By Ben Popkin
NBC News
For the farmers in charge of keeping America fed, the past year has been one of “feast or famine.”
Commodity prices were depressed at the outset as trade tiffs with China cut demand for exports. Then, the pandemic’s supply chain snarls backed up logistics. The shutdown of restaurants and school cafeterias slashed a key market for many producers, who scrambled to find new buyers and ways to package their items for new retail markets. Labor supply, already strained by tighter border controls, fell further as workers fell sick or stayed home to avoid infection or take care of family, a choice made easier for those who could tap pandemic emergency unemployment benefits.
Some farmers adapted. They opened up or expanded retail operations. They leaned in to e-commerce, selling online directly to customers, or supplying companies that package their goods along with other producers for home delivery.