Trump to Order U.S. Meat Plants to Stay Open Amid Pandemic-14,259 workers infected-59 dead-22 plants closed

[Treyfish]

Donald Trump will use Defense Production Act to ORDER meat-processing plants to stay open after Tyson food boss warned of shortages of beef, pork and chicken as coronavirus hits workers

• President Donald Trump will sign an executive order declaring the food supply chain critical infrastructure and order meat processing plants to remain open
• He will use the Defense Production Act to order the plants open
• Earlier Trump tried to calm mounting fears over a food shortage
• 'There is no shortage of meat destined for the grocery store shelf,' he retweeted
• Message comes as country's largest meat companies have closed processing plants after outbreaks of coronavirus
• Meat prices are expected to rise and choices will be limited
• Live stock farmers are facing difficult choices, such as having piglets aborted and euthanizing animals as they run out of space to house them
• Pork industry hit especially hard by the pandemic

President Donald Trump on Tuesday will sign an executive order declaring the food supply chain critical infrastructure and order meat processing plants to remain open amid scares of a shortage.

Trump will use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open, and the government will provide additional protective gear for employees as well as safety guidelines, Bloomberg News reported.

'We're going to sign an executive order today, I believe,' the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. 'We'll be in very good shape. We're working with Tyson, one of the big companies in that world. We always work with the farmers.'

'There's plenty of supply, it's distribution,' he added. 'And we will probably have that today solved. It's a very unique circumstance, because of liability.'

Earlier Tuesday Trump tried to calm mounting fears of a food crisis by telling Americans 'there is no shortage of meat.'

The country's largest meat companies - including Smithfield Foods Inc , Cargill Inc , JBS USA and Tyson Foods Inc - have halted operations at about 20 slaughterhouses and processing plants in North America since April after workers became ill with the coronavirus, sparking fears of a meat shortage. .....https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...stay-open.html

[Treyfish]

Trump to Order U.S. Meat Plants to Stay Open Amid Pandemic



Jennifer Jacobs
BloombergApril 28, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump plans to order meat-processing plants to remain open, declaring them critical infrastructure as the nation confronts growing disruptions to the food supply from the coronavirus outbreak, a person familiar with the matter said.

Trump plans to use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open during the pandemic, and the government will provide additional protective gear for employees as well as guidance, according to the person.

Trump signaled the executive action at the White House on Tuesday, saying he planned to sign an order aimed at Tyson Foods Inc.’s liability, which had become “a road block” for the company. He didn’t elaborate.

The order, though, will not be limited to Tyson, the person said. It will affect many processing plants supplying beef, chicken, eggs and pork.

Trump’s order sets the stage for a showdown between America’s meat giants, who’ve been pressing to reopen plants hit by mass outbreaks, and local officials and labor unions who’ve called for closures and are trying to prevent the virus from spreading. The president himself has long agitated for Americans to return to work and restore a U.S. economy crippled by social distancing measures.

The White House decided to make the move amid estimates that as much as 80% of U.S. meat production capacity could shut down. Meat stocks rose on the news.

...Across the country, at least 6,500 meat processing employees have been impacted by the virus, meaning they either tested positive for the disease or had to go into self-quarantine, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the largest private-sector union. Twenty workers have died.

At least 22 meat plants have closed within the past two months, reducing pork processing capacity by 25% and beef processing capacity by 10%,
.....https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump...170041467.html

[Treyfish]

EXECUTIVE ORDERS
Executive Order on Delegating Authority Under the DPA with Respect to Food Supply Chain Resources During the National Emergency Caused by the Outbreak of COVID-19


LAND & AGRICULTURE



Issued on: April 28, 2020

---

---

• By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.) (the “Act”), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. The 2019 novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing outbreaks of the disease COVID-19, has significantly disrupted the lives of Americans. In Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak), I declared that the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States constituted a national emergency, beginning March 1, 2020. Since then, the American people have united behind a policy of mitigation strategies, including social distancing, to flatten the curve of infections and reduce the spread of COVID-19. The COVID-19 outbreak and these necessary mitigation measures have taken a dramatic toll on the United States economy and critical infrastructure.

