'Downward spiral': Farmer describes 'complete peril' on CNN after COVID-19 shuts down meat-packing plants

The closure of meat-packing plants throughout the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic has left many farms absolutely devastated -- and one farmer told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Tuesday that her industry is in "complete peril."

Jen Sorenson, the president-elect of the National Pork Producers Council, painted a dire picture of the virus's impact on farmers, and she said farms across the country are in desperate need of financial assistance.

"We're losing about $70 per hog right now, and we're in a downward spiral," she said. "If we don't do something quickly, we'll see further consolidation and loss of thousands of family farms... we're in complete peril."

Sorenson also said that farmers are now looking at "euthanizing a large number of hogs" because there are not enough processing facilities to handle them.

"Our hogs have been backing up for over four weeks now, which means that we have no place to market our hogs to," she said. "We're exhausting every plan, every resource, from having to prevent farmers from euthanizing our hogs."

Watch the video below.