‘Food supply chain is breaking’: Tyson Foods warns ‘millions of pounds of meat will disappear’ from shelves

Tyson Foods warned “millions of pounds of meat” will not make it to consumer shelves as processing plants are forced to shutter amid the coronavirus.

“The food supply chain is breaking,” wrote board chairman John Tyson in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

“We have a responsibility to feed our country. It is as essential as healthcare. This is a challenge that should not be ignored. Our plants must remain operational so that we can supply food to our families in America. This is a delicate balance because Tyson Foods places team member safety as our top priority,” he added.

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“As pork, beef and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain,” Tyson warned.

The ad comes as farmers report having to euthanize chickens and other livestock due to lack of functioning processing plants.

A Delaware chicken plant, for example, was forced to slaughter up to 2 million chickens that won’t make it to market due to coronavirus-related staffing shortages. At least 13 plants have shuttered since March, according to United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents workers in the meatpacking and manufacturing industries.

“Unfortunately, reduced placements will not make an impact for six weeks, and with the continued attendance decline and building bird inventory daily, we are forced to make a very difficult decision,” wrote Michele Minton, the director of live operations at Allen Harim, a Delaware chicken company.

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie has warned that the United States could face food shortages due to the “brittle” supply chain, bankrupting farmers and forcing them to euthanize livestock.

“I’m afraid you’re going to see … cattle and hogs being euthanized or incinerated and buried while we have shortages at the supermarket. And you talk about civil unrest when you start seeing that. And it’s all because of the brittle food supply chain,” he said earlier in April.

“The shocking thing is that farmers are watching the value of their hogs and steers, cows, go down. In fact, they’re going to some of the lowest levels ever,” he continued. “So, the question is: Why is the price of meat going up in the supermarkets and the price of cattle going down at the auction ring? It’s because our supply line is brittle.”