DES MOINES, Iowa -- Higher prices at the meat counter could affect summer grilling season, but a cyberattack shutdown at the world's largest meat packing plant won't lead to another meat shortage.
JBS was forced to shut down its beef plants in the U.S. and operations at other facilities were disrupted.
However, the company's CEO says the "vast majority" of its operations should be up and running before the end of the day.
"It does not appear that this will be like last April and May when the grocery store shelves were empty of beef," said farm reporter Andy Peterson.
He says beef prices were already at record highs before the ransomware attack because of worker shortages during the pandemic and an unpredictable winter blast on farms in the South earlier this spring.
Ransomware attacks seem to be targeting critical infrastructure in the U.S. in a timely manner.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig compares the most recent cyber attack at JBS to the cyber attack at Colonial Pipeline that caused gas shortages in the Southeastern United States and led to higher gas prices across the nation.
"You're talking about critical infrastructure, essential infrastructure to our country. In a way [cyber attacks] are crafted to cause maximum pain. Protect that critical infrastructure, food is certainly a part of that," said Naig.
Naig says hackers are taking advantage during a time when Iowans are grilling out.
JBS/Swift has a pork processing plant in Marshalltown, Iowa.