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

COVID-19 cases confirmed at 3 Alberta meat-packing plants

Cases have been reported at Cargill, JBS and Harmony — which produce most of Canada's beef

Sarah Rieger ? CBC News ? Posted: Apr 15, 2020 5:41 PM MT | Last Updated: 10 hours ago
COVID-19 cases have been confirmed at three Alberta meat-packing plants and the union representing workers is asking companies to proactively shut down

Cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at a third Alberta meat-packing plant, according to the union that represents those workers.

United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union local 401 president Thomas Hesse said three cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at the JBS plant in Brooks, Alta.

At the Cargill plant in High River, there are 38 COVID-19 cases, and in March one worker at Harmony Beef in Balzac tested positive. ..:tiphat:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...533574?cmp=rss
 
Nearly 30 Patients, Workers Test Positive for COVID-19 at Florida Nursing Home

Other residents at the Freedom Square Seminole Nursing Pavilion will be tested and the facility is being cleaned

By Associated Press • Published 31 mins ago • Updated 31 mins ago

About 30 patients and staff members at a Tampa Bay area nursing home have tested positive for the coronavirus and some patients have been taken to three hospitals for treatment, officials said.

Other residents at the Freedom Square Seminole Nursing Pavilion will be tested and the facility is being cleaned, Pinellas County Assistant Administrator Lourdes Benedict told the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday.

Statewide, there are 1,332 cases in Florida long-term care facilities, according to the latest state data released Wednesday...:tiphat:https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...-home/2220666/
 
Canadian Meat Industry Warns Of "Immediate And Drastic" Impact To Supply

by Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/16/2020 - 06:30

We have been covering the impact of coronavirus on meat processing facilities in the U.S. and now it looks as though Canada is feeling the shockwaves as well.

The country's supply chain could come under pressure as industry leaders in Canada have warned of "immediate and drastic" effects from the closures of key North American meat processing facilities, according to CTV.

And in Canada, a number of facilities have been reduced, including one Cargill plant in Alberta where dozens of employees have tested positive for coronavirus.

Michelle McMullen, communications manager at the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said: "This single facility represents just over one-third of Canada’s total processing capability, so the impacts to the Canadian beef industry are expected to be immediate and drastic."...:tiphat:https://www.zerohedge.com/health/can...-impact-supply
 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team arrives in Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls, SD
CUDAHY, Wis. (AP) — Smithfield Foods will temporarily close its meat processing plants in Cudahy, Wisconsin and Martin City, Missouri because of the coronavirus pandemic. The plant near Milwaukee will be closed for two weeks while the facility in Missouri is closed indefinitely. The Missouri plant receives raw material from the company’s Sioux Falls facility, which is also closed.:tiphat:https://www.brookingsradio.com/cente...n-sioux-falls/
 
USDA TO BUY AS MUCH EXCESS MILK AND MEAT AS POSSIBLE, SAYS PERDUE

BESIDES BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CASH PAYMENTS TO FARMERS, CORONAVIRUS RELIEF WILL INCLUDE PURCHASES OF “AS MUCH” MILK AND MEAT AS POSSIBLE, SAID AGRICULTURE SECRETARY SONNY PERDUE.
By
Chuck Abbott
4/16/2020
Besides billions of dollars in cash payments to farmers, coronavirus relief will include purchases of “as much” milk and meat as possible for hunger relief, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday. President ***** says at least $16 billion will be spent on aid to agriculture.

The pandemic and accompanying economic slowdown are expected to wallop the sector. Stay-at-home orders and the near-shutdown of the food service industry “have led to marke....

Pork processors are likely to slow production during April, May, and June, when the impacts of the pandemic are expected to be the most severe, said the USDA’s monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook. “Some postponed animal slaughter is likely to be rolled forward to succeeding quarters.”...:tiphat:https://www.agriculture.com/news/bus...le-says-perdue
 
5 Tyson employees have died of COVID-19, as hundreds of slaughterhouse workers fall ill. Tyson still does not offer paid sick leave.

Kate Taylor

12 minutes ago
  • At least five Tyson workers from meat processing plants in Georgia and Iowa have died of COVID-19, as hundreds of workers in the industry fall ill.
  • Tyson still does not offer paid sick leave, instead offering short-term disability for those being treated for COVID-19, which allows workers to earn 60% of their pay.
  • "We continue working diligently to protect our team members at facilities across the country by taking worker temperatures, requiring protective face coverings and conducting additional cleaning and sanitizing," said Tyson representative Liz Croston.
At least five Tyson workers across two states have died of COVID-19. Hundreds more workers in the meat industry have fallen ill in the coronavirus pandemic.

