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During a year when consumers moved toward a more normal state of life, foodservice beef sales recalibrated to higher levels that are more typical of the industry, and online grocery beef purchases grew. 

For consumers of meat, poultry and seafood products, convenience still sells, and concerns about sustainability remain strong. 

Every year at this time, I pore over the CDC reports on foodborne outbreaks, FDA and FSIS recalls, death certificates from the CDC database, and more, looking for trends to see where we have been over the last 12 months and try to get a glimmer of where we are headed.

When I wrote this column last year, I had certainly hoped the difficult situation brought on to all of us from the COVID-19 pandemic would be long behind us. As we all know, we’re not quite there yet.

COVID-19 continues to disrupt expected patterns in the meat and poultry industry.

A recent spate of high-profile ransomware attacks has caught many off guard. Unfortunately, this sort of attack is in its relative infancy.

No two years in farming are alike or free of drama.
This year there is a dramatic reduction in supply, a drought in parts of the corn belt and the significant increase in oil prices.