an early start like barley. PEI’s important potato crop is taking a beating, losses estimated right now at more than $50 Million and climbing. Livestock farmers will be short of feed this winter as pastures burn up, and the usually reliable second cut of hay or silage won’t happen. Crop insurance will help cover some costs.
I should add that a CTV news story on PEI’s potato biz that got a lot of play in other publications, including potato trade newsletters, had a serious mistake. It said : “Agricultural irrigation was outlawed on Prince Edward Island in 2002. It’s the only province in the country where farmers aren’t allowed to water their crops.” Instead it was a moratorium preventing drilling for new irrigation wells that was introduced in 2002 and continues to this day. There are 35 irrigation wells already in use and 29 irrigation ponds have been constructed in the last 20 years.
The moratorium is a frustration for those farmers who have become convinced (for good reason) that all the predictions for climate change of extreme and prolonged weather patterns have come true, with weeks of drought during the growing season now the new normal.
It will require credible research (and some trust that it is credible, the hard part) to show whether there’s sufficient water for the moratorium to be lifted. It’s far past time to start.
The Covid 19 impact is harder to calculate. There are lost markets as restaurants either haven’t reopened, or have cutback on purchases because of Covid regulations and the diminished tourism season. The pandemic has also exposed the reliance on temporary foreign workers from Mexico and the Caribbean. It’s forced the rest of us to recognize the thousands of food service workers in processing plants, supermarkets, food distribution centres, truckers and so on. We call these people heroes, and essential, but now understand many are receiving bare minimum pay.
People working at the large supermarket chains did receive a $2.00 an hour increase in March, but once profit margins were hit, and the supermarkets couldn’t pass on these costs to anyone else, this increase was rolled back in June.
We need to pay attention to this. Evan Fraser is the head of the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute in Ontario. He understands that to keep essential workers like the immigrant farm labourers coming to Canada, treat those working throughout the supply chain fairly, pay and benefits will have to increase, but as the Canada Research Chair in global food security he wonders who will pay these additional costs. “I actually stay up at night worrying about this one. I don’t have an answer to it”, he told the Kingston Whig Standard. Fraser knows low income families are already struggling and can’t afford to pay more. “And we already have a food insecurity problem in this country that has been massively exacerbated by COVID.”
Fraser and many others are genuinely concerned about food insecurity for so many families. It’s also an argument many business writers and economists use to attack supply management. I think these are income security issues that quite rightly have also received a lot of attention during the pandemic. A guaranteed annual income or something similar is what’s needed. Evans again, “ What we’re seeing is symptomatic of a situation that squeezes the margins at all levels and then leaves vulnerable people and vulnerable aspects (in the system) open for exploitation”.
What the roughly 60,000 temporary foreign workers now know is that their labour is critical and won’t be done by Canadians. That leverage and efforts by unions and labour activists will lead to better working conditions and pay, both direct expenses for farmers. Can these additional costs be recovered? This really comes down to raw economic power, and farmers have learned over the last 20 years that with all the consolidation at the processing, wholesale, and retail levels that power is well beyond the farm gate.
Retailers in particular (the holders of valuable “shelf space”, that crucial last link to consumers) have been very skillful at distributing some of their costs back down the food chain. Walmart Canada recently announced it would charge suppliers extra fees to cover $3.5 Billion it will spend on new infrastructure. PEI’s Mary Robinson the president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture knows what comes next “Those suppliers, who are the ones who buy raw product from farmers, they’re getting squeezed, so you can be guaranteed that that squeeze is going to be felt down the line.”
Is This a Way Forward?
It’s not likely that the founders of McCain Foods, Wallace and Harrison, would have ever heard the words “regenerative agriculture”, or even “sustainable” farming, but the company they managed for decades says it’s committed to both. The current president Max Koeune certainly showed he understands what’s happening on farms right now “Farmers are being challenged with producing more with less while facing increasingly challenging weather patterns due to climate change and growing food in soil that is deteriorating.’’
McCain Foods will build 3 Farms of the Future, one right away in New Brunswick, and 2 more in other countries by 2025. The announcement came in the company’s first sustainability report called “Be Good. Do Good”. According to McCain the farms will “showcase how regenerative farming practices and the latest agricultural technology and innovations, can be implemented at scale….. (they) will also test the latest precision agriculture technologies, new equipment and the use of renewable energy.”
Regenerative agriculture has been the domain of the progressive/organic farming crowd for several years now. At its heart is the repudiation of many of the industrial farming practices now in use. It calls for biodiversity, long rotations, soil continually covered in plant material to capture and store carbon, prevent erosion and rebuild soil organic levels, protecting watersheds, and more, so this is a substantial shift for McCain. Some will smell more public relations than corporate epiphany, but I think the straight forward statement by the current president, especially as it relates to deteriorating soils, shows a level of sincerity in all of this. The company had already been promoting the use of diverse rotation mixes and encouraging “nutrient restoring” cover crops.
Not to be outdone, Bayer announced late last month that it wants to slow down climate change by offering farmers in Brazil and the United States carbon credits for using practices that capture carbon, again using cover crops and no-till practices.
Here’s my only complaint with all of this: a refusal to acknowledge that the deteriorating economics of growing crops for processing, potatoes for french fries, or soybeans for livestock feed, have led to the very soil destroying practices these companies now want to fix. It’s all well and good for fast food companies like McDonalds to promote itself as demanding “sustainable” farming practices from its suppliers to make its customers feel good, but then it turns around and refuses to offer any more money for french fries siting competitive pressures. This is really just corporate hypocrisy, demanding others in the supply chain do the heavy lifting with no acknowledgement of the increased costs involved. A more honest effort would see customers pay a little more for fries with the assurance that the extra would get back to farmers to allow them to improve their practices. I might even buy some french fries if that ever happens.
