Corby Kummer: Food Waste During The Coronavirus Crisis

Virus Outbreak California — A mother and son select fresh produce while wearing protective masks from the coronavirus at a Farmer's Market in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles on Saturday, April 4, 2020. The mayor of Los Angeles urged 4 million residents to wear masks to combat the coronavirus when they walk out in public.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

April 13, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

The closure of schools, businesses, and restaurants, due to the coronavirus pandemic, has created a problem of abundance with farmers across the country. Food writer Corby Kummer spoke with Boston Public Radio on Monday, about farmers who have excess food.

"There's this double problem of not enough farm workers to harvest food, and food not being distributed," he said. "A single chicken processor is smashing 750,000 unhatched eggs every week and the nation's largest dairy cooperative estimates farmers are dumping 3.7 million gallons of milk each day, because cows don't stop giving milk, chickens don't stop laying eggs, but the distribution channels are getting clogged."

This newfound problem is a terrible irony of fresh food going to waste, Kummer added.

"Then, what's going to come down the line are all of these crops that are going to ripen, and there won't be labor to pick them and they will be plowed under."

Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.