It is important that processors of beef, pork, and poultry (“meat and poultry”) in the food supply chain continue operating and fulfilling orders to ensure a continued supply of protein for Americans. However, outbreaks of COVID-19 among workers at some processing facilities have led to the reduction in some of those facilities’ production capacity. In addition, recent actions in some States have led to the complete closure of some large processing facilities. Such actions may differ from or be inconsistent with interim guidance recently issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the Department of Labor entitled “Meat and Poultry Processing Workers and Employers” providing for the safe operation of such facilities.

Such closures threaten the continued functioning of the national meat and poultry supply chain, undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency. Given the high volume of meat and poultry processed by many facilities, any unnecessary closures can quickly have a large effect on the food supply chain. For example, closure of a single large beef processing facility can result in the loss of over 10 million individual servings of beef in a single day. Similarly, under established supply chains, closure of a single meat or poultry processing facility can severely disrupt the supply of protein to an entire grocery store chain.

Accordingly, I find that meat and poultry in the food supply chain meet the criteria specified in section 101(b) of the Act (50 U.S.C. 4511(b)). Under the delegation of authority provided in this order, the Secretary of Agriculture shall take all appropriate action under that section to ensure that meat and poultry processors continue operations consistent with the guidance for their operations jointly issued by the CDC and OSHA. Under the delegation of authority provided in this order, the Secretary of Agriculture may identify additional specific food supply chain resources that meet the criteria of section 101(b).

Sec. 2. Ensuring the Continued Supply of Meat and Poultry. (a) Notwithstanding Executive Order 13603 of March 16, 2012 (National Defense Resources Preparedness), the authority of the President to require performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, and to implement the Act in subchapter III of chapter 55 of title 50, United States Code (50 U.S.C. 4554, 4555, 4556, 4559, 4560), is delegated to the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food supply chain resources, including meat and poultry, during the national emergency caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 within the United States.

(b) Secretary of Agriculture shall use the authority under section 101 of the Act, in consultation with the heads of such other executive departments and agencies as he deems appropriate, to determine the proper nationwide priorities and allocation of all the materials, services, and facilities necessary to ensure the continued supply of meat and poultry, consistent with the guidance for the operations of meat and poultry processing facilities jointly issued by the CDC and OSHA.

(c) The Secretary of Agriculture shall issue such orders and adopt and revise appropriate rules and regulations as may be necessary to implement this order.
Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:



(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 28, 2020.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/president...reak-covid-19/

[Emily]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-livestock-insight/piglets-aborted-chickens-gassed-as-pandemic-slams-meat-sector-idUSKCN2292YS

Business News
April 27, 2020 / 9:41 PM / Updated 16 hours ago
Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector
Tom Polansek, P.J. Huffstutter
...
In Minnesota, farmers Kerry and Barb Mergen felt their hearts pound when a crew from Daybreak Foods Inc arrived with carts and tanks of carbon dioxide to euthanize their 61,000 egg-laying hens earlier this month.

Daybreak Foods, based in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, supplies liquid eggs to restaurants and food-service companies. The company, which owns the birds, pays contract farmers like the Mergens to feed and care for them. Drivers normally load the eggs onto trucks and haul them to a plant in Big Lake, Minnesota, which uses them to make liquid eggs for restaurants and ready-to-serve dishes for food-service companies. But the plant’s operator, Cargill Inc, said it idled the facility because the pandemic reduced demand.
...
DUMPING HOGS IN A LANDFILL


In Iowa, farmer Dean Meyer said he is part of a group of about nine producers who are euthanizing the smallest 5% of their newly born pigs, or about 125 piglets a week. They will continue euthanizing animals until disruptions ease, and could increase the number of pigs killed each week, he said. The small bodies are composted and will become fertilizer. Meyer’s group is also killing mother hogs, or sows, to reduce their numbers, he said.
...
“There are 700,000 pigs across the nation that cannot be processed each week and must be humanely euthanized,” said the April 27 letter.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said late Friday it is establishing a National Incident Coordination Center to help farmers find markets for their livestock, or euthanize and dispose of animals if necessary...

