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Chris Herr, executive vice president of PennAg Industries Association, said poultry farmers had nowhere to go with their flocks. PennAg represents the state’s poultry industry.
“We’ve been put in a situation where, because of supply chain issues, worker issues, we’ve depopulated around 200,000 birds in Pennsylvania so far,” Herr said.
“Markets were closed in places like New York City that would take live birds,” Herr said. “And we just found ourselves in a situation where the live inventory was too great to process it.”
It’s not just chickens. Pork and beef producers are experiencing similar problems because large slaughterhouses that process tens of thousands of animals daily are shutting down due to the virus. Farmers are facing the prospect of killing their animals and burying them in mass graves.
Meat prices are now surging, and the head of Tyson Foods warns that a breakdown in the food supply chain could soon produce meat shortages across the country.