They had a couple of the bigger meat processors in the country shut down after a number of the people fell ill to the virus. One was a pork producer (ironically owned by China) and anther a beef processor. It wasn't like they could just call up the temporary employment agency for more workers like they usually do as they are infamous for skirting the employment laws using temp. services to hire illegal immigrants, the Hispanic communities have been one of the groups hit hardest by the virus because they tend to live two, three families to a household and household spread is one of the fastest ways it spreads. Meat processing used to be one of the highest paying occupations in the US back a couple decades ago until the influx of illegals, now they pay on average five to ten dollars less an hour and they don't have to pay benefits hiring through temp. agencies. Couple that with the fact the restaurants are closed down and they had to slaughter and cremate thousands of animals because demand dropped....well you know whose paying for those loses. Pork has stayed somewhat stable but beef prices has skyrocketed. It didn't help either once word got out as people went to hoarding meat. Which is sort of stupid if you ask me being spring and summer with all the storms that could potentially take out your power. One day last year we had strong storms go through here and I was without power for four days. A lot of people around here have went to using small local meat markets as a source as they also locally sourced their meat from smaller cattle farmers which didn't suffer from the same loses and problems as the large processors.