[bertrand789]

La crise de Covid-19 frappe durement la production porcine am?ricaine

https://www.pigprogress.net/World-of...-hard-576238E/

Il y est ?voqu? ceci :
Pendant ce temps, la question de l'euthanasie a ?galement attir? l'attention de l'organisation animaliste mondiale World Animal Protection . Ils ont envoy? une lettre ? l'American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) pour indiquer deux m?thodes que l'organisation consid?re comme inhumaines.

cela fait partie des sujets que l'on voudrait ne jamais avoir ? lire et portant...

[Treyfish]

...Teams from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are being dispatched to poultry plants in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, including Accomack County, just south of the Maryland state line, where Tyson Foods and Salisbury-based Perdue Farms have facilities which employ about 3,000 workers.

The federal response came after Maryland Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan (R), Delaware Gov. John Carney (D) and Virginia Gov. Ralph S. Northam (D) sent a letter to President Trump.
On Monday, poultry workers and supporters rallied across U.S. Route 13 from the Perdue plant in Accomac, where employees want more done to protect them, including a shutdown for deep cleaning.
In Maryland, the Wicomico County Health Department announced Tuesday that it would begin conducting drive-through COVID-19 tests this week for critical workers and their families — including those at chicken plants — at the parking lot of Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury.

Critical employees and their family members do not need a doctor’s note to receive a test — in contrast to many other testing stations around the state.

Poultry processors on the Eastern Shore announced this week that they killed 2 million chickens because they lacked the staff to process them....https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020...hicken-plants/

[Treyfish]

Trump signs Executive Order keeping meat plants open despite coronavirus fears
29 April 2020, at 12:29pm

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered meat-processing plants to stay open to protect the food supply in the United States, despite concerns about coronavirus outbreaks, drawing a backlash from unions that said at-risk workers required more protection.

With concerns about food shortages and supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19, Trump issued an executive order using the Defense Production Act to mandate that the plants continue to function.

The world's biggest meat companies, including Smithfield Foods Inc, Cargill Inc, JBS USA and Tyson, have halted operations at about 20 slaughterhouses and processing plants in North America as workers fall ill, stoking global fears of a meat shortage.

The order is designed in part to give companies legal cover with more liability protection in case employees catch the virus as a result of having to go to work.

John H. Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, said on Sunday that the food supply chain was "breaking" and warned of the potential for meat shortages.

Before issuing the executive order, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that signing the order, "... will solve any liability problems," adding, "And we always work with the farmers. There's plenty of supply."

The executive order, released Tuesday evening, said the closure of just one large beef-processing plant could result in 10 million fewer individual servings of beef in a day.

"Such closures threaten the continued functioning of the national meat and poultry supply chain, undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency," the order said.

A senior administration official said the US government would also provide guidance to minimise risk to workers who are especially vulnerable to the virus, such as encouraging older workers and those with other chronic health issues to stay home.

Unions were not impressed. Some farmers said it was too late because pigs had been euthanised already instead of the pork going to market.

“While we share the concern over the food supply, today’s executive order to force meatpacking plants to stay open must put the safety of our country’s meatpacking workers first," the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said in a statement.

UFCW, the largest US meat-packing union, demanded that the administration compel meat companies to provide "the highest level of protective equipment" to slaughterhouse workers and ensure daily coronavirus testing.

The senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said if action were not taken, the vast majority of processing plants could have shut down for a period of time, reducing capacity by as much as 80 percent......https://thepigsite.com/news/2020/04/...onavirus-fears

[Treyfish]

Virus-related food shortages will be temporary in U.S., experts say

Amid predictions of global famine, American consumers will see disruptions until the economy is back online.

Tim Hearden | Apr 29, 2020


Amid coronavirus-related food shortages a United Nations agency warns could cause “famines of biblical proportions” worldwide, supply disruptions in the United States will be temporary but noticeable, industry and food-security experts tell Farm Progress.

