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

[Treyfish]

Tyson Foods raises coronavirus alarm in full-page ads, defends safety efforts

"The food supply chain is breaking."

Katie Shepherd,

The Washington Post
April 27, 2020 | 10:56 AM

In a full-page newspaper ad published in The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday, Tyson Foods — which sells products ranging from frozen chicken nuggets to cuts of raw pork — said that the coronavirus pandemic may disrupt the U.S. food supply chain and raise the price of meat.

The company defended itself from criticism that it has not adequately protected its workers and pleaded for more government assistance in doing so.

“The food supply chain is breaking,” wrote John Tyson, chairman of the company’s executive board. “We have a responsibility to feed our country. It is as essential as healthcare. This is a challenge that should not be ignored. Our plants must remain operational so that we can supply food to our families in America. This is a delicate balance because Tyson Foods places team member safety as our top priority.”
The company warned that shuttering processing plants would cause “millions of pounds of meat” to disappear from the markets, reducing what’s available on grocery store shelves and raising prices. Farmers may have to kill and dispose of cows, pigs and chickens that were bred for the closed slaughterhouses, the company claimed, and those animals’ meat would go to waste....:tiphat:https://www.boston.com/news/business...ad-coronavirus

 

[Treyfish]

Tyson Foods chairman warns that 'the food supply chain is breaking'

In recent weeks, the poultry producer has temporarily suspended operations at plants across the country.Meat could begin disappearing from grocery shelves, company warns
April 27, 2020, 7:16 AM PDT
By Daniel Arkin
The board chairman of Tyson Foods is warning that "millions of pounds of meat will disappear" from the national food supply chain as the coronavirus outbreak forces food processing plants to shutter.

"The food supply chain is breaking," John Tyson wrote in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

....
Ana Swanson✔@AnaSwanson
“The food supply chain is breaking,” Tyson Foods warns in a full page ad in NYT today

516
7:24 AM - Apr 26, 2020​

"In addition to meat shortages, this is a serious food waste issue. Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation," John Tyson wrote.:tiphat:https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...aking-n1193256

 

[Treyfish]

Tyson says 'millions of pounds of meat will disappear' as more than 1,180 workers catch COVID-19, slaughterhouses shutter, and workers kill and discard unsold chickens

Kate Taylor

1 hour ago

• Tyson chairman John Tyson said "millions of pounds of meat will disappear" as meat processing plants are forced to close.
• Tyson said closing slaughterhouses could lead to food shortages and force farmers to kill "millions of animals" that go unsold as the supply chain breaks down.
• There have been more than 1,180 cases of COVID-19 among Tyson workers, with at least eight employees dying. While Tyson has changed its attendance policy, it still does not offer full paid sick leave.

...At least four Tyson plants across the US have been forced to close as workers have caught the coronavirus, The Counter reports.

Business Insider's analysis of local heath departments releases and news reports indicates that at least 1,185 workers from eight Tyson plants have contacted COVID-19. At least eight workers, working in Camilla, Georgia, Wallula, Washington, Columbus Junction, Iowa, and Dakota City, Nebraska have died...:tiphat:https://www.businessinsider.com/tyso...navirus-2020-4

 

[Treyfish]

Green Bay meatpacking plant linked to 189 COVID-19 cases closes and a federal investigation is underway

John Diedrich, Milwaukee Journal SentinelPublished
8:39 p.m. CT April 26, 2020 | Updated 8:11 a.m. CT April 27, 2020

A meatpacking plant at the center of the COVID-19 outbreak in Green Bay was temporarily closed by its owner Sunday, the latest such facility to be shuttered across the nation as federal authorities investigate safety at the operation.

At least 189 cases have been linked to JBS Packerland, Brown County officials said Friday. The plant is among five such operations nationwide ordered to close after workers tested positive for the coronavirus.

The closure comes as the number of Wisconsinites who have tested positive for COVID-19 grew by 224 Sunday — the fifth day in a row that new cases exceeded 200. The growth has been attributed largely to the meat plant outbreaks. At the same time, testing has been increasing, state data shows....:tiphat:https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/...ay/3030456001/

 

[Treyfish]

MEAT PACKING PLANTS CONTINUED TO CLOSE OVER THE WEEKEND
Apr. 27, 2020

....Tyson Foods shut down its pork plant in Logansport, Ind., Saturday so 2,200 employees can be tested. Smithfield also has shut down its pork plant in Monmouth, Ill., and cases have been reported at meat plants and food processing facilities in North Carolina, including at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel, one of the world's largest pork production plants.....:tiphat:https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/130123

 

[Treyfish]

Update: Coronavirus Clusters Grow Rapidly In Three Western Kansas Meatpacking Counties

By CORINNE BOYER • APR 24, 2020

• National Beef has a meatpacking plant in Liberal, Kansas, which is in Seward County.
  BETHANY WOOD / FOR THE KANSAS NEWS SERVICE

Update: Kansas Health Secretary Lee Norman said on Friday that Kansas has now identified 250 cases of COVID-19 among workers at the state's six meatpacking plants. The federal government has sent supplies to test thousands of people in southwest Kansas. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending staff to the region.

GARDEN CITY, Kansas — Two western Kansas counties that are home to meatpacking plants have some of the highest counts of the coronavirus in the state. It’s a distinction that comes as the Tyson plant near Garden City said this week it has several cases among its workers.

None of the meatpacking plants, which make up about 25% of the national beef supply according to a Kansas State professor’s estimate, has shared a specific count of workers with a COVID-19 diagnosis. And the state health department leaves it up to county health departments to decide whether to provide the public with detailed case information.