But, while Tyson has shifted some policies, it still does not offer workers paid sick leave.

On Thursday, Tyson confirmed that two employees at its plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, had died. The plant has been closed since April 6. Tyson employees from the plant make up 148 of 166 coronavirus cases in the county.

Last week, three workers at a Tyson plant in Camille, Georgia, died of COVID-19. Hundreds of other workers in the meat processing industry have fallen ill in recent weeks across the country....:tiphat: https://www.businessinsider.com/tyso...k-leave-2020-4
 
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pan...ad-coronavirus

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA - Four employees of a major poultry producer's operations in rural southwest Georgia have died after becoming infected with the coronavirus, a company spokesman said Friday.

Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson said three of the employees worked at the company's chicken processing plant in Camilla, while the fourth person worked in a supporting job outside the plant. He declined to say how many workers there have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus.

American workers who process the nation's meat have proven especially susceptible to the new virus, as they work shoulder-to-shoulder on production lines. Several U.S. plants have closed because of outbreaks, including a large plant owned by Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that produced roughly 5% of U.S. pork before it was shut down after more than 500 workers became infected.

Mickelson said two other Tyson Foods workers have died from the virus at its plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa.
Click to expand...
 
19 cases of COVID-19 confirmed at pork plant in Worthington

By Adam Belz Star Tribune

APRIL 17, 2020 — 8:21PM
Nineteen cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at the JBS pork plant in Worthington, the union representing workers there said Friday, dealing another blow to hog farmers and the meat supply chain and highlighting a widespread correlation between meatpacking plants and coronavirus hot spots.

The JBS plant — which employs about 2,000 workers and produces more than 4% of the nation's pork supply — had been a success story compared with other meatpacking plants, with zero confirmed cases through early this week.

But the close quarters and large gatherings required at meat factories appear to have repeatedly foiled efforts at sanitization and social distancing.

Officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 663, the union that represents 1,850 workers at the plant, demanded the company scale back production to allow employees to work farther apart.

"Workers are scared and frustrated," said Lisa Thoma, a union steward at the plant. "JBS needs to slow production lines now for the safety of all us workers."

UFCW Local 663 President Matt Utecht has praised JBS' handling of the pandemic in Worthington, saying Monday that "gloves, surgical masks, face shields, overcoats — these things came out quicker than in some other facilities."

But Utecht said in a statement Friday that failure by the plant to give workers more space "will put our community and our nation's food supply at devastating risk. … It defies logic to keep the people who make the food we all eat standing shoulder to shoulder while they work."

A JBS spokesman declined Friday to comment specifically on the Worthington plant but said, "JBS USA has had team members test positive for COVID-19 in some of our U.S. facilities" and is "offering support to those team members and their families."

"We hope they all make a full and speedy recovery. Out of respect for the families, we are not releasing further information," the spokesman said.

Minnesota officials said Friday there were 30...:tiphat:https://www.startribune.com/first-co.../?refresh=true
 
358 cases of COVID-19 now linked to Cargill meat plant

The meat-packing plant is located south of Calgary

Joel Dryden ? CBC News ? Posted: Apr 17, 2020 4:14 PM MT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

There are now hundreds of cases of COVID-19 linked to a southern Alberta meat-packing plant, the province's chief medical officer of health confirmed Friday.

Households with connections to the Cargill plant in High River — about 60 kilometres south of Calgary — now represent 358 cases, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said. That number represents 15 per cent of Alberta's total COVID-19 cases.

A dedicated team is now working to track this outbreak, Hinshaw said.

United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union Local 401 president Thomas Hesse said his union had previously recommended that the facility be closed for at least two weeks while plans were formulated.

"It's a tragedy. We asked days and days ago for that plant to be closed temporarily for two weeks, send all of the workers home with pay to isolate," Hesse said Friday. "That was when we were aware of 38 cases. That was before they set up a dedicated testing facility in the area.

"We'll never know how much lower that number might've been."...
....The plant temporarily laid off 1,000 staff on Tuesday, according to the union representing the workers. The company has denied the layoffs took place as described by the union.

