Chloe Johnson and her husband, Craig Scariot, did not grow up on farms. He studied finance and she has an IT job. But in 2015, they bought a 100-year-old ranch in Longmont, Colorado, stocked it with chickens, pigs and sheep, and built a business selling organic, grass-fed meat directly to consumers.

Running SkyPilot Farm hasnt been easy or made them rich. But the pair are having unexpected success during the current crisis, which has them cautiously optimistic about the future of local, sustainable agriculture.

The commercial meat industry, highly centralized and largely controlled by four companies Cargill, JBS, Smithfield and Tyson has been rocked by the coronavirus. As the virus spread to some of the countrys largest meat processing facilities, it killed workers and forced plants to shut down for deep cleaning. Nearly 5,000 meatpacking employees have contracted COVID-19 at 115 meat and poultry processing facilities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . With animals lining up for slaughter and nowhere to take them, the price of beef and pork has plummeted and livestock producers have resorted to euthanizing surplus stock.

In total, the pandemic could bleed the beef industry of an estimated $13.6 billion, according to a study by Oklahoma State University , the potential fallout from which prompted President Donald Trump to issue an executive order on April 28 calling for plants to remain open.

Without immediate assistance, the National Cattlemens Beef Association begged in a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, our industry may suffer enough loss to push some cattle producers past the point of rescue.

Beside a pen filled with baaing sheep and rowdy 3-week-old lambs, Johnson and Scariot, wearing mud-caked boots and sweat-stained trucker hats, described an altogether different reality. Its only gotten busier, Scariot said, scratching the ears of a Blue Heeler cattle dog at his feet. Since the outbreak, sales at SkyPilot have increased about 400% and the customer base has tripled.