COVID-19 Creates Erratic Difficult to Manage Consumer Demand

The Research Lead with Agri-Food Economic Systems says the surge in consumer demand at the grocery store as the result of COVID-19 has created a difficult to manage situation. An Agri-Food Economic Systems Independent Agri-Food Policy Note examines the roles of government and industry in managing the challenges caused by COVID-19.

 

Dr. Al Mussell, the Research Lead with Agri-Food Economic Systems, says this is an unprecedented situation.

 

 

These surges in demand at the grocery store are difficult to handle all through the supply chain. They create sharp increases in demand. But, at some point as people lock themselves down in their homes, they’re going to have fewer trips to the grocery store.

 

That'll then, you would think, begin to dampen demand or, more than anything else, as people buy forward, eventually they've got enough and they slow down their buying. The other one I would mention and bring into this that is of concern for us, particularly in western Canada but elsewhere as well, is exports. One of the things that happens is, as you get absenteeism, that comes into your logistics system, your trucking, your dock workers, everybody involved in the administration of imports and exports.

 

The other thing we have to worry about a little bit is we import quite a lot of product. That's everything from coffee, tea, orange juice, the food products as well as a good deal of feed ingredients, pesticide products. We worry about the logistics there but then there is also a sense that countries that export those products will begin to think a little but that they need to feed themselves or supply themselves first.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.