On Thursday, a Cargill spokesperson said Canadians should not be concerned about their beef supply even given the confirmed cases, as COVID-19 is not a food-borne illness.

In addition to the Cargill plant in High River, COVID-19 outbreaks have also been confirmed at two other Alberta meat-packing plants.

As of Friday, 10 cases were also confirmed at the JBS plant in Brooks, according to Hesse. One case was also confirmed at the Harmony Beef plant in Balzac in March.

Together, the three plants represent approximately three-quarters of beef suppliers in Canada.
.....:tiphat:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...536916?cmp=rss
 
Shutdowns at U.S. Meat Plants Spur Surge in Pork and Beef Prices


Michael Hirtzer, Bloomberg News
  • The coronavirus that has killed several workers and sickened hundreds of others at U.S. meat plants is raising concerns of a shortfall in pork and beef at grocery stores.
As some slaughterhouses halt or slow output and buyers brace for more disruptions, meat prices are surging.

“This is sending wholesale prices sharply higher and will result in a noticeable reduction in supply for the consumer,” said Cassie Fish, an Omaha, Nebraska-based livestock market strategist.

Smithfield Foods Inc., the world’s biggest pork producer, indefinitely shut down a slaughter plant in South Dakota this week after hundreds of workers tested positive for Covid-19. The plant typically accounted for 4% to 5% of total hog processing in the U.S.

Two people who worked at a Tyson Foods Inc. pork plant in Iowa died and two dozen are ill, with operations down. Three people died who worked at a Tyson poultry plant in Georgia. A worker at a Cargill Inc. plant in Colorado also died. JBS USA delayed the reopening of a Pennsylvania beef plant from Thursday to Monday.

The companies were working with U.S. government officials on cleaning and testing to ensure they safely produce food and protect workers. But the disruptions mean less meat, at least short term....
:tiphat:https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/shutdown...ices-1.1423177
 
FOOD SUPPLY EXPERTS: DON’T WORRY, THERE’S PLENTY

CONSUMERS HAVE NO REASON TO RUSH THE GROCERY SHELVES, ACCORDING TO FOOD AND INDUSTRY EXPERTS.
By
Successful Farming Staff
4/17/2020
Mitch Kezar
KANSAS CITY, MO.: Food supply chain experts say there is no need for consumers to rush to the grocery store and stock up on items they think are disappearing from the shelves.

Tom Brand, executive director of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, implied that consumer fears are misplaced. “Demand is the issue, not supply,” he said as moderator of a webinar discussion on the food supply chain, presented by The Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City on April 16.

The panel of food supply specialists included Nick Ebert, vice president of sales, Sysco, Kansas City; Dennis Rodenbaugh, executive vice president, Dairy Farmers of America; and Kevin Smith, vice president, sales & marketing, Seaboard Foods. The economic fundamentals of production, inventory, transportation, and liquidity are intact across all sectors of the food industry.

Rodenbaugh said the immediate goal of the DFA amid the COVID-19 pandemic was to create a strategy guaranteeing health and market security for its member dairy farmers, and opportunity as the country emerges from the crisis. Since the dairy co-op was dubbed an essential business and would remain operational, Rodenbaugh explained that early in the crisis, DFA made the decision to have 1,200 of the 8,500 employees work remotely. Farmers, truck drivers, and other staffers were provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) gear and sanitizers so they could carry on as safely as possible. “Unfortunately, cows can’t be turned off,” he rued, “and gallons of milk had to be dumped.” Going forward, DFA is implementing and devising as many tools as possible to stabilize the market....:tiphat:https://www.agriculture.com/news/bus...-theres-plenty
 
Growing concerns about America’s meat supply as producers hit by coronavirus
April 17, 2020
CDC investigators are working to determine when and if operations can resume at Smithfield Foods in South Dakota, where more than 600 employees are sick. A growing number of food processing plants across the U.S. are trying to slow the spread of coronavirus. video:tiphat:https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news...us-82230341760
 
South Dakota COVID-19 Cases at Meat Plant Top 1.1K; One Worker Dies

April 17, 2020

The number of people testing positive for the coronavirus in South Dakota has surpassed 1,100, and more than half of those cases have some connection to the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls.

Health officials said on April 15 that 180 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous day, bringing the statewide total to 1,168 cases. A total of 934 cases were in Minnehaha County, the location of the Smithfield Foods plant.

