Beef supply chains and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

Abstract

COVID-19 has revealed both strengths and weaknesses in beef supply chains. It has also revealed much about market economics. Under normal, stable market conditions, markets coordinate resource and product allocation with such efficiency and subtly as to be largely unrecognized. Only in the face of abrupt and unexpected shocks are the reactions of markets to rebalance and restore equilibrium revealed. Freely operating markets react with dramatic, sometimes surprising, and confusing responses to massive and unprecedented shock such as COVID-19. Consumers, producers, companies, and policymakers all learned much about how beef supply chains and the market-based economy works as a result of COVID-19.