Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected most Canadian business sectors, including farmers. Massive financial help from governments, both federal and provincial, have been rolled out for many individuals and businesses since early April. Specific help for the food and farming sector was announced only recently with a small aid package that arguably doesn’t prioritize the importance of help to the food supply chains. Because of worker safety issues and COVID-19 outbreaks among workers, shutdowns and slowdowns at several beef, hog and chicken processing plants have created huge backlogs. When animals are ready to be shipped, they need to go or else producer costs go up and quality of the products are negatively affected. Likewise, other farm products used widely in the now shut restaurant industry, are severely compromised. The speaker will argue that agricultural production, marketing and farm worker issues generally flies below the radar of governments, particularly federally. He will further contend