When we talk about the economic hardships being endured by Americans during this period of COVID-19 shutdowns, we should be especially mindful of our neighbors, the farmers who are seeing the markets for their commodities disappearing.

Egg producers have no one to buy their eggs with the restaurants and cafés shut down. Same with dairy farmers. But we really must pity the poor pork producers.

Large hog processing plants across the upper Midwest have been shutting down after outbreaks of COVID-19 among their workers. This isn’t just a matter of the market drying up, though restaurants that sell a lot of pork are probably selling less via take-out than they were when people could actually come in and dine.

This is a matter of people getting sick from going to work in the processing plants. Farmers who can’t ship hogs to the plants can’t afford to feed them, so they have to get rid of them.

What’s to be done? Pork producers can’t expect plant workers to risk their lives to protect the farmers’ profits. Closing the plants while we battle the virus has to be done.

We know trillions of dollars are already being spent to bolster up the ailing economy. We may have to spend a lot more to keep the ag industry alive.