Dear INFORMS members:
I wanted to kindly share an interview that came this evening in San Francisco Bay area new channel, KTUV (channel 2)
Here is a summary of my interview with them.
"We are in the middle of a crisis situation. Today, my interview came in the San Francisco Bay area news channel, KTUV. It is related to the food shortages faced by groceries, food banks who supply those in need (we saw all those long lines at the food banks on television). On the contrary, we also see farmers throwing away perishables such as milk, eggs, vegetables as the distribution channels that supply restaurants, schools etc. are broken and non-existent due to the demand vanishing there suddenly. My thoughts are to re-direct the food meant for those channels to channels where there is strong demand now (grocery stores and food banks) . Government (local, state and federal government) and the distributors have to work with farmers to accomplish this. It has to be done quickly to save all that food wastage which is badly needed at those new demand points. The previous distribution network has to be used in an efficient way and should adapt itself to the changing demand nodes, by partnering with the supply nodes (farmers)".
Only a short 1 minute (2 clips) of my total 15 minute interview appeared (the above is what I stated in my interview, but they had only a short synopsis). Here is the link.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/dual-supply-chains-how-the-pandemic-is-creating-an-artificial-food-shortage
Ramesh Bollapragada,
Director of Research , College of Business,
Professor, Decision Sciences, College of Business,
1600 Holloway Avenue,
San Francisco, CA 94132
Email: rameshb@sfsu.edu
http://online.sfsu.edu/~rameshb/CV_linkedin/