To its credit McCain is investing in farms to do research and demonstrate soil building practices, not just making demands of farmers from the boardroom. I hope the research also keeps track, and is honest about, the cost of regenerative practices. That will help farmers set some benchmarks about what they need to be paid if McCain and other processors are serious about farm practices improving.
The costs linked to better rotations and practices are also an important part of the Living Lab research program here on PEI. Agriculture Canada and university researchers are working on active farms, interacting with the “real world” challenges farmers face. It will be interesting to see how this relationship works and what kind of constructive information can be discovered.
Farmers have to be open to new ideas too. They have to make so many decisions every day they need a strong belief they know what they’re doing. Corporate executives, researchers and editorial writers will get paid no matter what happens so there’s always going to be suspicion they’re being pushed around by people with little skin in the game. I do see in social media many farmers bragging about cover crops they’re experimenting with, how well their cover crops are doing. This isn’t something you would have seen 4 or 5 years ago, so I know things are getting better.
McCain president Max Koeune said one more important thing that effects us all, “…. the food challenges we've experienced during COVID-19 could only get worse if we don't start taking action.''
I’m still waiting for someone to acknowledge that farmers, and the soils they work, bear the hidden costs of cheap fast food, so I’m going to hold back on full throated cheering for the moment, but this is a good start.
What’s for Supper?- Pandemic Edition
“Eating is an agricultural act”. This is a statement from exceptional farmer/philosopher Wendell Berry, and has been quoted often over the last few months as farmers and journalists try to make sense of agricultural markets during and after the pandemic. What Berry is saying is that consumer decisions are at the heart of the success and decision making of and by farmers. It was felt early on here for example as people couldn’t buy french fries at shuttered fast food joints, and started loading up on bags of fresh potatoes to survive the lockdown, and PEI farmers had to adjust. Some benefited, many didn’t. These same farmers had to wrestle with this uncertainty as costly decisions were made about planting last month. The question for so many is what happens when things get back to normal, whenever that might be.
There have been encouraging signs through the pandemic that more consumers are starting to appreciate local food production because of genuine and ongoing worries that food supply chains are breaking down. On-line purchasing and convenient delivery or pick-up has helped expand this important market. It’s still a small percentage of consumer food purchases, and only taps into a tiny portion of PEI farm production, still very dependent on national and international markets. But it’s a start.
The time of year colours this discussion too. Spring, then summer is when fresh fruit and produce is available in abundance, and Islanders would be hard pressed not to be aware of, if not purchase, new potatoes, strawberries, sweet corn and the dozens of other crops that will soon be available. On top of this the pandemic has forced families to shelter inside with plenty of time to do some home cooking. Baking bread became the first pandemic food obsession, with flour mills around North America scrambling to keep up with demand. Social media has been full of people bragging about complicated meals made. or culinary disasters.
It will be the Fall before we know if the changes we’re seeing now, more interest in local production, cooking meals from scratch, will continue when people’s lives start inching back to normal.
Let’s face it, food processors and the big retailers do an extraordinary job providing a wide variety of food products that are as easy or as challenging as anyone wants to get supper on the table. Will people who go back to work feel they now don’t have the time to peel carrots, bake bread, or make yogurt? Will family finances be so stretched by the end of this that cost will be all that matters? Will those who continue to work at home see an opportunity to keep cooking meals from scratch? Will the draw of a McDonald’s french fry and Big Mac be just too hard to resist? I suspect all of these things will happen, and every decision will have an impact on farmers. Remember “Eating is an agricultural act.”
There was some insight into this in an excellent publication on the food industry called The Counter. Reporter Karen Stabiner recently wrote about a conversation she had with Dan Barber. He owns a well-known restaurant northeast of New York City and “walks the walk” of a business person who desperately wants small and medium sized farmers to succeed. He says things have never been better for “local” production, but he thinks this boom is just an illusion, that a bust will quickly follow. “We are looking at a precarious time for the farmers we desperately need for our health, our happiness, the health of the environment. Small farmers are the ones you want to keep around” he told Stabiner.
Barber says small farm operations simply don’t have the labour necessary to both maintain increased field production and service the bigger demand for direct sales (farmer’s markets, CSAs, etc.) especially if new customers expect the convenience of delivered veggie boxes and the like. “Labor costs will be very high, a lot more work for a lot less revenue. If that weren’t true, farmers would’ve figured it out a long time ago.”
Barber says many more small scale processors and value-added businesses are needed on a regional basis to slaughter livestock, process and preserve vegetables and grains. “This is a moment for standing up and digging in for what we want, and not allowing big food to take the market back.”
I agree that weary and broke families will be looking for some comfort and convenience when this ends, and no doubt large food processors and retailers will cater to that, it’s what they do best. I also think that as stories on the pandemic pulled back the curtain on what’s behind a 99 cent hamburger (essentially huge slaughter plants in Alberta and Ontario manned by poorly managed and paid immigrant labour) that we can look around the Maritimes and appreciate what we have here. Yes we might pay a little more, have to extend food shopping beyond the big supermarkets, but as we do that our food dollars go first to people as committed to this region as we are. Remember “Eating is an agricultural act.”
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the National Farmers Union, and other farm organizations have been trying to get the attention of the federal government that many of their members are in trouble because of COVID-19. It took some comments from Sylvain Charlebois to give this issue some traction. He's become a go to for many in the national media. He's an academic rather than a spokesperson for farmers, does research on consumer behavior as well, and speaks about the food industry with authority. I'm glad someone is paying attention.
Posthaste: Canada could lose 15% of its farms by year end with worst of pandemic to come for agriculture
Pamela Heaven
Good Morning!