In the span of 11 days, Ford County, where there is a National Beef and a Cargill plant in Dodge City, has gone from 16 cases to 288. Seward County, which has a National Beef plant in Liberal, went from six to 125. Finney County, where the Tyson plant is located, is up from 17 to 87.
....

“We’ve found isolation housing for those who need to be quarantined if they’ve had any contact,” Kelly said Thursday on KCUR’s “Up To Date” talk show. “So we’re taking a very aggressive approach, because we don’t want to be like Iowa or South Dakota where we’re having to shut those plants down.”

... Health department director Colleen Drees said “there is evidence of community spread.” :tiphat:https://www.hppr.org/post/update-cor...cking-counties

 

[Treyfish]

Smithfield Foods shutters its FIFTH plant after coronavirus outbreak at world's largest pork producer as farmers warn they may have to EUTHANIZE tens of thousands of pigs

• Pig farmer told DailyMail.com that company shut down operations in Nebraska
• The Crete, Nebraska, facility is fifth plant to be shuttered amid COVID-19 crisis
• Smithfield has closed plants in Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, and South Dakota
• Company is also being sued by employees from its Milan, Missouri, plant
• Employees claim company failed to adequately protect them from COVID-19
• Meanwhile, swine vets have issued guidelines for 'depopulation' of excess pigs
• Animals could be put down by 'gunshot, electrocution and blunt force trauma'

Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, is expected to shut down a fifth processing plant as its number of employees who have tested positive with COVID-19 explode.

Virginia-based Smithfield, which is owned by China’s WH Group Ltd, has now shuttered pork-processing plants in Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

Now a pig farmer has revealed to DailyMail.com that the company is shuttering its plant in Crete, Nebraska.

Last Friday, Smithfield announced plans to suspend operations at its Monmouth, Illinois, facility

Smithfield closed its St. Charles facility in Illinois, and in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The news comes after a lawsuit filed Thursday in Missouri federal court accused Smithfield of failing to provide employees at a Missouri plant adequate protective equipment....According to Doerr, the Smithfield Foods plant in Crete, takes in roughly 10,000 pigs daily.

So where are all of these pigs supposed to go?
....

‘When we combine all the slaughterhouses, we are talking about some 100,000 pigs a day that are being processed,’ a swine vet who asked to remain anonymous t...

As of April 22, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) updated their Recommendations for the Depopulation of Swine, with gunshot, electrocution and manual blunt force trauma added to the disturbing list.
....
According to the swine vet, another solution is feeding the pigs less or halting breeding altogether...:tiphat:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cess-pigs.html

 

[Treyfish]

Piglets aborted, chickens gassed as pandemic slams meat sector

APRIL 27, 2020 / 2:41 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO



Tom Polansek, P.J. Huffstutter
9 MIN READ
CHICAGO (Reuters) - With the pandemic hobbling the meat-packing industry, Iowa farmer Al Van Beek had nowhere to ship his full-grown pigs to make room for the 7,500 piglets he expected from his breeding operation. The crisis forced a decision that still troubles him: He ordered his employees to give injections to the pregnant sows, one by one, that would cause them to abort their baby pigs.

Van Beek and other farmers say they have no choice but to cull livestock as they run short on space to house their animals or money to feed them, or both. The world’s biggest 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 as workers fall ill, stoking global fears of a meat shortage.....

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, along with both U.S. senators from a state that provides a third of the nation’s pork, sent a letter to the Trump administration pleading for financial help and assistance with culling animals and properly disposing of their carcasses.

“There are 700,000 pigs across the nation that cannot be processed each week and must be humanely euthanized,” said the April 27 letter......
......Farmers in neighboring Canada are also killing animals they can’t sell or afford to feed. .....:tiphat:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKCN2292YS

 

[Treyfish]

JBS plant in Worthington may reopen Wednesday to euthanize hogs

Because JBS and other plants have closed, cutting pork processing capability by 30%, farmers do not have anywhere to sell the hogs.
By Mike Hughlett Star Tribune

APRIL 27, 2020 — 6:57PM

The JBS USA pork plant in Worthington could be reopened this week, but for a limited and unusual purpose: euthanizing hogs, then disposing of the carcasses instead of processing them into meat.

Meanwhile, recently posted records show that JBS would not allow Minnesota work safety investigators inside the plant for an inspection on April 20, the day it shut down.

JBS closed the giant plant after COVID-19 had begun racing through its workforce. Several other U.S. hog slaughterhouses have closed for the same reason, shuttering over 30% of the nation’s pork processing capacity.

With nowhere to be slaughtered for meat, over 3,000 healthy pigs were euthanized in Minnesota last week; 200,000 more could soon follow, according to the Minnesota Pork Producers Association.

JBS is considering using the slaughterhouse to put down Minnesota pigs stranded in the pork supply chain due to COVID-19, three sources confirmed.....:tiphat:https://www.startribune.com/jbs-plan...ogs/569994322/

 

[Treyfish]

:tiphat:Trading News
@4xInsight
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3h
TRUMP IS EXPECTED TO SIGN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TUESDAY THAT WILL USE DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT TO MANDATE THAT MEAT PROCESSING PLANTS STAY OPEN
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Trading News
@4xInsight
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3h
TRUMP TO USE PRODUCTION ACT TO PROVIDE MEAT WORKERS SAFETY GEAR

 

[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. .....:tiphat: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%,
.....:tiphat: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.
:tiphat:https://www.whitehouse.gov/president...reak-covid-19/

 

[Emily]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...d-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....:tiphat: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......:tiphat: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 ....:tiphat: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....:tiphat: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...:tiphat:https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/130169