Except it's not really the reason. The reason is the lockdowns. And there are already shortages of food in some places. Those places "poor countries" rely on imports from net-exporters of food "rich countries". Google it and read a few articles about it. The UN officials relevant to world food supply make statements and use careful language to avoid directly blaming the lockdowns but you can see it clearly. The number of deaths is around 200k globally and the number of hospitalized is fewer than the current number of confirmed cases. That's not enough to cause a shortage of workers.
Workers being contaminated is 100% the reason for a possible shortage. Thousands have been infected, and many have died.
Largest Meat Processor in the WORLD Shut Down in Brazil
Meat plants are shutting down as workers get sick
Tyson (
TSN), one of the world's largest meat processors, suspended operations at its Columbus Junction, Iowa, pork plant this week after more than two dozen workers contracted Covid-19 there
JBS USA, another major meat processor, has stopped operations at its beef plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania
One of the largest pork processing facilities in the US is closing until further notice
One of the country's largest pork processing facilities is closing until further notice as employees fall ill with
Covid-19. The closure puts the country's meat supply at risk, said the CEO of Smithfield, which operates the plant.
"The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply," the meat processor's chief executive, Kenneth Sullivan, said in a statement Sunday.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem
said during a Saturday news briefing that Smithfield employees accounted for more than half of the active coronavirus cases in the state. About 240 employees are sick, she said, out of roughly 430 active cases in the state.
Corrupt billionaire brothers’ meat plants are riddled with coronavirus
The world’s largest meat-processing giant was forced to shut down some of its US plants as more than 100 of its workers tested positive for COVID-19 last week, but the pandemic may be the least of its problems.
National Beef Packing Co suspended cattle slaughtering at an Iowa Premium beef plant in Tama, Iowa
Aurora Packing Company closed a beef plant in Aurora, Illinois, said Brad Lyle, chief financial officer for U.S. commodity firm Kerns and Associates
JBS USA shut a beef plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania because of virus contamination
Cargill Inc closed a plant in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, that produces meat for U.S. grocery stores.
4 Tyson Foods workers in Georgia dead from coronavirus, company says
Tyson warns of U.S. meat shortages as coronavirus shuts livestock plants
As coronavirus closes meat packing plants around U.S., cluster grows at Goodlettsville Tyson
Processing plants located in counties where the prevalence of coronavirus is greater than in 75% of counties in the U.S., and found that more than 150 plants in the country operate in those counties.
More than 5,000 U.S. meat and food-processing workers have been infected with or exposed to the virus, and 13 have died, the country’s largest meatpacking union said Thursday