For
Canadian farmers, battered by labour shortages, processing plant
shutdowns and dramatic shifts in demand, the worst of the coronavirus
pandemic is yet to come, says an agricultural expert.
“Ottawa
should be lauded for helping many desperate sectors of our economy. But
given how urban-centric the government currently is in Ottawa,
agriculture has been somewhat forgotten. The foreign worker program
issue was just the beginning, the worse is yet to come. Farmers need
help, and fast. Or else, Canada could lose up to 15% of its farms by the
end of this year,” Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of Agri-food
Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, said in a recent note.
Seven
meat processing plants in Canada have been shut because of outbreaks of
COVID-19 among workers and more are expected, he said. One of the
biggest, Cargill’s beef processing plant in High River, Alberta, will
reopen Monday. The plant, which accounts for about 40% of Canada’s beef
processing capacity, was shut for two weeks after the virus galloped
through the workforce of 2,000; 826 employees and more than 100
contractors related to the plant have tested positive for coronavirus;
one has died, Bloomberg reports. Within Alberta about 1 in 5 cases of
COVID-19 is now linked to the High River plant.
A near deserted Cargill Meats plant near High River after it shut due to COVID-19. The plant is set to open Monday.Darren Makowichuk/PostmediaAt the JBS meat packing plant in Brooks, Alberta,
coronavirus cases have reached 200, says Bloomberg. JBS said it will try
to keep its facilities open but “we will not operate a facility if we
do not believe it is safe or if absenteeism levels result in our
inability to safely operate,” spokesman Cameron Bruett said in a
statement.
“Closures can be quite disruptive to the entire supply
chain. But the ones being affected the most are the farmers,” said
Charlebois.
The beef industry went into this crisis with a
significant backlog, meaning that farmers are forced to keep thousands
of cows longer on feedlots, increasing costs.
The crisis in the
hog industry is even worse. Charlebois said some reports suggest more
than 90,000 pigs will likely have to be disposed of because of the
slowdown in production where there “little or no wiggle room.”
Mushroom
growers are losing $400,000 a week because almost half of their revenue
came from restaurants, now closed in the pandemic lockdown. “As of yet,
there are no COVID-19-related programs that can help them. Many other
groups are affected or will be sooner or later,” he said.
Ottawa
is providing $50 million to cover the costs of quarantining foreign farm
workers coming into the country and has increased the lending capacity
of Farm Credit Canada by $5 billion.
But compared with the United
States’ $19 billion aid to its farmers, Canada’s COVID-19 programs for
farmers are “either inadequate or irrelevant,“ said Charlebois.
He said one example of Ottawa missing an opportunity to help is the
new Canada Emergency Student Benefit, which would provide $1,250 per
month from May through August for students unable to find a job or work
because of the pandemic.
“While some provinces are desperate to
get young Canadians out in the field to help farmers, Ottawa provides
funding to students so they can stay home and do nothing. The students’
program only made recruitment for farmers ever more difficult,” said
Charlebois. He said the risk of contracting COVID-19 on farms is
extremely low, where “physical distancing is something farmers have done
for centuries.”
Charlebois says the stakes for Canada’s food
security are high. Canada typically lose between 5% and 7% of its farms
every year, but that number could double this year, or more.
“Throughout
this crisis, to fight COVID-19, the government often compared the virus
to a burning house, and stated that it cannot spare any water. The
foundation of that house, as it were, is agriculture. It is the
foundation of our entire economy, which for the most part throughout
this crisis has been largely forgotten, “ he said.
Matt Gurney: Canadians won’t starve but we aren’t spoiled for choice in our domestic food supply
Matt Gurney
When they ran out of boys, they turned to the Farmerettes.
In
1944, with the Second World War grinding on, Ontario farms were
desperately short of labour. Ontarians had to eat, and millions of
calories were also needed overseas to stop Britain from starving and
keep Canadian and Allied divisions strong enough to fight. Food was an
essential war industry, and there weren’t enough workers.
High
school students were an obvious place to start — old and strong enough
to work in the fields, too young to fight. My grandmother wanted to join
in 1944, but they only took boys that year. The next year, with the war
nearly over but the need for labour more desperate than ever, it was
decided that girls could work the fields, too. My grandmother got her
chance. Barracked with other girls in Clarkson, Ont., near Oakville,
they would be picked up by farmers at their barracks each morning, work
hard in the fields all day, and be driven back. They were paid 25¢ an
hour and could hitchhike home to Toronto on weekends. To this day, she
recalls it as one of the best summers of her life — the work was
backbreaking and often bewildering to the city girls, but it was an
experience of a lifetime.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown
personal finances into disarray and threatens to devastate more
businesses, small and large, than we can possibly guess. But these
economic shocks also threaten the absolutely critical industries we need
to function not merely to support our prosperity, but our survival.
This isn’t about our standard of living, but living. And there is no
more essential industry than agriculture.
One of the great
triumphs of recent human history has been the gradual but fairly steady
reduction in the percentage of the total working population involved in
the production of food. As recently as 150 years or so ago, even the
most advanced countries could have had roughly half their productive
workers directly engaged in growing and processing food. Today, that
number is closer to two per cent. This is the foundation of our modern
technological society — the spectacular productivity gains per
agricultural worker have, over time, allowed millions of people to focus
their lives on other pursuits. Put another way, two per cent of North
American workers feed the other 98 per cent, who are then able to do
literally everything else you’ll find in our society.
Some of the
boosts in productivity relate to advancements in knowledge — the concept
of crop rotation being a prime example. But the productivity of our
relatively small number of agricultural workers depends on supplementing
their labour with massive external inputs in the form of advanced
machinery, fossil fuels, fertilizers, insecticides and tens of thousands
of temporary foreign workers (TFWs).
