Covid-19 may Change the Food Industry Forever

Mar 31, 2020

Will COVID 19 change the food industry, forever? That's the title of a piece written by Dr. Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhousie University this month, as the pandemic continues.

He believes the pandemic will redefine grocery shopping in more ways than one. Dr. Charlebois says another industry that could face some difficult choices in the months ahead, is the restaurant industry.

"We've never seen something like this. Overnight, an entire sector was just shut down, essentially. If you don't do take out or delivery, you are out of business for a while or you could be out of business for good," remarked Dr. Charlebois.

According to Dr. Charlebois calculations the food service industry is a 90 billion dollar industry in Canada and with 6 to 7 billion accounting for the take out and delivery business. That leaves approximately 83 billion remaining with approximately half of that being food that will go to grocers instead of restaurants.

"We are expecting a bit of a price war on the other side of this pandemic and are expecting the new prices to soften by the end of 2020," commented Dr. Charlebois.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.