Update to agriculture, transportation, and the COVID-19 crisis

One year into the largest economic and health event of the past 70 years, this paper considers how agricultural supply chains and agricultural transportation have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Written as an update to Gray (2020), we are able to show that agricultural transportation systems have proven to be extremely robust and were able to innovate in real-time to address challenges in the agricultural and food supply chains. We are also able confirm that most of the transportation components are well-equipped to deal with the remainder of the pandemic and the recovery phase. Notably, innovation created new services, cost-saving technologies, safety innovations, new institutions, networks, and channels of communication that operated effectively to address the pandemic. These changes are likely to remain in place post pandemic.

Automated summary

The paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on agricultural supply chains and transportation, finding that the transportation systems have shown resilience and innovation to address challenges. The majority of transportation components are equipped to handle the remainder of the pandemic and recovery phase. Innovations have led to new services, cost-saving technologies, and effective communication channels.