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A 'cascading series of events' is disrupting the US food supply chain in a way which could impact millions of Americans, a former agriculture secretary warns.  

Concerns about the future availability of food are mounting amid the coronavirus pandemic as outbreaks force processing plants to close and supply is redirected away from major consumer sources such as restaurants and schools that were shuttered with widespread stay-at-home orders. 

Former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack explained the extent of the supply chain disruptions in a CNN interview on Monday, warning that they will likely worsen as the pandemic rages on.  

'You start ending school lunch programs, universities shut down, food service shuts down ... at the end of the day you've basically got a tremendous amount of the overall supply of food having to be redirected,' he said. 

'This is] at a time when people are feeling a little bit of a pinch, in terms of the economy. Many unemployed people can't access the grocery store [or] go to a food bank. 

'And now you have the cascading event of these facilities not having enough workers, or having sick workers, and having to shut down.' 

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Former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Monday warned that a 'cascading series of events' disrupting the US food supply chain could impact millions of Americans

Concerns about the future availability of food are mounting amid the coronavirus pandemic as infections among food industry workers surge and outbreaks force processing plants to close. Pictured: A shopper peruses the meat section at a Publix Supermarket in Canton, Georgia, where shelves have been ransacked by people panic-buying

Vilsack served as agriculture secretary for eight years under President Barack Obama, and prior to that served two terms as governor of Iowa. 

His comments on the supply chain came just as one of America's largest pork processing plants joined a long list of meat factories that have been forced to close due to a coronavirus outbreak at the plant. 

Smithfield Foods on Monday announced it is closing its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after 240 of its more than 3,700 workers tested positive for COVID-19.  

Other major meat processors are now coming up with contingency plans to respond to future outbreaks, as well as potential steps to prevent them from happening.  

Mississippi-based chicken processor Sanderson Farms, for example, is considering drastically streamlining its meat-packing methods so fewer workers are required on each shift. 

Under that plan, a reduced staff would package entire birds instead of going through the labor-intensive process of dividing chickens into cuts such as breasts, thighs and wings.     

Sanderson's Chief Financial Officer Mike Cockrell said that the company has already seen a spike in absences, but not at a level that would significantly disrupt operations. 

Mississippi-based chicken processor Sanderson Farms is considering drastically streamlining its meat-packing methods so fewer workers are required on each shift (file photo)

Smithfield closed its pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dokata, on Monday after around 240 of its employees became infected with COVID-19

Thousands of meatpacking workers test positive for coronavirus at massive plants where conditions are ripe for outbreaks

There are currently no government agencies tracking COVID-19 infections among food industry workers nationwide - but hundreds of cases have been reported at plants in Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and elsewhere.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCWIU), which represents 1.3 million grocery store, food processing and meat packing employees, said on Monday that at least 3,000 of its members have been directly affected by coronavirus and at least 30 have died.  

Conditions at plants can be ripe for exploitation by the virus as workers stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and crowd into locker rooms to change their clothes before and after shifts.  

While company owners promise to deep clean their plants and resume operations as quickly as possible, it's difficult to keep workers healthy given how closely they work together.

'There is no social distance that is possible when you are either working on the slaughter line or in a processing assignment,' said Paula Schelling, acting chairwoman for the food inspectors union in the American Federation of Government Employees.

Conditions at plants can be ripe for exploitation by the virus as workers stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and crowd into locker rooms to change their clothes before and after shifts. A Smithfields Foods plant in Milan, Missouri, is pictured 

Major meat processing companies have said they are adopting several measures to prevent outbreaks, including taking the temperature of everyone entering plants, adding clear plastic shields between work stations and erecting tents to allow workers to spread out more at lunch. 

But critics worry that workers too often continue working in close proximity and that measures are being adopted piecemeal.

The League of United Latin American Citizens recently asked federal regulators to establish uniform rules after a number of immigrant workers complained to the rights group about tight quarters.

Federal health officials do not consider COVID-19 to be a food safety concern, but they recommend that workers maintain a safe distance from one another.