Watermelon and asparagus farmer Mike Chromczak, who is waiting for
labourers to arrive and begin their mandatory quarantine against
coronavirus disease (COVID-19), poses at Chromczak Farms in Brownsville,
Ontario, Canada April 2, 2020.Carlos Osorio/ReutersThe Farmerettes of the Second World War have been replaced
by as many as 60,000 foreigners who travel to Canada under temporary
work visas to assist in Canadian farms, fisheries and food processing
facilities. Weeks ago, as the Canadian government was essentially
closing our borders, an early report that TFWs would not be exempted led
to some actual panic among agricultural producers. These workers are
essential to our agricultural sector — as critical as the seeds or
fertilizers. The federal government quickly reversed course and said
they could come, subject to a 14-day isolation period, but there
continue to be reports of fewer than usual arriving, which makes sense,
given worldwide fear and disruptions to normal travel.
Could
Canadians do this work? Of course. My grandmother and her classmates
did, after all. But that would require mobilizing tens of thousands of
Canadians in a matter of weeks — planting isn’t far off. And these newly
mobilized Canadians would need time to learn the ropes, so efficiency
would suffer. They’d also demand high wages, which consumers would end
up paying for at grocery checkouts.
The TFWs are just one part of a
massively complicated supply chain that our food supply depends on — so
complicated that even experts struggle to fully understand it. Canada
is a major worldwide player in fertilizer production, for instance, but
many Canadian farmers still import theirs from abroad (often from the
U.S.), due to transportation costs, while much of Canada’s production is
sent to the U.S. Domestic production could be redirected to Canadian
fields, but that would require a major logistics effort, at a time of
year when railroad capacity and the commercial trucking fleet is already
in high-demand.
Snow crab is unloaded in Dartmouth, N.S. on Monday, Feb. 14, 2000.Andrew Vaughan /
THE CANADIAN PRESSNone of the above is particularly detailed, granted, because
in large part, the major industry associations and agriculture groups
are themselves only now gathering essential data and coming to fully
understand the possible dimensions of manpower and supply shortages,
combined with possible transportation disruptions. Imagine if a bunch of
railroad workers end up quarantined in a major logistics hub like
Chicago. Canada does produce more food than it consumes, so by that
metric, we could sustain ourselves, so long as we could continue to
access the needed agricultural inputs.
But the entire Canadian
agriculture sector, including food processing and packaging, exists in
what is (or perhaps, was) a thriving global marketplace that has made
fresh food affordable to millions at any time of the year. Ideally, that
global market will continue to thrive. But this pandemic has shown us
how vulnerable such systems can be. In an emergency, the best we can say
with certainty is that we could probably feed ourselves, but on a diet
that could potentially look very different than what we’ve been blessed
to enjoy of late.
Right now, we don’t know what that diet would
look like, or whether we could grow it, process it and package it, using
domestic resources and supplies. We may never have to — God willing we
won’t — but could we? Even the experts I’ve spoken to this week don’t
know. The most optimism any of them would express was that we’ll
probably be fine, if nothing else goes wrong. Super.
Man may not
live on bread alone, but bread is an awfully good place to start. Making
sure we have enough is going to be a top priority of governments in the
days and weeks ahead. Once we’re sure we’ll have enough, you can expect
a long, hard look at our system. Our food supply should never be
something Canadians ever have to worry about. But here we are.
National Post magurney@postmedia.com Twitter.com/MattGurney
I'm sure every community has a similar list. Good time to get close to local farmers:
PEI COPC Weekly Update ::: April 10, 2020
Weekly Update of PEI COPC Activities
Where and How to Source Local Organic Products
CRYSTAL GREEN FARMS
Every Saturday, you will find them at the Summerside
Farmer’s Market from 9-11AM and then from 12- 1 PM at the Charlottetown
Farmer’s Market parking lots for their weekly veggie box pick-up. They
will have a range of products for sale during these times as well. Check
out their website at: crystalgreenfarms.com or contact Brian
(902-314-3846) or Kathy (902-314-3823) directly if you are looking for a
specific volume or product or are interested in subscribing to their
veggie box program. EMMERDALE EDEN FARM
Arthur and Tina are set up to provide for your grocery needs at the farm gate
where they will have available all that they normally offer at the
Summerside Farmer’s Market. Call or email your order ahead at
902-436-5180 or emmerdaleorganics@hotmail.com . Check out their farm
Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/eecof/
for an update on their weekly offerings. More information can be found
on their website: emmerdaleedenfarm.com This week, Tina is putting in a
bulk order from Speerville Mills a certified organic mill in New
Brunswick which offers a broad range of organic products. THE HANDPIE COMPANY
Sarah is offering a pre-order, pick-up service at the store in Albany.
Orders can be placed from the website here: handpie.ca Sarah takes
pride in sourcing local ingredients and all savoury flavours are made
with a flour mix that contains 40% of Crystal Green Farms organic
heritage Red Fife wheat flour. You can also contact the gang at the
Handpie Company on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thehandpieco/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARCKzLlYZ-JsHV99npGz0TeIe-KJ9P3h2z60ygpM_lEqAnpC3_OrwQ_aHfgrYJl0Chc0bXNHyP5Oh__M HEART BEET ORGANICS
Amy & Verena are offering a pre-order, pick-up service from their Farmacy & Fermentary storefront at 152A Great George Street in Charlottetown. Pick-up is on Saturday from 9 AM - 1PM and Wednesdays 3 -6 PM.
