Perishable Food Supply Chain Networks with Labor

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 pandemic. This major healthcare disaster transformed our daily lives and the operations of governments, businesses, educational institutions, and, of course, healthcare. It elevated and expanded the roles of essential workers in healthcare as well as in the food industry. The food industry underwent significant disruptions in the pandemic for reasons that included compromised labor resources. Labor is needed in all food supply chain network activities from production through distribution. With climate change and increasing geopolitical risks, one can expect additional disruptions to our food supply chains and an increase in food insecurity. The major invasion of Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 is further exacerbating food shortages and also pushing food prices higher. In this chapter, a supply chain generalized network optimization framework focused on perishable food is constructed that includes the critical resource of labor. The model captures labor availability and labor productivity in order to quantify the impacts of disruptions due to illnesses, social distancing requirements, decreases in labor productivity, and even reductions in worker availability during times of conflicts and war. Theoretical results and numerical examples for a fresh produce product are detailed with quantification of a spectrum of disruptions on product flows, demands, prices, and the profits of the food firm.