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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Virus closes some meat plants, raising fears of shortages

    Virus closes some meat plants, raising fears of shortages

    By JOSH FUNKApril 13, 2020




    OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Some massive meat processing plants have closed at least temporarily because their workers were sickened by the new coronavirus, raising concerns that there could soon be shortages of beef, pork and poultry in supermarkets.

    The meat supply chain is especially vulnerable since processing is increasingly done at massive plants that butcher tens of thousands of animals daily, so the closure of even a few big ones can quickly be felt by customers. For instance, a Smithfield Foods plant that was forced to close in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after nearly 300 of the plant’s 3,700 workers tested positive for the virus produces roughly 5% of the U.S. pork supply each day.


    In addition, conditions at plants can be ripe for exploitation by the virus: Workers stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and crowd into locker rooms to change their clothes before and after shifts.

    The virus has infected hundreds of workers at plants in Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and elsewhere. The capacity of plants that remain open has also been hurt by workers who are sick or staying home because of fears of illness — though it’s not clear by how much.

    While company owners promise to deep clean their plants and resume operations as quickly as possible, it’s difficult to keep workers healthy given how closely they work together.


    “There is no social distance that is possible when you are either working on the slaughter line or in a processing assignment,” said Paula Schelling, acting chairwoman for the food inspectors union in the American Federation of Government Employees.


    The reduced production so far has been offset by the significant amount of meat that was in cold storage, said Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University. Producers are also working to shift meat that would have gone to now-closed restaurants over to grocery stores.


    Whether shoppers start to see more empty shelves or higher prices will depend on how many plants close and for how long.


    At least half a dozen plants have closed temporarily, but that’s across the pork, chicken and beef sectors, and Tonsor said the industry can manage for now.


    “You could shut multiple plants down for a day or two, and we’ve got wiggle room to handle that,” said Tonsor.

    “But if you took four or five of those big plants ... and they had to be down for two weeks, then you’ve got a game changer.”


    Still, the reduced meat processing capacity is already driving down the prices farmers and ranchers receive for cattle, hogs and chickens.


    “It’s like people on an escalator. Stopping the pork chain at the top of an escalator is just going to cause all sorts of tragedy and disaster all the way back up the system,” said Dermot Hayes, professor of economics and finance at Iowa State University.

    Farmers are being forced to kill baby pigs because the space in the barns where they were supposed to go is still filled by the pigs that should have been slaughtered last week, Hayes said. The meat from those baby pigs cannot be sold.

    That has driven prices for those feeder pigs — which generally are fattened over the course of six months — to zero, Hayes said. The value of those big enough for the market is down about 50% from a month ago. The value of the meat is down about 30%.


    Lower prices for producers could mean higher prices for consumers eventually, if production falls off, according to Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University.


    Tyson, Cargill and other major meat processing companies say they are adopting several measures: taking the temperature of everyone entering plants, adding clear plastic shields between work stations and erecting tents to allow workers to spread out more at lunch. But critics worry that workers too often continue working in close proximity and that measures are being adopted piecemeal.


    The League of United Latin American Citizens recently asked federal regulators to establish uniform rules after a number of immigrant workers complained to the rights group about tight quarters.


    The new coronavirus is highly contagious. For most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms, but for some, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death.


    Federal health officials do not consider COVID-19 to be a food safety concern, but they recommend that workers maintain a safe distance from one another.


    But Lily Ordaz Prado, who recently quit her job at the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, said she didn’t see those recommendations being put into practice, noting the crowded conditions in locker rooms and on assembly lines. The 30-year-old called her decision to leave “the best decision that I have ever made.”


    Smithfield officials have defended operations in Sioux Falls and said the company is taking “the utmost precautions and actions to ensure the health and wellbeing of our employees.”


    Meanwhile, Hector Gonzalez, senior vice president of human resources at Tyson Foods, said the food giant is making important changes for its roughly 140,000 workers, such as slowing down production lines and adding plastic barriers between work stations.


    Other meat companies say they have stepped up the cleaning of their plants and prohibited visitors. Several major meat companies are also paying workers more for continuing to work during the pandemic. For instance, JBS USA is paying workers a one-time $600 bonus.

    Cargill has temporarily boosted pay by $2 an hour.

    Most major meatpacking companies also have relaxed attendance and sick leave policies to ensure that workers can receive at least some pay if they have to stay at home after testing positive or coming in contact with someone who has.

    “Most of the employers that we deal with right now are really making a solid attempt to try and fix stuff,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. “We’re just working as hard as we can to protect as many people as possible right now and make sure that we keep the food supply open.”

    https://apnews.com/d855667c811d3d9810883e05702288ad

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    Pork and beef producers ask USDA to buy meat and speed up stimulus money

    By Sarah Westwood, CNN
    Updated 9:38 AM ET, Wed April 15, 2020


    Washington (CNN)With meat-processing plants across the country shuttering due to the coronavirus pandemic, pork producers are asking the Trump administration to consider buying large quantities of meat, and other livestock farmers are seeking answers about the kind of support they can expect to receive from the latest stimulus bill.