New items are added every week and feature products from their own farm
as well as Craig Potatoes, Emmerdale Eden Farm, Red Soil Organics,
Receiver Breadworks, Nature’s Route and Strawberry Hill Farm (in NB).
Following is the link to their order form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmRHc0jW1WU4fMS6lGgVDmE8AxyLB98cGIKEVgjdvnb-oy6A/viewform ONLINE FARMER’S MARKET – CHARLOTTETOWN
Several vendors from the Charlottetown Farmer's Market have launched an
online farmers' market with more vendors and products added every week.
Sign up to start receiving the up-to-date weekly offerings, here: mailchi.mp/maplebloomfarm/eatlocalpeiOrder by Wednesday at midnight for Saturday pick-up, from 4-7pmor$5 delivery fee in Charlottetown & Stratford. Look for certified organic products from: Crystal Green Farms,
Maple Bloom Farm, Schurman Family Farm and Springwillow Family Farm. Other PEI COPC members participating in the online market are Lucky Bee Homestead and Seaspray Farm Cooperative. Did you know
that both True Loaf and Receiver Bakery use certified organic flours in
their breads and pastries and both source ingredients from local
certified organic farms! RECEIVER BREADWORKS
Receiver Local is offering a pre-order, curbside pick-up service from their Brass Shop on Friday’s from 12-3PM. Delivery options also available. Visit their online ordering site here: https://receiverlocal.square.site/ Orders placed on Wednesdays for Friday fulfillment. RIVERVIEW COUNTRY MARKET
Pre-order for pick-up at the store in Charlottetown from their online store here: https://www.localline.ca/rcm
Trish and Rose and the gang have put together an amazing assortment of
locally sourced organic products and more are added weekly. Look for
Atlantic Grown Organics, Barnyard Organics, Crystal Green Farms, Heart
Beet Organics, Maple Bloom Farm, Red Soil Organics, Soleil’s Farm
products in season. SCHURMAN FAMILY FARM
In addition to their regular veggie boxes, Marc & Krista are now
offering an online service to order produce. Whether you are a current
veggie box member who just wants to buy more or you are a farmer’s
market shopper who is missing their greens or a brand new shopper
looking for a healthy local option, they have you covered. All orders
will be available for pickup at regular veggie box days in Summerside,
Kensington and Charlottetown. Check out their website for more info: https://schurmanfamilyfarm.ca/pei-veggie-boxes/ . Order by Wednesday for Thursday pick-up. SOLEIL’S FARM
Sign up today for Soleil’s Summer Food Basket: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSfzPANqapblZbrtvQ…/viewform
Or visit her website for more information: https://www.soleilsfarm.com/find-our-veggies TRUE LOAF
Angel is offering a pre-order pick-up service, with pick-up at Gallant’s
Seafood (Superior Crescent) in Charlottetown on Wednesdays and
Saturdays. Contact Angel to place an order through her Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/Millvaleangel/
For Sale - Certified Organic Fava Beans
Stewart MacRae has for sale certified organic fava beans for seed, food, or feed.
Contact Stewart at 902-628-7560 or stewartmacag@gmail.com.
Organic Federation of Canada Producer Survey
COVID-19 is impacting Canadian organic operations and we need to know and understand the types and levels of impact.
Please respond to the short survey by clicking on the following link –https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/7536WM8
The information collected is being routinely shared with AAFC and CFIA.
Annual Wireworm Information Session - Webinar Lorraine MacKinnon provided the link below for the
Wireworm Webinar, in case you missed it the end of March. The
presentations were very informative. Following is the YouTube link for
the Wireworm Webinar; feel free to share it widely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZpzJ_ZQ4U8
Charlottetown Farmers' Market
The Charlottetown Farmers' Market has suspended its operations due to
COVID-19. In the interim, several of Market vendors have crated online
ordering systems with pick-up and/or delivery options. Please visit www.charlottetownfarmersmarket.com for an up-to-date list of Market vendors offering pick-up/delivery options at this time.
Summerside Farmers' Market
For more information visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/SummersideFarmersMarket/
The doors may be closed but we still have product to sell!! Below you
will find a list of our vendors/producers who are ready and willing to
sell their products to you, in the safest manner possible. Please feel
free to reach out to them individually by phone, email or text. They’ll
provide you with a list of available items, prices and a pick-up
location. Please give our vendors time to get your orders ready. We ask
that you contact them no later than 9pm Thursday night. Thank you for
your cooperation!
................................
Apples and Cider
John Brady
Jb@Islandtelecom.com
902-831-2330
..........................
Eggs, potatoes and whole frozen chicken
Greg Stavert
Stavert Farm Market
Greg_keiths@hotmail.com
902-888-5784
........................,
Eggs, Veggies and meats
Crystal Green Farms
Brian and Kathy MacKay
Crystalgreenfarms@outlook.com
902-314-3823
........................
Meals to go, Sauerkraut, kimchi, bread, cookies, pies, muffins and gluten-free
Christine Schultz
Schultzec53@gmail.com
902-836-3403
.......................,,,
Cheese, Speerville Mills staples & pasta, herbs and spices, kombucha, seeds and produce
Emmerdale Eden Farm
http://www.emmerdaleedenfarm.com/
Emmerdaleorganics@hotmail.com
902-436-5180
......................
Chocolates, granola and caramel sauce
Hey Splendid
Heysplendid@gmail.com
Visit our Facebook page
..................
Frozen sausage rolls (with cooking instructions ) jars of chocolate, caramel, or lemon sauce
The Waffle Lady
Caitlin Davies
Caitlinbathsheba@hotmail.com
.........................
Micro greens and sprouts, free range eggs, dried cranberries and homemade dog treats
Our old Island market farm
Ouroldislandmarketfarm@gmail.com
902-303-3437
...........................
