Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meat industry in the United States
These outbreaks affected dozens of plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posed a significant threat to the meat supply in the United States.
"[13] According to a report in The New York Times, the coronavirus pandemic "has revealed how these plants are becoming the weakest link in the nation's food supply chain, posing a serious challenge to meat production.
[14] Speaking for the meat industry, Smithfield CEO Kenneth Sullivan said that "it is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running," adding that "These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation's livestock farmers.
"[15] According to the Daily Livestock Report published by Steiner Consulting, slaughter of cattle in the United States declined 19% in the second and third weeks of April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
[16] According to a report by Bloomberg News on April 23, cold-storage facilities in the country only had enough supply to cover production for another two weeks, and with most plant shutdowns lasting at least that long, shortages would be inevitable.
[18] The same day, Costco announced restrictions on sales of fresh meat, limiting customers to purchasing no more than three items among poultry, beef and pork products.
[19] Other regional grocery store chains such as Price Chopper Supermarkets and Tops Friendly Markets followed suit in restricting meat purchases.
[25] Methods of culling included gassing, suffocation, drowning, shooting, anaesthetic overdose, "blunt force trauma" and ventilation shutdown (VSD), which animal welfare groups have criticized as inhumane.
[8] At least 137 USDA meat inspectors have tested positive for coronavirus, and 704 others have stopped working due to lack of protective equipment in a high-risk environment.
[5] On April 28, Donald Trump issued an executive order under the Defense Production Act, to ensure meat plants stay open.
[33][34][32][35] Meat and poultry processing facilities are considered critical infrastructure workers, and CDC advises that they may be permitted to continue work following potential exposure to COVID-19, provided they remain asymptomatic and additional precautions are implemented to protect them and the community.
On April 21, health officials announced that 39 coronavirus cases were associated with an American Foods Group plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The plant, which employed about 700 workers, manufactured frozen meals including chicken and turkey pot pies sold under the Banquet Foods brand name.
On April 2, an Empire Kosher chicken processing plant in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, that employed 550 workers closed after two employees tested positive for the coronavirus.
On April 18, local health officials shut down a Hormel Foods plant in Rochelle, Illinois, that employed 800 people after at least 24 workers tested positive for coronavirus.
[61] Hormel also closed its Don Miguel Foods factory in Dallas, Texas, which is a joint venture with a Mexico City company, Herdez Del Fuerte.
At least 277 JBS USA workers at a plant in Greeley, Colorado, were infected with coronavirus in April 2020, leading to the closure of this large meat processing operation with over 3,000 employees.
[67] The Weld County, Colorado, Department of Public Health, where Greeley is located, reported that the JBS plant had a "work while sick" culture.
[72] Cordova, the union local's president, replied, "Unfortunately your cease and desist letter, threatening to stifle our voice, and those of our members, as well as pursuing claims for unfounded, speculative, and unrecoverable damages is rife with numerous inaccuracies, suppositions, and erroneous conclusions I won't spend time rebutting in their entirety" adding that her statements were "nothing more than the exercise of our Constitutional and legal rights, regardless of how you improperly characterize them.
[47] On June 28, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 organized a memorial event in Greeley to commemorate the six union members at the JBS plant who had died of COVID-19.
Nogueira said JBS USA would "not be able to go to full capacity anytime soon", with facilities being modified to allow physical distancing and 10% of employees asked not to come to work due to the risk of COVID-19.
[97] Rantoul Foods adopted the safety protocols outlined in the CDC guidance and were in compliance as of April 28, 2020, and facilitated onsite testing for its employees on May 8 and 9.
[110] A Smithfield spokesperson blamed the "large immigrant population" at the Sioux Falls plant for the outbreak, commenting that "living circumstances in certain cultures are different than they are with your traditional American family", and rejecting charges that the company had failed to properly protect its workers against the pandemic.
In addition to English, the top ten languages spoken by workers include "Spanish, Kunama, Swahili, Nepali, Tigrinya, Amharic, French, Oromo and Vietnamese.
[122] In one Triumph Foods pork processing plant in Saint Joseph, Missouri, 373 workers who tested positive for coronavirus —17% of over 1500, in ongoing tests— all were asymptomatic; they will be furloughed using benefits under that company's COVID-19 wage continuation policy.
According to an Associated Press report, the company said the shutdown "would deny a vital market to hog farmers and further disrupt the nation's meat supply".
Tyson executive Steve Stouffer said, "Unfortunately, the closure will mean reduced food supplies and presents problems to farmers who have no place to take their livestock.
[139] On April 27, public health officials in Dakota County, Nebraska, which has a population of about 20,000 people, announced that 608 residents had tested positive for coronavirus, a rate about 40 times higher than the Omaha area.
[141] In early May, economist Steve Meyer, with agricultural risk management company Kerns and Associates, estimated that Tyson's pork production had declined 74%.
[1] In July 2020, Tyson Foods said it would hire 200 nurses and administrative personnel, and begin administering coronavirus tests at all of its U.S. production facilities, as part of the company's response to the pandemic.