    The closure of several major facilities -- including one of the largest pork-processing facilities in the US and a major beef plant in Colorado -- has put pressure both on the supply of popular proteins for sale across the country and on the farmers who raise livestock for slaughter.

    Meat-processing plant closures are threatening more than just the supply of meat on the market; experts say they are also threatening the farmers who could soon have more cows, pigs or other animals on their hands than they can afford to feed or house.


    "You see pig values plummet significantly, so for many of our farmers, right now it costs more to care for the animal than the value of the hog," said Jim Monroe, a spokesperson for the National Pork Producers Council. "So our farmers are in a dire situation."


    What the Agriculture Department will do with the $9.5 billion for agriculture producers that Congress included in the stimulus bill passed late last month is an open question.

    South Dakota governor faces criticism over refusal to issue stay-at-home order after pork plant outbreak

    Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tweeted last week that his agency is "using all financial resources we have been given to develop a program that will include direct payments to farmers & ranchers hurt by COVID-19 & other procurement methods to help solidify the supply chain from producers to consumers."

    The program, however, has not yet been finalized. "Details on the program will be forthcoming shortly," a USDA spokesperson said Tuesday.


    Some industry insiders have warned of a potential meat shortage on the horizon; others have said the US is far from running out of protein while highlighting other consequences of plant closures.


    In both commercial and public storage, the US has stockpiled 925 million pounds of frozen chicken, 491 million pounds of frozen beef and nearly 662 million pounds of frozen pork, according to the USDA.


    Monroe said because pork producers operate under a "just-in-time" production system, when one group of pigs is ready to be harvested, another is right behind it.

    When meat plants close, the live animals can pile up.

    "We are calling for massive USDA pork purchases as one solution to this," Monroe said. "If the USDA came in and purchased, you know, a large amount of pork, that would go a long way towards relieving this capacity issue."

    The closure of Smithfield Foods' pork-processing facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Sunday touched off a new wave of fears about the food supply given the increasing numbers of sick or absent workers across industry plants, even those that for now remain operational.


    Kenneth Sullivan, CEO of Smithfield, said in a statement that the shutdown of meat-processing plants "is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply."


    "It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running," Sullivan said. "These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation's livestock farmers. These farmers have nowhere to send their animals."


    In addition to the Smithfield plant, several other facilities have recently closed their doors. JBS USA, a massive beef and pork producer, has shuttered two of its plants -- including a major beef facility in Greeley, Colorado, that the company announced on Monday it was temporarily taking offline after two employees died of Covid-19 and dozens more tested positive. Tyson Foods, another top meat producer, also recently closed a pork plant in Iowa.


    Larger animals, but not empty shelves



    Don Close, an industry expert at RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness, said consumers aren't likely to see meat shortages in the short term as long as the majority of processing plants remain operational, even if they have to scale down production.

    "The big fear factor I have today is if we get into a scenario where we outright close a bunch of these processors all at the same time, it really gets scary really fast," Close said. "If we were to have one or two more of the really big beef plants closed, that would cause big grief."


    Close noted that another problem with plant closures, beyond the rising numbers of animals left on farms, is that animals who aren't harvested will continue to get bigger -- and putting that additional meat on the market will drive prices down.


    "When we are behind in slaughter... those animals continue to gain weight, so we are including both numbers of head and tonnage of product on the market," he said. "It puts tremendous pressure on farmers."


    Not every sector of protein production is calling for USDA purchases or warning of empty grocery store shelves, however.


    Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, stressed that the country is not facing a beef shortage due to Covid-19. But he said the loss of processing facilities can force ranchers to pay to feed and care for cows that pile up in their pastures.


    "Whenever you have a packing plant shut down, it means that you basically stop the flow of cattle and you start backing up the flow of cattle," Woodall said.

    "There is a cost associated with that."


    "It is a significant economic impact to the cattle producers," Woodall added.


    Lawmakers in some agriculture-heavy states pressed Perdue earlier this month to use some of the stimulus money for "targeted, temporary, equitable relief to cattle producers."


    "While we do not know what the full market impact will be for the various commodities produced in our states, we recognize there is an immediate need for assistance for our cattle producers," wrote the bipartisan group of 145 lawmakers.



    Meat plants are closing. But you don't have to panic shop just yet


    Woodall said the administration's efforts to address problems caused by the closure of processing facilities should include helping shuttered plants with access to coronavirus tests, masks and other personal protective equipment for workers hoping to return to the job.

    "For us it's just continuing to have the government across the board -- not just USDA, but all the way to the White House -- have support for these packing plants."


    A USDA spokesperson said the department is focused on helping to maintain the food supply chain as facilities struggle with worker absences and closures.


    "USDA recognizes and supports the efforts of private industry and companies to maintain operational status of their facilities while also maintaining the safety and health of their work force. USDA will continue to support a locally-executed, state-managed, federally-supported emergency response system," the spokesperson said.

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/15/polit...rus/index.html

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    Workers at Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota say they were not given 'any protective gear' to fight off the virus after 634 employees tested positive

    Workers at Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods plant in S.D. weren't given protective gear
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