Welcome to Modern Agriculture!
While grocery store shelves empty as more cities and states put shelter-in-place orders in effect, agriculture has been declared critical infrastructure. This means farmers can keep farming, and other parts of the food supply – from farm to your table – can keep working to keep Americans fed.
In other words, it’s business as usual for farmers.
We are in the midst of planting season. We have greenhouses with seed sweet potatoes, growing the sprouts we’ll transplant to the field. Our corn planter will soon be dropping seeds for this year’s crop into the soil. Wheat is starting to head out, and before we know it our house will be surrounded by amber waves of grain.
Other farmers are harvesting. Strawberry season has begun for some North Carolina farmers. Leafy greens are being picked and more produce will soon be ready for buyers. This season selling will take on a different look for all farmers, especially those who depend on direct-to-consumer sales at farmers markets or pick-your-own fields.
It’s not just farmers and farmworkers who are essential to the food system, but the entire supply chain. For us that includes seed and fertilizer suppliers who sell us inputs. The workers who we employ year-round and those who come for six months a year. Equipment dealers who repair equipment. The packing lines, processors, and feed mills that buy our crops. Retail stores and restaurants who sell to the consumer and of course, the truckers who move it all.
We’re just one farm, and that list of people involved from seed to store is not inclusive. Livestock farmers and commercial fishing are a huge part of our agriculture footprint and have their own supply chains.
The shelves might be empty now, but that’s not because farmers aren’t working. Demand for food increased, but there’s not a shortage. Crops are growing, chickens are laying one egg a day, and farmers are still at work growing and raising food to meet our needs.