Closures of meat packing plants around the country are causing supply-chain hiccups that could make some cuts of meat scarcer or more expensive in the coming weeks, industry insiders say.



How long the disruptions last will depend on how many animals producers have to kill because of a lack of processing capacity and a resulting lack of income, said Ryan Bernstein, senior vice president of the McGuireWoods legal and public policy consulting firm.

“Right now a lot of producers are making decisions based on this year’s production and how much they can handle, especially in the hog world,” said Bernstein, a former Capitol Hill aide and a South Dakota farmer.

“Do you cull the ones that are about ready to go to market, or also the ones that are just being born?” he said. “Those decisions that are being made now will really impact whether or not we’ll see short-term or long-term (shortages) if people are starting to have to cull new piglets that are being born now.”
Some shortages expected


Some meat shortages can be expected in the next few months, said Steve Groff, a Pennsylvania-based farmer and cover crop expert who has worked to improve nutrition in the developing world.

Americans are accustomed to a “just in time” food system that has now been significantly disrupted, and some commodities such as tomatoes can’t just be stored on the shelf for a few weeks until things get sorted out, he noted. That said, Groff doesn’t anticipate shortages in vegetables, he said.

“I don’t think there’s going to be any widespread famine, but I do thin there will be sporadic, intermittent food shortages with certain things,” Groff said. “Meat is the obvious thing right now. I’m telling people the next time they go to the grocery store, buy a little extra hamburger … If you have a freezer, fill it up.”

A meat shortage could create an opportunity for plant-based meat substitutes to fill gaps, although that industry is now geared largely to restaurants and is having to shift its attention more toward consumers at home, Bernstein said.
‘Hunger pandemic’


The remarks come after David Beasley, director of the United Nations’ World Food Program, said last week that production stoppages and trade disruptions because of the coronavirus outbreak could contribute to a global “hunger pandemic” of “multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months.”

A separate report April 23 by the International Food Policy Research Institute said the COVID-19 pandemic “has all the makings of a perfect storm for global malnutrition,” with vulnerable groups in developing countries facing “a dangerous decline in dietary quality” stemming from income losses related to government-imposed shutdowns of businesses and schools.

The group noted the virus particularly threatens maternal and child health, both directly and indirectly. Pregnant women and mothers with young children are vulnerable to COVID-19 itself, but they’re also less likely to receive the routine health services they need because of travel restrictions or heavily impacted health facilities, the IFPRI asserts.

“Every economist agrees that the massive hit to the world economy and trade will likely cause millions of very poor people to be out of work and with no income,” said agricultural economist Daniel Sumner, director of the University of California’s Agricultural Issues Center. “This is a consequence of the disease, but also of the policy of shutting down the economy.

“In poor countries, when the economy is shut down, the poorest people get even more hungry and people die, especially the kids,” Sumner said in an email.
Plant capacity reduced


In the United States, Bloomberg News cites estimates that as much as 80 percent of U.S. meat production capacity could ....https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-bu...us-experts-say

[Treyfish]

Coronavirus: 200 Romanians test positive for bug at a German slaughterhouse

PUBLISHED
APR 29, 2020, 12:59 AM SGT
FACEBOOKTWITTER
BERLIN (AFP) - Around 200 Romanians working at a German slaughterhouse have tested positive for the new coronavirus, Romania's foreign ministry (MFA) said on Tuesday (April 28).

According to the ministry, those infected had all been working at a slaughterhouse in the southwestern German town of Birkenfeld, where 500 of the 700 employees are Romanian.

"German authorities say 300 employees are confirmed with Covid-19 and are now in quarantine. So far there is no precise data regarding the citizenship of those infected, but the majority (over 200) are Romanian citizens," the ministry said in a statement....https://www.straitstimes.com/world/e...slaughterhouse

[Treyfish]

NAT'L PORK PRODUCERS COUNCIL ISSUES STATEMENT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT
Apr. 29, 2020

Source: National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) news release

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Trump last night invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to extend much-needed federal support to the U.S. pork production system. By triggering the DPA, the federal government will prioritize the continuity of pork processing plant operations. The following statement may be attributed to Howard "A.V." Roth, NPPC president and a producer from Wauzeka, Wisconsin.