The plant is one of the largest known clusters of COVID-19 cases in the country. As of Wednesday, 644 people with connections to the plant were infected. That number includes 518 employees, including one who died on Tuesday morning...:tiphat:https://www.insurancejournal.com/new.../17/565207.htm
 
COVID-19 is causing meat shortages in supermarkets and grocery stores

USDA officials say things should be back to normal in the next few weeks
04/17/2020
Gary Guthrie

First, some meat processing plants were forced to close -- including a key plant owned by Smithfield, the largest pig and pork producer in the world. The ripple effect of those closures cut into the number of chickens processed and cattle and hogs slaughtered.

Now, the chain of events has produced a shortage in the types of meat cuts supermarkets usually have a good supply of, like pork ribs and sliced chicken breasts.

Supply vs. demand and efficiency


FoodMarket reports that at B&R Stores Inc., a Midwestern grocery chain, meat sales have rocketed some 30 percent over the past month, yet suppliers are filling only about 75 percent of meat orders.

Cargill and Tyson, two of the largest U.S. meat suppliers, told FoodMarket that some meat products are currently in limited supply because some of those cuts are in lower demand or aren't as efficient to produce as other products.

...

"We are very concerned about fresh meat," Mark Griffin, the president of the B&R chain said. "We have fresh meat today, but there are indicators that it will be a problem in the future."
USDA says things will be alright soon


The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) wants consumers to know that, yes, there is a shortage, but the agency claims that it was a direct reflection of consumers rushing to stock up when COVID-19 was in the early panic stage...:tiphat:https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...+%26+Alerts%29
 
4 Tyson Foods workers in Georgia dead from coronavirus, company says
By Associated Press

April 17, 2020 | 10:35pm
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Four employees of a major poultry producer’s operations in rural southwest Georgia have died after becoming infected with the coronavirus, a company spokesman said Friday.

Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson said three of the employees worked at the company’s chicken processing plant in Camilla, while the fourth person worked in a supporting job outside the plant. He declined to say how many workers there have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus.

American workers who process the nation’s meat have proven especially susceptible to the new virus, as they work shoulder-to-shoulder on production lines. Several US plants have closed because of outbreaks, including a large plant owned by Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that produced roughly 5% of US pork before it was shut down after more than 500 workers became infected.

Mickelson said two other Tyson Foods workers have died from the virus at its plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa...:tiphat:https://nypost.com/2020/04/17/four-t...virus-company/
 
Positive COVID-19 cases confirmed in workers at Tyson’s Dakota City plant


April 17, 202010:00 pm
Matt Breen
NEBRASKA

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (KTIV) - Tyson Fresh Meats officials say testing has detected COVID-19 in employees of the company's Dakota City, Nebraska, plant.

In an interview with KTIV, Tyson Fresh Meats Group President Steve Stouffer said "some positive cases" have been found at the Dakota City plant. But Stouffer couldn't say how many.

"The short answer to your question is, yes there have been some positives that have been found," said Stouffer.

The revelation comes as processing plants in several Midwest states deal with the spread of COVID-19. In this case, Stouffer says the affected employees have not returned to work since their positive test.

"We've been telling our team members for weeks now… actually for over a month now… that if anybody feels like they aren't feeling well, we've relaxed all of our attendance policies, and our expectation is if they don't feel good, they should stay home," Stouffer said.

Stouffer said preventing the spread of COVID-19 at the Dakota City plant starts at the front door.

"We've implemented things like thermal testing ...:tiphat:https://ktiv.com/2020/04/17/positive...ta-city-plant/
 
Tyson confirms COVID-19 cases at Perry plant, doesn't disclose how many
Updated: 10:50 PM CDT Apr 17, 2020

PERRY, Iowa —
Tyson has confirmed some of its employees have tested positive for COVID-19 at its plant in Perry.

"For privacy out of our team members, we are not disclosing the number of confirmed cases," said Liz Croston, a spokesperson for Tyson. "We're working hard to protect our team members during this ever-changing situation, while also ensuring we continue fulfilling our critical role of helping feed people across the country."

On Wednesday, Tyson confirmed that two of its employees who worked at the Columbus Junction plant died from COVID-19...:tiphat:https://www.kcci.com/article/tyson-c...many/32193514#
 
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