Coronavirus strains meat supply, but Bay Area has many butcher options

SEBASTOPOL, Calif. - Expect to pay more for meat, and find less to choose from in the days ahead. 

Major producers are having supply chain problems because so many plants have workers sick with COVID-19. 

The crisis is so serious President Trump has ordered meat and poultry plants to stay open. 

He has declared them "critical infrastructure" even as the biggest companies are crippled by coronavirus. 

"It is a meat supply system that is extremely efficient and also extremely fragile and we're seeing that in these plant closures," said Adam Parks, owner of Victorian Farmstead Meat Company in Sebastopol. 

Parks' operation is the absolute opposite of a factory farm. 

"I've got six to eight ranches in Northern California that supply us with whole animals," he explained.    

From his Sonoma County base, Parks is delivering meat boxes to households across the Bay Area and is busier during the  pandemic than he has ever been. 

"It was definitely unexpected, I could never have predicted this, that's for sure."   

Cooking at home more often, people may be seeking alternatives to mass-produced products from out-of-state.

Across the industry, 20 workers have died, thousands are sickened, and dozens of plants shuttered. 

It was the head of Tyson Foods who raised alarm this week, declaring "the food supply chain is breaking." 

"When you have COVID-19 disrupting that front line workforce, you are now talking about disrupting the food supply chain," said Nick Vyas, Economics Professor at University of Southern California.

Shoppers are watching food fluctuations. 

"We do see a huge swing in prices," said Jonathan Parkhurst, outside a Safeway store in Novato. 

"One week, it's a pretty good deal, the next week it's outrageous so we'll pass on the purchase." 

Other meat-eaters are noticing a smaller selection. 

"In our household, we have kind-of stocked up over time, not hoarding, but definitely kept it in mind in case there is a shortage," Robert Springer, also a Safeway shopper. 

With livestock being destroyed because it can't be processed, President Trump ordered plants to keep running.  

"We'll be in very good shape and we always work with the farmers," said Trump.
"There's plenty of supply as you know, plenty of supply, it's the distribution."

But problems also lie in how processing plants are designed. 

Workers are usually shoulder to shoulder on assembly lines. 

In response to the President's order, unions for food workers argued for PPE, and more distance or barriers between workers. 

Because California has so many ranches and sources, it will be somewhat buffered from any meat shortage. 

And Parks notes, if factory-farm meat prices rise closer to pasture-raised quality, it's likely even more people will try locally-raised cuts. 

"My advice is, get to know the people who are processing your protein and make sure that you trust them," said Parks. 

His hunch is that local shortages will be driven more by panic-buying than any actual supply issue.   

"We've already proven what happens when we tell Americans there's going to be a shortage of something right?" posed Parks. 

"We go out and buy all of it right now!"