"We are thankful for the support extended by our federal, state and local government leaders. As we all work together to protect workers and the nation's food supply, we need uniform and consistent solutions and all available resources to address this unprecedented crisis. We thank President Trump for taking this step.

"We must safely stabilize the current plant capacity challenge and overcome other major hurdles facing the nation's pork production system, one that employs 550,000 workers and gen...https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/130169

[Treyfish]

THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM

April 29, 2020
With numerous stories emerging about the the bottlenecks associated with the closure of meat packing plants, my sense is that many consumers and journalists have a hard time grasping the nature and scale of the problem. Here’s a little primer.

Poultry, hog, and to a somewhat lesser extent, cattle, production operate on a just-in-time basis. From the day a sow (a mama pig) becomes pregnant, a chain of events is set in motion that will result in a pig being sent to the packing plant in approximately 300 days. The well-orchestrated supply chain involves the coordination of many players operating in a timely manner. Once piglets are born, they move to a farrowing house for 3 weeks. Then, they are moved to another barn or farm in a nursey for 7 weeks. After that, hogs are moved again to growing or finishing barn for about 16 weeks. Check out this useful graphic from the National Pork Board.

If the finished pigs, who weigh a..http://jaysonlusk.com/blog/2020/4/29...of-the-problem

[Treyfish]

These are the meat plants in Canada affected by the coronavirus outbreak

Brooklyn NeustaeterCTVNews.ca Writer

@bneustaeter Contact

Published Wednesday, April 29, 2020 11:23AM EDT
Last Updated Wednesday, April 29, 2020 1:25PM EDT


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the shutdown of meat plants in his daily public briefing on Wednesday, saying the federal government’s priority is ensuring those supply chains keep functioning and that its workers feel safe.

"The priority or the preoccupation and challenges we're facing isn't as much around safety of the food produced, which continues to be ensured, but the safety of the workers working in those plants because of COVID-19," Trudeau said. "That is something that requires a little more work and a little more co-ordination to ensure that we're keeping those workers safe, not just the food safe -- which is always a priority for us all."

Trudeau said the federal government is working "very closely" with the agricultural industry and provinces to ensure that meat plants continue to get food to Canadians while adhering to public health measures.

CTVNews.ca looks at which processing plants are seeing outbreaks and what the companies are doing to ensure Canada maintains a safe supply of meat.

CARGILL INC.

Cargill Inc. -- one of Alberta's largest meat processing plants -- shut down its plant in High River on April 20 after a 68-year-old woman who worked at the plant died from COVID-19.

As of Tuesday, there are now 759 cases of COVID-19 confirmed among workers at the Cargill plant. It's the largest outbreak linked to a single site in Canada.

;;;;
The Cargill plant processes about 4,500 head of cattle per day -- more than one-third of Canada's beef-processing capacity.


JBS CANADA


The JBS meat-packing plant in Brooks, Alta. has recorded 124 cases as of COVID-19 and one death as of Monday. The plant has reduced operations but remains open.

A petition has been launched calling for a temporary two-week shutdown of the facility to limit the spread of the virus, and for an inspection to ensure public health measures are being upheld.

JBS and Cargill make up 70 per cent of Canada's beef processing, according to the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA).
....

To cope with the backlog, Laycraft said producers are keeping cattle on feed for longer to slow ....their growth.
...

CONESTOGA MEATS
Pork processing plant Conestoga Meats in the Waterloo, Ont. region halted operations April 24 after seven of its employees tested positive for COVID-19. The plant will not be processing hogs for at least 7 days, resulting in limited staffing and operations. The company typically processes between 35,000 to 40,000 hogs a week
....

UNITED POULTRY CO.
The United Poultry Co. Ltd. plant in Vancouver temporarily closed on April 20 after 28 workers at the plant tested positive for COVID-19. The outbreak prompted a statement from B.C. Premier John Horgan who said that sick employees must stay home after learning that workers stayed on the job for fear of losing wages.
...
Two cases of COVID-19 were also confirmed at United Poultry Co.’s sister plant Superior Poultry on April 23. An investigation at the plant is underway.

