By Greg Kozol, News-Press NOW, March 28, 2020

nor-am cold storageAnyone who visits a grocery store notices barren shelves as COVID-19 fuels panic buying.

But a trip to a food-production facility reveals something different. Employee vehicles fill the parking lot, heavy trucks roll in and exhaust pours from the roof.

Why, then, are there fears of food shortages? Part of it is the open-ended nature of the crisis. Unlike a blizzard or hurricane, this is uncharted territory with no end in sight, said Dr. Brian Cronk, chairman of the psychology department at Missouri Western State University.

“A reasonable stockpile for most emergencies is a couple days worth of stuff,” he said. “For this, we don’t know if it’s going to last seven more days, seven more weeks, seven more months. So there’s not really an end date on this, which makes it harder for people.”

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