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Plummeting pork prices might force farmers to euthanize baby pigs to cut losses. Getty Images/Carsten Koall

Pork prices are plummeting due to absent workers, shuttered pork packaging plants, and a loss of buyers in restaurants and international markets due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The president of the National Pork Producers Council said that the number of baby pigs that are euthanized would "soar dramatically" if the government does not intervene, as farmers consider killing pigs to cut losses.

Farmers are expected to lose $37 on every hog they sell as prices drop, with the industry expecting almost $5 billion in losses for the rest of 2020.

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Farmers say that plummeting pork prices might force them to euthanize baby pigs to cut losses.

Hog farmers are struggling in the face of absent workers, shuttered pork packaging plants, and a loss of buyers in restaurants and international markets due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The result is a glut of excess hogs, making it more expensive to sell pigs to be made into pork than to simply kill the animals.

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) said on Tuesday that farmers will lose almost $37 per hog and almost $5 billion collectively for every hog marketed for the rest of 2020, citing economists Dr. Dermot Hayes and Dr. Steve Meyer. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the NPPC said analysts predicted farmers would earn roughly $10 per hog.

On a call with reporters, NPPC President Howard Roth said that euthanizing is going to start coming up in farmers' discussions "absent immediate and significant government intervention," Star Tribune's Adam Belz tweeted. According to Roth, the number of baby pigs being euthanized will "soar dramatically" without intervention.

"Hogs are backing up on farms with nowhere to go, leaving farmers with tragic choices to make," Roth said in a statement. "Dairy producers can dump milk. Fruit and vegetable growers can dump produce. But, hog farmers have nowhere to move their hogs."

The NPPC is asking that the federal government purchase more than $1 billion in backed-up meat supply, which the USDA can use to supply food banks. The organization is also seeking equitable direct payments to pork producers and to allow family farms to take out emergency loans offered by the Small Business Administration.

Many farmers are destroying food, even as the country faces shortages

Ryan Eble and his father Chris talk in their milk house while fresh milk gushes down a drain at the Eble family's Golden E Dairy farm near West Bend, Wisconsin, U.S., April 1, 2020. Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/USA TODAY via REUTERS

Farmers across the US are destroying food or leaving it to rot as they deal with massive supply chain issues.

Dairy farmers have dumped thousands of gallons of milk and farmers have let fruit and vegetables rot in their fields, after their typical commercial customers of restaurants, theme parks, and schools abruptly shuttered.

Driscoll's president Soren Bjorn told Business Insider that the company will let 10-15% of its crop "end up in the ditch" if the berry producer doesn't receive government funding to donate it to food banks.

Massive production plants have been forced to shutter after workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19, causing further supply chain problems.

In the meat industry, Smithfield Foods closed a South Dakota plant that supplies up to 5% of all pork in the US after more than 290 workers were diagnosed with COVID-19. Other major meat processors, including JBS USA, Tyson, and Cargill, have also closed down plants after employees caught the coronavirus.

Closed plants and a loss of buyers mean that stores are dealing with shortages as farmers face an excess of food. Retailers like Costco and Walmart have limited how much milk and toilet paper customers can buy, even when producers are dealing with a massive excess of inventory.

"The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply," Smithfield CEO Kenneth Sullivan said in a statement on Sunday.

He added: "It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running."

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