OLYMEL

Quebec's Olymel slaughterhouse closed on March 29 after nine cases of COVID-19 were detected among its workforce. More than 100 workers at the facility were later found to have been infected.

The plant has since reopened following an increase in disinfection measures and screening activities issued by the region's health authorities. The plant’s entire workforce was in self-isolation duri...

MAPLE LEAF FOODS

Major poultry plant Maple Leaf Foods located in Brampton, Ont. suspended operations on April 8 after three people working at the facility tested positive for COVID-19.
...er, the company says the plant remained open as the worker had not been at the plant for two weeks before the diagnosis.


IMPACT FELT ELSEWHERE

As meat plants make changes to production, the impact is starting to be felt in grocery stores across the country with slower operations struggling to meet demand.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in a video conference in mid April that she is confident Canada has enough food amid the COVID-19 pandemic but said higher prices and less variety on store shelves....

McDonald's Canada says it will start importing beef as Canada's food supply chain struggles to meet demand amid changes in operations to meat plants amid COVID-19. The restaurant chain, which prides itself on using only Canadian beef, said in a statement released April 28 that it had to change its policy due to limited processing capacity at Canadian suppliers including those at Cargill Inc.

In the United States, President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that meat-processing plants remain open to protect the country’s food supply, despite concerns it puts employees at risk of catching the virus.

At least 15 large plants in the U.S., including major producer JBS USA, Smithfield Foods, and Tyson Foods, among others, have temporarily closed or reduced production due to outbreaks.

Earlier this month Prime Min......https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/corona...reak-1.4916957

[Treyfish]

Tyson Fresh Meats Temporarily Pausing Production at Dakota City, Neb, Beef Plant

Plant to conduct deep clean and sanitization after team member screening for COVID-19

Email Print Friendly Share
April 29, 2020 19:38 ET | Source: Tyson Foods, Inc.

SPRINGDALE, Ark., April 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., the beef and pork subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN), is currently winding down production and will temporarily pause operations Friday, May 1 through Monday, May 4 at its Dakota City, Neb., beef facility to complete a deep cleaning of the entire plant. The company has been working closely with the local health department and is also in the process of screening plant team members for COVID-19 this week, with assistance from the Nebraska National Guard.


The facility, one of the largest beef processing plant in the country, employs a workforce of 4,300 and normally produces enough beef in one day to feed 18 million people, however with increased absenteeism over the last few weeks the company has scaled back production. While the plant is temporarily idled, and in collaboration with UFCW Local 222, team members will continue to be compensated and asked to continue following CDC guidance such as social distancing, persistent hand washing and wearing of facial coverings to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Team member safety has and continues to be top priority for us and we’re grateful for our team members and their critical role in helping us fulfill, to the best of our ability, our commitment to helping feed people in our community and across the nation,” said Shane Miller, senior vice president & general manager beef enterprise, Tyson Fresh Meats. “We’ve been focused on COVID-19 since January when we first formed a company coronavirus task force. Since that time, we’ve implemented numerous measures to protect workers and, at times, have gone beyond CDC guidance.”

Tyson Foods was one of the first food companies to start taking worker temperatures and has installed more than 150 infrared temperature scanners in its facilities. The company started efforts to secure a supply of facial coverings before the CDC recommended them and now requires and provides them for all team members in all facilities.

Last week a team from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, working with local health officials, toured the facility and were able to see preventive measures the company has implemented to enhance the safety of its team members.

“We have a dedicated health and safety team working with local, state and federal health officials and our facility operations team to make timely decisions about operations,” said Miller. “Our decisions on resuming operations during this challenging time will continue to be based on team member safety.”

Tyson Fresh Meats voluntarily idled its pork facilities in Waterloo and Perry, Iowa, and Logansport, Ind. and beef facility in Pasco, Wash. while team members undergo screening and plants complete deep cleaning of the facilities. The company’s other meat and poultry plants currently continue to operate, but some are running at significantly reduced levels of production due to the planned implementation of additional worker safety precautions.

