First it was toilet paper. Then flour. Then eggs. Will meat be next?

Over the past few weeks, we’ve witnessed consumers hoarding food and panic buying in supermarkets. Experts were quick to reassure us that our supply chains are strong and that missing items would soon find their way back onto the grocery shelves. This has largely been true. The toilet paper, the flour and the eggs are slowly reappearing.

However, it is growing increasingly clear that the challenge to food availability is not only consumer anxiety and increasing demand. Cracks are emerging on the supply side.

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COVID-19 has shone a light onto the invisible labour that gets our food from farm to fork. The temporary foreign workers who harvest our food, the employees at processing facilities who prepare and package our food, the truckers who transport it, the grocery store clerks who run the cash and stock shelves.

Also caught in the COVID-19 crossfire are workers in Canada’s abattoirs and meat processing plants.

Over the past few weeks, a series of COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported in slaughter facilities across the country. Several have temporarily closed their doors.

For some consumers, a disruption to the meat supply will simply mean reaching further into the pantry and honing their bean cooking skills. Indeed, now may be the perfect time for everyone to reduce their meat consumption. We know eating less meat is healthier for our bodies and also the planet. But eating less meat does not mean we should not be paying attention to how the meat we do eat is produced.

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For years, local food advocates have been sounding the alarm bell about the centralization of slaughterhouses in Canada. Fewer facilities are controlling the majority of the meat processed in the country while local slaughterhouses continue to close, causing longer wait times, longer distances for transport and increased costs.

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Now, as COVID-19 forces larger facilities that process thousands of animals at a time to shut down, a bad situation is becoming even worse.

When vulnerabilities are exposed in the supply chain, it is common for consumers to seek alternative sources for their food, avoiding grocery stores and instead purchasing directly from farmers they know and trust. Farmers markets are now experimenting with shifting sales to online platforms and membership-based food baskets are running at full capacity.

However, while demand for local meat will certainly be on the rise in the coming weeks and months, many will be disappointed to learn that producers have nowhere to send their animals for slaughter.

COVID-19 is bringing into focus how the erosion of local slaughterhouses has jeopardized the quality and reliability of our meat supply. If we want to support a more ethical and just food system when this is over, we are going to have to rethink how we raise and slaughter animals for food.