The chairman of the world’s second largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork says America’s food supply chain is “breaking” under the strain of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a full-page ad which appeared today in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, John Tyson said his company is meeting the challenges but the nation’s food supply is vulnerable as meat processing plants are shuttered by the pandemic, and farmers are forced to thin herds that they can’t sell.

“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 said. “As a result, there will be limited supply of our products available in grocery stores until we are able to reopen our facilities that are currently closed.”

Tyson has several facilities in Alabama, including a blend mill in Cullman. Coronavirus cases have been reported in Marshall County at Tyson and Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plants, while a Wayne Farms processing plant in Albertville reported 75 positive cases and one death. Beef and pork plants have been hit especially hard nationally, with more than 700 cases coming from a single plant in South Dakota. Tyson closed its largest pork processing plant in Iowa last week after an outbreak among employees.

At the same time, Tyson said that the U.S. faces a “serious food waste issue" as food banks around the country are struggling with demand with more than 26 million Americans filing for unemployment in the last two months.

“Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation,” Tyson said, stating that millions of chickens, pigs and cattle will be left out of the food chain due to the closure of processing facilities.

In his statement, Tyson said the company has installed more than 150 infrared walkthrough temperature scanners in its locations, supplied workers with face coverings, and instituted daily deep cleaning and sanitizing. The company has also waived certain co-pays and deductibles for doctor visits and telemedicine, as well as the waiting period to qualify for short-term disability, so workers can immediately be paid if they get sick.

Poultry in Alabama brings in about $15 billion in revenue a year and represents almost 66 percent of the state’s annual farming revenue. More than 86,000 Alabamians are employed on chicken farms, in processing plants and related industries. Despite the stress, analysts say Alabama’s poultry industry should remain steady.

But the industry as a whole is struggling to deal with the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Labor and the Centers for Disease Control today released a set of guidelines for the meat and poultry processing industry in order to keep the food supply going while mitigating the risk of spreading COVID-19. The Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the recommendations should “remain in place throughout the pandemic and to the extent that companies must reduce or alter capacity, split shifts, or add additional processing days...”

The CDC says meat and poultry processing workers may be at risk from coronavirus through close contact with coworkers, or through contaminated surfaces or objects, such as tools, workstations, or break room tables. There’s also a risk in shared spaces like locker rooms. or ride-sharing and car pools, and frequent contact with fellow workers outside the plants.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which represents poultry workers as well as a host of other occupations, said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the CDC have “failed working people” during the pandemic.

The union said some poultry companies have had regular calls with its representatives during the outbreak on safety issues and provided workers with personal protective equipment, additional partitions and social distancing measures. However, more workers will die if significant improvements aren’t made, the union says.

“Our members are scared to go to work, yet they do it because they need to provide for their families," RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum said. “But they shouldn’t be expected to be putting their lives on the line when they show up for work - they never signed up for that.