Agriculture under the specter of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Just like other sectors of the economy, the US agricultural sector has seen an economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As various economic sectors resume activity, businesses are adjusting to living with the virus. Agricultural producers and USDA are reevaluating commodity markets and changing outlooks for the rest of the year. Schulz and Hart compare USDA's meat, corn, and soybean projections from January 2020 with the most recent update, released in mid-June 2020, and find that the outlook changes are much more concentrated on prices than production.