Companies also have relaxed attendance and sick leave policies to ensure that workers can receive at least some pay if they have to stay at home after testing positive or coming in contact with someone who has.

'Most of the employers that we deal with right now are really making a solid attempt to try and fix stuff,' said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. 

'We're just working as hard as we can to protect as many people as possible right now and make sure that we keep the food supply open.'

Coronavirus outbreaks force major meat processing plants to shut down, fueling shortage fears

About a dozen meat processing plants have already shut down operations due to coronavirus outbreaks - several of them run by major brands.  

JBS USA, the world's largest meat processor, ceased its operations for two weeks at its beef plant in Sounderton, Pennsylvania, after several managers called in sick with flu-like symptoms. The plant is slated to reopen on April 16.  

Fellow meat giant Tyson suspended production at a pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after more than two dozen workers tested positive for COVID-19.  

And Cargill Protein closed a beef and pork facility with 900 workers in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, last week.   

As the list of closures continues to grow, so do fears that shortages will soon hit consumers.  

The meat supply chain is especially vulnerable since processing is increasingly done at massive plants that butcher tens of thousands of animals daily, so shutting even a few large ones can have a large impact.  

For instance, the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls produces roughly five percent of the US pork supply each day. 

'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,' Smithfield's chief executive, Kenneth M Sullivan, said in a statement.  

The capacity of plants that remain open has also been hurt by workers who are sick or staying home because of fears of illness - though it's not clear by how much. 

The reduced production so far has been offset by the significant amount of meat that was in cold storage, said Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University. 

Producers are also working to shift meat that would have gone to now-closed restaurants over to grocery stores.

Whether shoppers start to see more empty shelves or higher prices will depend on how many plants close and for how long.

'You could shut multiple plants down for a day or two, and we've got wiggle room to handle that,' said Tonsor. 

'But if you took four or five of those big plants ... and they had to be down for two weeks, then you've got a game changer.'

Still, the reduced meat processing capacity is already driving down the prices farmers and ranchers receive for cattle, hogs and chickens.

'It's like people on an escalator. Stopping the pork chain at the top of an escalator is just going to cause all sorts of tragedy and disaster all the way back up the system,' said Dermot Hayes, professor of economics and finance at Iowa State University.

Farmers are being forced to kill baby pigs because the space in the barns where they were supposed to go is still filled by the pigs that should have been slaughtered last week, Hayes said. The meat from those baby pigs cannot be sold.

That has driven prices for those feeder pigs - which generally are fattened over the course of six months - to zero, Hayes said. 

The value of those big enough for the market is down about 50 percent from a month ago. The value of the meat is down about 30 percent.

Lower prices for producers could mean higher prices for consumers eventually, if production falls off, according to Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. 

Many essential food items have already become hard to find as consumers panic-buy large quantities to stock up for self-isolation. Pictured: A New York City supermarket 

USDA prepares to announce $15.5billion plan to bolster the nation's food supply chain against coronavirus 

The Trump administration began monitoring potential supply chain issues last month as the coronavirus pandemic rapidly picked up speed. 

President Trump reportedly spoke to top executives from the food service and retail industries about what steps should be taken to avoid major disruptions.  

On Monday, Reuters reported that the US Department of Agriculture is prepared to spend up to $15.5billion in the initial phase of its plan to bolster the nation's food supply chain against the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak. 

President Trump reportedly spoke to top executives from the food service and retail industries about what steps should be taken to avoid major disruptions

The initial plan, which was confirmed by three familiar sources, will include direct payments to farmers and ranchers, along with other support measures, using a portion of the $23.5billion approved by Congress to support agriculture in a coronavirus stimulus bill last month, along with some existing USDA funds, according to the sources.

The USDA will announce the initial plan as early as this week, and is expected to detail later phases of the support program once more money from the stimulus bill becomes available, potentially in July, they said.

'It's not enough to cover all of agriculture, but we see it as a first step,' said Andrew Walmsley, director of Congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation's largest farmer trade group.

'We expect there will be more aid going forward.'

Walmsley expected farmers to start receiving checks within weeks. The other two sources asked not to be named.

The USDA declined to comment on the initial phase.