Food Safety Economics in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis for both food safety and especially the economic sustainability of food production in Canada and around the globe are explored. A full analysis is made of the nature of the virus, and it is spread as they relate to the forces of globalization which have created a global food supply chain, with a focus on the weaknesses of a global supply chain that fell prey to the COVID-19 virus and its associated economic effects. Comparison was made to past outbreaks of Spanish flu and Ebola, both of which challenged public health, food safety, and food supply systems. A more focused analysis examines how public and private responses to the pandemic create opportunities and challenges for several linkages in the supply chain, including farms, food processing facilities, grocery stores and restaurants. The quarantine procedures put in place around the world to manage the COVID-19 necessitated radical shifts in food production and. Ultimately the response from any individual government is insufficient to weather these events, as the fundamentally international and cross-industry factors involved require a holistic, globally coordinated approach which was not possible with the tools available before these events began.