About Tyson Foods
Tyson Foods, Inc. is one of the world’s largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein. Founded in 1935 by John W. Tyson and grown under three generations of family leadership, the company has a broad portfolio of products and brands like Tyson^?, Jimmy Dean^?, Hillshire Farm^?, Ball Park^?, Wright^?, Aidells^?, ibp^?and State Fair^?. Tyson Foods innovates continually to make protein more sustainable, tailor food for everywhere it’s available and raise the world’s expectations for how much good food can do. Headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, the company has 141,000 team members. Through its Core Values, Tyson Foods strives to operate with integrity, create value for its shareholders, customers, communities and team members and serve as a steward of the animals, land and environment entrusted to it. Visit TYSONFOODS.COM.

Media Contact:
Liz Croston, 605-235-3657, liz.croston@tyson.com
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...eef-Plant.html

[Treyfish]

As slaughterhouses close, farmers may have to cull thousands of hogs a day. Those carcasses need to go somewhere—and there are no good options
by H. Claire Brown

04.30.2020, 11:43am

Burning, burying, or composting up to 70,000 hog carcasses a day—or even grinding them into dust—could have serious consequences for our air and drinking water.

Earlier this week, Democratic House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson shared a striking figure with a CNN reporter: Farmers may need to start euthanizing 60,000 to 70,000 pigs per day as slaughterhouses shutter due to rising Covid-19 infections among the meatpacking industry workforce.

It’s a staggering number. In 2018, when Hurricane Florence swept through the Southeast, drowning and suffocating pigs and chickens housed along eastern North Carolina’s flood plains, a total of 5,500 hogs were killed. Now, those casualties may be multiplied tenfold—every single day.

“It is not possible to continue to hold animals on ranches and farms and other pre-processing sites indefinitely for humane and economic reasons,” wrote a USDA spokesperson in an email to The Counter. As we reported earlier this month, animals that stay on the farm after their scheduled slaughter date can outgrow their barns and start having health problems. Culling is a last resort, and farmers are using a variety of tactics to avoid it. Some are feeding pigs soybean hulls, which are mostly fiber and low in calories. Others are turning up the heat in their barns to simulate summer so the animals will gain weight more slowly. It likely won’t be enough: As of Wednesday, about a quarter of the hog processing capacity in the United States had come to a halt.

Manu Raju✔@mkraju
Spoke with House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson about the threat to the nation’s pork supply. And he said that farmers will have to kill tens of thousands of pigs a day because of shuttered processing facilities -- and says that the US pork supply is now at serious risk
614
1:35 PM - Apr 27, 2020

The logistical and economic barriers to disposing of so many animals are enormous. But beyond those immediate concerns, the environmental impacts of wide-scale culling may be felt for decades to come.

It’s unclear how President Trump’s new executive order classifying meatpacking plants as critical infrastructure under the Defense Production Act might impact plant closures. On Wednesday, the Department of Labor issued a statement suggesting that local and state politicians do not have the authority to force plant closures in the event of an outbreak of Covid-19. In the coming days, many plants that have been forced to close may reopen, even as employees continue to report infections. Regardless, producers are preparing for the worst.

“To be very candid with you folks, this is going to be a tough slog,” said Bill Even, CEO of the National ....https://thecounter.org/hog-farmers-c...rus-slaughter/

[Treyfish]

6th Employee At JBS Meat Packaging Plant Dies From Coronavirus

April 30, 2020 at 1:03 pm



WELD COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – Union officials for JBS employees in Weld County confirm to CBS4 a sixth employee has died from coronavirus. The latest details were revealed on Thursday.

The plant reopened last Friday after being shut down for cleaning earlier this month. Now, an executive order from Pres. Donald Trump requires all such plants in the country to remain open to safeguard the food supply.
Union officials did not identify the sixth victim. They say, according to county data, more than 120 JBS employees tested positive for COVID-19; 74 of whom are United Food and Commercial Workers (UCFW) Local 7 members....https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/04/...s-coronavirus/