CLFP Insider

When you’re discussing the state of the food and beverage industry, the pandemic isn’t just the elephant in the room. It’s the elephant who’s sitting on your lap and sticking its trunk in your ear – impossible to even pretend to ignore.

The nation’s food workers, hit hard by Covid-19 infections throughout the crisis, are finding resistance in the race to get vaccinated. The industry is clamoring to prioritize frontline food workers who kept Americans fed throughout the worst of the pandemic even as thousands of them fell sick and hundreds died. But limited doses and a haphazard patchwork of distribution plans are leading to fears that thousands more workers will get hit — potentially stymieing food production in the coming weeks and months.

Two CLFP committees will hold virtual meetings in February. The Agricultural Production Committee will meet on Feb. 23, and the Tomato Processing Research Committee will meet on Feb. 24. Plans are being made to hold other CLFP committee meetings later this year.

Fresno State will conduct a virtual job and internship fair on February 3,

The current economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic is like nothing we have experienced in modern times. The economic pain has disproportionately impacted public-facing businesses and their workers, along with small business owners statewide. Surprisingly, however, much of the California economy has been spared due to the ability of workers to telecommute or to continue on the job utilizing safety protocols. Further, a buoyant stock market and surprisingly strong real estate market created capital gains revenues double the amount forecast in 2020.