Schurmanfamilyfarm.ca
Schurmanveggiebox@gmail.com
Please email or go online to make an order or join our veggie box
................
pleasant pork
Text 902-432-9150
Pleasant pork will only be selling 50 lb boxes of pork at $350 each...supply is limited...expect a wait time
There's really no word that properly describes what we're all going through. Many are trying to sort out what it means to food production. At minimum it's huge uncertainty, a scramble for survival with supply chains disrupted. The Covid-19 pandemic has shutdown restaurants, including fast food restaurants, and that's meant an immediate loss of 30 to 40% of what had been a stable market for most farmers. Yes people are buying more to cook at home, and food wholesale and retailers are so far keeping shelves stocked, but for how long. And with this now Spring, farmers need to decide whether to plant for the current short market, or what might be there in the Fall. Who knows.
There's been a lot of writing about these issues. Here are a few.
From the Island Farmer by Petrie
This is A Moment to Think About the Future
I’m hoping by the time you read this that the fear and panic so many felt through March will have eased. Each of us has stories about helping and being helped, things we didn’t need to worry about, and things we should have considered.
I keep thinking about how different the feelings would be between consumers who have established on-going relationships with local farmers through community-supported agriculture (CSA’s) and/or farmers markets, and those who watched supermarket shelves quickly clear out, and wondered if new supplies would be available.
This isn’t a morality tale that letting Galen Weston decide where our food comes from is a mistake. I have grudging appreciation for a food system that can land Chinese garlic and Chilean fruit in a supermarket in Souris in the dead of winter, and how the retail supermarkets have kept up with unprecedented demand now. I have huge respect for the wholesale and retail workers, truckers, and so on who are expected to continue this essential service.
I do think that these extraordinary weeks (months?) give us a chance to appreciate the resources we have locally, rethink our responsibility as consumers to support all local producers and businesses, for their sake and ours.
Consider people living in big cities, the majority of Canadians now. Everything they need to survive from water, to energy, to food comes from somewhere else. Few have any idea where, or how it gets to them.
On PEI however we have a genuine opportunity to be closely connected to the people and resources that support our lives. The Water Act has given all Islanders a good understanding of the precious groundwater resources we rely on. Big wind turbines, and now solar panels produce increasing amounts of the energy we use. And our farms produce much of what we need and more. Could we rediscover the “Island way of life” so many older Islanders talk about, that sense of self sufficiency and reliance on neighbours and community. The next few weeks could well show us that we can. We may have no choice.
This critical relationship between consumers and farmers is thoughtfully explored in a timely new book called Food Security: From Excess to Enough by Ralph Martin. He used to head up the organic farming section at what was then the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro. He retired recently from the University of Quelph.
Ralph Martin has a lifetime of research, teaching and writing on soils and food production and he’s become convinced that consumers have an essential role to create a new food system that improves people’s health, is fairer to farmers and by extension helps protect soils and the environment. He writes that agricultural research has focused almost entirely on growth and efficiency, driven by the idea that to feed 8 billion people farmers have to continually increase productivity and drive down costs. He argues that farmers are trapped in a system that squeezes them on production costs, and offers no reward in the market for sustainable farming practices.
Consumers he writes must lead the change, give farmers assured markets at fair prices, learn to cook again with fresh produce through the summer and fall, and preserve the harvest for the winter. They’ll be healthier, and farmers can start the soil building and sustainable farming practices that many want to do, but can’t because profit margins are so thin.
The book uses words not often heard in the food business, “Increasingly, I understand that if food security is to be realized, then food must be treated with respect.” Martin writes about “happy frugality”, obtaining an “adequate living without doing irreparable harm to the environment.”
Ironically the Covid 19 “social distancing” may give local famers and consumers a chance to establish a new kind of relationship that could continue once the pandemic is over. With the Charlottetown Farmers Market not operating consumers can now go to a webpage ( https://mailchi.mp/maplebloomfarm/eatlocalpei ) , see what suppliers have for sale, order, electronically pay, and then either have it delivered, or pick it up, without having to be close to anyone. Yes the social side of the market is lost, but this convenience might well establish new on-going relationships. That’s the thing, a fair priced market is a precious thing for farmers, and security of food supply will become increasingly important for consumers. This does both.
There’s something else that’s important in Ralph Martin’s book. Despite unrelenting urbanization everywhere in Canada, he says our future will be determined in the hinterland “… the future of civilization still hinges on the observations, relationships, and actions of engaged rural realists. It is mostly in rural areas that layers of leaves photosynthesize to convert sunlight energy, and where clean water and healthy soil are the foundation of food and fibre production. The 18 percent remaining in rural Canada support the rest of us in ways we are slow to appreciate.”
And we may well appreciate rural Canadians even more as we struggle with so much uncertainty in the months ahead.
COMMENTARY: Food security vital for a world in crisis
ROBERT CERVELLI, PHIL FERRARO & GREGORY HEMING
Recently, an Indiana man in his early 60s, in few words and
with tears, laid out the absolute sadness of COVID-19. “After 45 years
of marriage, my wife is dead, I am in quarantine. This is how it ends.”
The once unimaginable consequences of this pandemic are
upon us. Complicating matters even further is the unrelenting march of
climate change, with millions of displaced persons left alone to wander
on a planet that is too hot and getting hotter. Near-term societal
collapse is now a potential outcome. The simple fact is that humanity
has never had to endure the level of distress that now exists on the
planet.
Is this how it ends? Not necessarily. As COVID-19 explodes
worldwide, now is the time to begin planning for the inevitable global
social disruption surely to follow.
Just the other day, Salvatore Melluso, a priest at Caritas
Diocesana di Napoli, a church-run charity in Naples, Italy, spoke out.
