COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in U.S. meatpacking counties

Tina L Saitone; K Aleks Schaefer; Daniel P Scheitrum

doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102072

COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in U.S. meatpacking counties

Food Policy. 2021 May:101:102072. doi: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102072. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Authors

Tina L Saitone¹, K Aleks Schaefer², Daniel P Scheitrum³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, United States.
² Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, United States.
³ Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Arizona, United States.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the extent to which the presence of a large meatpacking (i.e., beef, pork, and broiler chicken) plant has affected county-level COVID-19 transmission dynamics. We find that-within 150 days after emergence of COVID-19 in a given county-the presence of a large beef packing facility increases per capita infection rates by 110%, relative to comparable counties without meatpacking plants. Large pork and chicken processing facilities increase transmission rates by 160% and 20%, respectively. While the presence of this type of industrial agricultural facility is shown to exacerbate initial disease transmission affecting large numbers of individuals in the community, over time daily case rates converge such that rates observed in meatpacking- and non-meatpacking counties become similar. In aggregate, results suggest that 334 thousand COVID-19 infections are attributable to meatpacking plants in the U.S. with associated mortality and morbidity costs totaling more than $11.2 billion.

Keywords: COVID-19; Computational model robustness; Meatpacking; Rural development.