Social Distancing Grades Miss the Mark

While millions of Americans stave off the spread of a global disease by distancing themselves one from another, members of many industries are forced to fight on the front lines of a fight with an invisible enemy. Doctors, nurses, and other emergency personnel are working tirelessly, day and night to help and heal those who are afflicted with this deadly disease. Yet one dedicated group of people goes largely unnoticed — a group whose work, if left undone, could cause serious social unrest and even death — the farmer and the food supply chain.

Many people don’t think twice about the supply chain involved to make a bag of flour, or to bring potatoes, oranges, strawberries, or blueberries to grocery stores and hence, our tables. All we know is that when we go to the store they’ll have what we need, and if they don’t, the store down the street will. Many people don’t think about the steel and machinery manufacturing or the sales, production, engineering, and administrative teams required to support those industries. They forget about the transportation companies tasked with moving equipment to agricultural operations and the operators required to plant, fertilize, cultivate, and harvest the crops. What about the storage, processing, packaging, quality assurance, sales, and yet again, transportation companies that are responsible for eventually getting that bag of flour or box of strawberries on the shelves during any season of the year? The dedication of the people involved in this infinitely complex process has allowed the consumer to forget that food comes from a farm–not the grocery store.

Unfortunately, many major media outlets like the Washington Post have taken a report card issued by a company called Unacast and have highlighted the failure of rural communities and states to abide by stay-at-home orders.  The report card was based entirely on anonymized phone GPS data with no consideration given for anything else.  People were asked to eliminate all but essential travel, but when all that exists in your community is work and Walmart, and your work, like most businesses in rural communities, has been deemed essential…well then your routine won’t change very much.  Urbanites never pause in between fist fights over toilet paper to consider why rural communities haven’t sufficiently reduced the amount of everyday travel they do. The simple fact is that much of the food supply chain described above is located in rural communities, and it is essential.  Without it, we don’t eat.

So next time you grab that bag of flour, stop and thank an accountant, a programmer, a truck driver, a marketer, a salesman, and ultimately a farmer.  After all, as Zippy Duvall, President of the American Farm Bureau rightly observed, “Empty shelves can be frightening, but empty fields and barns would be devastating.”

Dan Piquet
Co-Founder/Director of Marketing, Acuitus Ag