“Now people are more afraid — not so much of the virus, but of poverty.
Many are out of work and hungry. There are now long queues at food
banks.”
Here in Atlantic Canada, indeed throughout the world, we
believe the road to stability and resilience, in light of both COVID-19
and the more complex consequences of climate change, begins with food
security.
Shelves have been emptied in many grocery stores over the
past few weeks as people realize the need to stock up on food in
preparation for isolation, transportation disruption and social
distancing. While toilet paper hoarding is the current joke, the run on
canned goods, flour, pasta, rice, sugar and many other basic staples is a
serious indication of the vulnerability of our current food system.
Many grocery stores typically carry only a three-day
inventory of food. Our food system is now almost entirely dependent upon
delivery trucks and distribution centres to keep running. Over the past
decades, our primary food chain has become little more than that — a
long-distance, just-in-time, import-delivery system.
COVID-19, and the related structural and economic fallout,
has quickly brought to the surface the utter fragility of our food
system. It is now in danger of failing altogether. If the countries we
rely on for many food imports, particularly Mexico and the U.S., fail to
control the spread of the virus, the scenario painted by Salvatore
Melluso is a certainty.
The good news is that food security is now becoming
mainstream. Interest in gardening has skyrocketed. There is clear
evidence that Atlantic Canadians are working quickly to plan for the
coming growing season and are either starting a garden or expanding the
one they have.
The old adage of the “Victory Garden” is back. These
gardens harken back to the First and Second World Wars as a way of
supporting the war effort through home gardening and local food
security. COVID-Climate Victory Gardens are essential and have arrived
in Atlantic Canada. Plant one. Join one.
There are clear signs that some of our municipal and
provincial governments are responding. Some have passed motions and set
policies around food security.
Local farmers have recently raised the immediate issue of
temporary foreign workers. Some 1,500 workers are needed in Nova Scotia,
400-500 in Prince Edward Island and 60,000 nationally. As travel
restrictions are imposed on all non-essential travellers, temporary
foreign farm workers are exempted. The federal government will allow
foreign workers in, but they must undergo a 14-day quarantine. Many may
not be willing to come here due to pandemic concerns for themselves and
their families.
Ironically, we now have many newly unemployed workers who
need paid work. Provincial governments should consider a wage subsidy,
in addition to current EI and other COVID-19 relief programs, to
encourage local residents to help farmers and minimize the risk of the
virus spreading due to foreign workers coming to the region.
In British Columbia, the government recently imposed
regulations set out to protect supply chains and ban the re-sale of food
(as well as medical supplies and personal protective gear). We strongly
suggest that our regional provincial governments prepare to impose
similar food price limitations at the wholesale and retail levels to
prevent price gouging in the event of shortages. They would do well to
consider additional support for food banks as an essential service to
sustain the families that need them. Without taking such bold measures
now, we may have to deal with the need for rationing in the event that
supply lines continue to fail.
Food self-reliance requires measures to ensure that farm
and garden supply stores remain open and their supply chains
functioning. Seed production and supply should be considered an
essential service.
This coming growing season is the right time to expand
agriculture extension services and horticultural training programs, and
to develop programs that emphasize best practices for food production,
including no-till agriculture. Government-backed guarantees on wholesale
food prices will also enable farmers to grow the food we need without
facing potential financial loss.
COVID-19 has taught both government and citizens that it is
urgent and essential to plan ahead for pandemics and climate change.
While our immediate personal and public health is job one, we also need
to begin preparing for greater control over our food supply.
It is all of us together who are ultimately responsible for
making healthy choices for our individual lives and for the lives of
our children, our grandchildren and our neighbours. We determine the
economic and ecological health of our communities. It is us who will
determine the future of the earth.
Robert Cervelli, executive director, Centre for
Local Prosperity, lives in Head of St Margarets Bay. Phil Ferraro,
director, Institute for Bioregional Studies Ltd. and agricultural
advisor, Centre for Local Prosperity, lives in Charlottetown. Gregory
Heming, president, Centre for Local Prosperity and Annapolis County
councillor, lives in Port Royal.
Food producers move to make just the basics during COVID-19 pandemic
By
Kathryn Blaze Baum
theglobeandmail.com
Food
manufacturers are limiting their production to their most popular items
in order to maximize volume and meet the skyrocketing demand caused by
the COVID-19 pandemic. As
Canadians self-isolate, eat more meals at home and stockpile
essentials, demand for some grocery items has been up by 400 per cent.
Major retailers, which typically stock on a “just enough, just in time”
basis, have struggled to replenish their shelves. Manufacturers
have responded by limiting their portfolios to just their most popular
items, allowing for the more efficient operation of their machinery and
production lines. In these unprecedented times, they are going back to
basics. During
the first week of April alone, the leader of a national purchasing
organization received messages from dozens of companies saying they are
concentrating their efforts on commonly sold items. “They’re
just trying to meet demand and provide something to eat,” said Denis
Gendron, the president of United Grocers Inc., which negotiates
purchasing agreements on behalf of various retailers who together
comprise one-third of the Canadian grocery industry. “They’re doing the
items they can do the fastest that are selling well.” While
many businesses have been shut down to slow the spread of the novel
coronavirus that causes COVID-19, food manufacturers are considered
essential services and are permitted to continue to operate. Ontario’s
Italpasta typically makes 63 types of pasta, but the company is
focusing on the top six cuts in its Tradizionale range of products:
spaghetti, spaghettini, penne, fusilli, elbows and lasagne. “We’re
running the spaghetti 24 hours a day,” said owner and president Joseph
Vitale. “People aren’t so fancy right now. They just want pasta.”
