Food is still being produced and there’s plenty of it. But never-before-seen issues in the supply chain need state government intervention before becoming an even larger problem, some legislators said.
On Friday, state Rep. Marty Causer, R-Turtlepoint, said the issue has much to do with all of the closures across the state.
“Milk, for example. The largest consumers are industrial operations, like schools and restaurants,” he said. “A lot of (the product) is packaged in bulk. It’s not like the food processing facilities can immediately switch to making gallons of milk.”
Meat processing facilities are experiencing problems as well, mostly with concerns about the employees themselves. “Four separate facilities in Pennsylvania have been closed down because of employees testing positive for COVID-19.”
Regarding eggs, Causer said the farmers don’t have packaging to sell them by a dozen; they are used to shipping them by pallets.
“That indicates a supply issue we think the state government should be working on,” Causer said. “We believe there are manufacturers around the commonwealth, that if they looked at the issue, they would say ‘we could help with that.’”
The state created a portal for manufacturers to speak up if they could help produce personal protective equipment for the health care field. Causer said the state could be reaching out the same way to find manufacturers able to help the food supply chain.
“We need containers for eggs, for milk, so we can get this product out there,” he said. “It’s definitely going to take out-of-the-box thinking.”
Causer, who chairs the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, was joined by fellow House Republicans — House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster), Rep. Martina White (R-Philadelphia) and Rep. Doyle Heffley (R-Carbon) — sent a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding asking for the state to do more.
The letter read, in part, “While we know that plenty of food is being produced at the farm level, we have serious and urgent concerns about the availability of the workforce trained and capable of processing the food, and the availability of necessary packaging in sizes for consumer use. These limitations seem to be contributing to milk dumping, poultry depopulation, vegetables rotting in the fields, and other types of unfortunate raw food waste.”
The letter acknowledges the governor’s recent request for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to offer plans to assist the food supply chain, but the legislators argue more must be done by state leaders, especially in light of the closure of four separate meat processing facilities in Pennsylvania due to hundreds of employees testing positive for COVID-19.
The letter makes requests of the Wolf administration, including “prioritize and provide for rapid Abbott tests for food processing employees that an employer can administer before an employee enters a premise. Alternatively, until those tests and the reagent supply become more widely available, implement a plan to expedite the turnaround of test results for food processing employees.”
Causer said the House members will continue to partner with agriculture leaders and stakeholders across Pennsylvania and the nation to address these growing concerns and urge the governor to take action immediately to ensure the supply is not disrupted any further.
