Where’s the beef ... pork ... chicken ... lamb?

(Photo: Getty Images)

By: Alayna DeMartini 

Meat prices are up. And some grocery stores have limited how much meat you can buy. While shoppers might be paying more for meat, the prices livestock owners are earning for their pigs, chickens, cattle, and other animals are down—that’s if they can even sell them.

Meatpacking plants have had to shut down fully or partially because of the number of their employees sick with COVID-19 or concerned about catching the disease. As a result, farmers have had to keep their fully grown livestock on the farm, though they were ready to go to market. In some cases, farmers in Ohio and nationwide have had to begin reducing their flocks or herds by euthanizing them.

Stan Smith, a livestock owner and program assistant for Ohio State University Extension in Fairfield County, and Lyda G. Garcia, an assistant professor of meat science with The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), described the current challenges in the livestock industry. OSU Extension is the outreach arm of CFAES.

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