Farmers Are Dumping Milk, Destroying Food Due to Closed Schools, Hotels, Restaurants
Closed schools, hotels and restaurants have created an excess supply for dairy and other farmers that they now must destroy, according to the Wall Street Journal. Few companies expect that grocery store demand will make up for the those lost markets, and often food is not packaged or produced in ways that would make grocery sales possible. Therefore, food producers are forced to deal with large amounts of supply with nowhere to go. One tanker truck poured 6,000 gallons of milk into a manure pit.
Some chicken farms are breaking eggs to avoid hatching. Pork producers are trying to change pork belly into sausage or lard to recoup some of their costs. “Consumers have changed how they eat, and it’s rippling back right to the farm gate,” said a dairy industry executive.