大象传媒

With a crisis in America's food chain we hear personal stories from across the nation. Many meat processing plants are closed due to coronavirus outbreaks, and Minnesota pig farmer Mike Patterson tells us he has thousands of pigs ready for market, which may end up having to be destroyed. Epidemiologist Tara Smith of Kent State University in Ohio explains why meat processing plants have been so prone to Covid-19. And with President Trump trying to use executive powers to force their reopening, Mark Lauritsen, meatpackers representative at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, discusses concerns that will put workers' lives at risk. Also in the programme, Europe's biggest economy, Germany, is formally in recession. But the hit to its GDP in the first three months of the year was not as dramatic as in Italy or France. We find out why from Professor Timo Wollmersh盲user, head of economic forecasts at the University of Munich's Institute for Economic Research. And for a business perspective we turn to Henning Fehrmann, who runs two engineering companies in Hamburg. Plus, we explore whether musicians who have had to cancel tours as a result of coronavirus stand a chance of recouping lost income through music sales and streaming, with Andrea Martin, chief executive of PRS for Music, which helps artists get paid for recordings and performances.

(Picture: Pigs on a farm in Minnesota. Picture credit: Reuters.)