President Trump Issues an Executive Order to Keep Meat Factories Operating During COVID Pandemic – As Always, There are Pros and Cons
According to Bloomberg News, President Trump plans to issue an executive order to ensure meat factories and slaughterhouses will remain open. This is in light of several factories closing due to the pandemic. Meat processing plants, including Cargill, Conagra, JBS, Smithfield Foods, Tyson Foods, and others, have closed due to increasing concern over the virus. With a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), workers in the meat industry have been left unprotected from Coronavirus while working in close quarters.
The first meat processing plant that suffered from an outbreak was Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a Virginia based company that is one of the country’s major pork plants. The plant closed on April 12, 2020, after 293 workers were diagnosed with Coronavirus. Nationwide, in food processing plants, at least 20 workers have died of COVID-19, and approximately 5,000 meat packing workers alone have been exposed to COVID-19.
Meat shortages have begun as 22 meat processing plants have closed due to virus outbreaks in workers, forcing the National Meat Packing Union to ask the White House for more PPE, an increase in worker testing, isolating workers, and enforcing social distancing. These demands come after a 25 percent decrease in pork slaughter capacity and a 10 percent decrease in beef slaughter capacity.
The White House has responded with President Trump promising an executive order under the Defense Production Act that will force meat plants to remain open, promising more PPE and guidance on safety protocol. This executive order has been met with criticism, as workers argue that a lack of necessary precautions prevent them from doing their jobs safely, and as a result, maintaining a consistency in food production.
On the other side are advocates of the executive order. Tyson Foods Chairman John Tyson, who believes the nation’s food supply is in disarray, is worried about the wasteful loss of animals as processing plants shut down, limiting the amount of animals purchased from farmers. There is simply a shortage of workers able to process food, leading to an excess of animals that farmers cannot afford to keep. A similar crisis exists in the dairy industry, where farmers are dumping excess milk that is not being purchased and is too expensive to package.
A shortage of workers not only means less food processing taking place, but according to national food poisoning lawyer Ron Simon, may also be a sign that food safety precautions may be lacking, leading to the potential for food poisoning which is difficult to treat during a pandemic.
With a predicted 80 percent meat production decrease if the shut down continues, the executive order should help the meat industry – thought he jury is out as to what impact this may have on worker and public safety. Either way, the strong impetus for the executive order has exposed the need for changes in food production protocols during a pandemic.
