The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented spikes in unemployment as well as widespread school closures. As a result, COVID-19 has exacerbated already limited access to resources and sources of food for food insecure households in the United States. In order to better understand the extent to which COVID-19 has magnified issues of limited food access, this article summarizes trends in food insecurity, nutrition assistance program participation and the food policy responses that have been implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we outlined in the previous edition of Agricultural Policy Review, agriculture felt the sting of COVID-19—the pandemic lowered prices, forced significant shifts in supply chains, and disrupted markets. However, as the summer progressed, there was some recovery in prices, supply chains realigned with consumer demand, and the markets rebalanced to the new conditions under COVID-19.

China’s recent corn price and import hikes beg the question of whether it will expand its corn tariff rate quota (TRQ) to meet growing demand. While China’s corn price increased by about 30% from $6.59/bushel in January 2020 to $8.41/bushel in August 2020 (MARAC 2020), China’s corn imports also reached a record 5.59 million metric tons (MMT) as of August 2020 (GACC 2020). In addition, USDA weekly sales reports show China ordered 2.11 MMTs of corn sales for the 2019/20 marketing year and an additional 9.24 MMTs for the 2020/21 marketing year as of September 10, 2020. USDA daily export notices also show that China ordered 350,000 and 140,000 metric tons of corn on September 14 and 22, respectively (USDA 2020a). If we assume that China will import as much corn from non-US countries from September to December 2020 as it did from September to December 2019, and that the United States exports the 9.24 MMT in booked sales to China in 2020, then China’s total corn imports will reach 15.7 MMT in 2020.

In June and July 2020, severe floods wreaked havoc in many provinces in southern China (Wong 2020). China’s Ministry of Emergency Management reported that rainfall during this year’s rain season reached 759.2 mm, which is more than twice the usual amount and the highest level since 1961.1 According to news from the State Council Information Office, as of August 13, 2020, the heavy rainfall has affected 27 provinces, 63 million people, and led to a direct loss of $26 billion, which is around 0.21% of China’s estimated 2020 GDP. Specifically, the floods affected 6.03 million hectares of cropland, with 1.14 million hectares of crop failure, mostly concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin.2 To put the affected cropland into perspective, the total summer crop sown area in 2020 is 26.17 million hectares; therefore, the floods affected 23% of the planted area of summer crops and caused 4.3% crop failure. After severe flooding in the Yangtze River basin, heavy rain also hit Sichuan and Shandong in mid-August, causing more agricultural production loss and pushing food prices further.