BRIE Working Paper 2021-11 COVID-19’s Impact Upon Labor and Value Chains in

In the following section, we begin by discussing the contours of the debate and questions surrounding the impact of automation and digitalization in US agriculture on work in the agrifood system. [...] We limit our analysis to the question of how COVID and the shocks the pandemic presented to the US agrifood system likely impacted existing trends in automation and digitalization and the implications this presents for actors and workers engaged in the agrifood system. [...] We argue that, while all segments of the US agrifood system experienced increasing digitalization and automation under the rapid and constantly changing conditions of the pandemic, the impact of COVID was most significant for industry, actors, and labor in relation to the farm to consumer segment of the system—that is the warehouse to distributor and retail to consumer segments. [...] In the first phase of the COVID pandemic, the dominant theme continued to be digitalization and platformization, which was advancing under the new normal of separation and distance fueled by, and in turn fueled, the changing character of the activities and various work processes. [...] Having reviewed the associated activities across the main nodes of the agrifood system and the impacts of the COVID pandemic on each, it is clear that, as with other elements of the US economy and social life, the agrifood system was impacted by COVID.