A couple of weeks ago, as the
possibility of the looming coronavirus pandemic began to settle in for
most Americans, many people started preparing to ward off the virus by
thinking about personal hygiene. Because advice about the efficacy of
hand-washing and personal sanitization came early, Americans invaded
big-box stores across the country to stock up on hand sanitizer,
disinfectant wipes, cans of Lysol, and, for some reason, bales and bales of toilet paper. Feeling ready to clean up after yourself is pretty easy.
Since
the nationwide run on Purell began, figuring out how to conduct
everyday life has gotten only more complicated. Canceled events, school
and office closures, and pleas from public-health officials to avoid
contact with others have started to change the rhythms of daily life,
and the omnipresent question of what to eat has taken on a new, moral
complication. Keeping yourself fed via the delivery services and grocery
stores that most Americans rely on is a necessary task that can’t
easily be completed while avoiding other people.
Nutrient-dense
fresh foods—the kinds people should ideally be eating when their health
is at stake—are expensive and go bad quickly. Not everyone has an extra
freezer, or the money to fill it. Some people just can’t cook for
themselves. If you’re not a person who keeps a stocked pantry, that’s
when confusion sets in: Is it safe to order delivery, both for you and
for the person bringing you food? Is it safe to go to a grocery store
that might be packed with panicked people? How do you support community
businesses while social distancing?
How do you lessen the burden that you put on people in service jobs?
It’s time for America to figure out how to feed itself during a
pandemic.
When
it comes to ordering in, the food itself is unlikely to be much of a
danger, according to Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist at Columbia
University. Even if the person preparing it is sick, he told me via
email, “cooked foods are unlikely to be a concern unless they get
contaminated after cooking.” He granted that “a salad, if someone
sneezes on it, might possibly be some risk,” but as long as the food is
handled properly, he said, “there should be very little risk.” Now might
be a good time to familiarize yourself with what your local health
department thinks of the food-handling practices of your favorite
restaurants.
The
danger of the delivery interaction, meanwhile, depends on how it’s
orchestrated. For the food’s recipient, the risk is relatively low,
Morse said: “There can be transmission through contaminated inanimate
objects, but we think the most important route of transmission is
respiratory droplets,” which spread when someone coughs, sneezes, or
even breathes in close proximity to others. As always, wash your hands
before you eat. (If you’re worried about other kinds of deliveries—mail
or online-shopping orders, for example—they’re also relatively unlikely
to transmit the virus, but you should still wash your hands after
opening them.)
Deliverers
themselves are much more likely to be exposed because of all the people
they encounter. Morse said the risk can be reduced for both parties if
recipients ask that food be left outside the door—or, ideally, if
restaurants mandate this practice to protect their employees. Customers
can also tip electronically or place cash outside before the delivery
arrives. In Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak began a few
months ago, many delivery drivers wore protective suits and masks, and
carried employer-provided hand sanitizer.
Ordering
takeout might seem selfish or cruel in this light, but according to Todd
May, a philosophy professor at Clemson University, the ethical calculus
isn’t quite so simple. He says that people should ask themselves a
couple of questions first, including whether the delivery worker will
travel alone by bike or car, and whether a mass exodus of delivery
business from the area will harm workers more than protect them. “It's
the responsibility of the person ordering food to try as best they can
to get a grip on that,” May wrote to me in an email.
The
places people order from make a difference too. A local restaurant is a
better choice than a start-up that sends gig workers with no
health-care benefits into crowded big-box grocery stores to fight over
dried beans on your behalf. The restaurant delivery person interacts
with fewer people, lessening his or her individual risk, and the money
you pay for the food goes toward keeping a restaurant’s staff employed
through a crisis. In Wuhan, local delivery drivers were the city’s lifeline during a lockdown that made venturing out for fresh food difficult.
Ditching
delivery to go to the grocery store isn’t necessarily a safer way to
stress-eat, for either individuals or service workers. “Crowded stores
would have a greater risk of infection, simply because of numbers of
people and density,” Morse, the epidemiologist, explained. Shoppers can
avoid some of this risk by dropping in at odd hours or patronizing less
popular stores. But the risk of exposure is still far greater for people
ringing up groceries than for people buying them, just like it is
higher for the delivery drivers bringing food to your door than it is
for you.
Many
Americans—and especially those with the means to order a lot of
delivered food—aren’t used to evaluating these risks to themselves and
others. “We’re being asked to think so much more socially than we’re
ever, ever asked to think,” says Steven Benko, a professor of religious
and ethical studies at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Delivery jobs rarely provide health insurance, and workers still need
money to buy Tylenol and cough syrup to control milder cases of
COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, or to seek help from an
urgent-care clinic. How much should someone tip to help a delivery
person afford medicine? “People’s health and their health care is
directly tied to their labor in this country,” Benko says.
He
also notes that keeping local delivery viable is helpful to people who
can’t cook for themselves because of a disability or an illness. In some
areas, requests for delivery are through the roof, which could reduce
availability for people who rely on food delivery. In any situation with
limited resources, the best choice is not to take more than you need,
whether that’s the last four packages of disinfectant wipes at Target or
the time of a busy delivery driver.
In
the United States’ industrialized, centralized food system, for most
people no perfectly ethical options exist for eating during a pandemic.
But Benko hopes that diners will take as many precautions to safeguard
workers in their community as they do to protect themselves, and that
they’ll remember how essential service and delivery workers were to
their survival once the worst has passed. “We’re so connected to each
other and reliant on people working in the background, but we don’t even
see who keeps the shelves restocked, or who brings things” to us, he
says. “People only become visible to us in the perception that they
could harm us, as opposed to becoming visible to us in the fact that
they’re taking a risk to their health by being helpful to us.”
