April 28, 2020
By Kaitlan Collins and Maegan Vazquez
President Donald Trump (click here) is expected to sign a five-page executive order under the Defense Production Act to compel meat processing plants to remain open amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump had highlighted the order during an Oval Office meeting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that was opened up to reporters.
"We're going to sign an executive order today, I believe, and that'll solve any liability problems," Trump said on Tuesday.
The President is expected to sign the order after some companies, such as Tyson Foods, were considering only keeping 20% of their facilities open. The vast majority of processing plants could have shut down -- which would have reduced processing capacity in the country by as much as 80%, an official familiar with the order told CNN....
The USA food supply has become less safe under Trump and now Americans are dying because of the Trump administration's disastrous deregulation. Deregulation and denial causes a far greater problem and does not solve them. The USA needs to go on a diet of healthy foods, not contaminated food.
20 April 2020
By BiBi van der Zee, Tom Levitt and Andrew Wasley
The US government (click here) is accelerating controversial regulatory rollbacks to speed up production at meat plants, as companies express growing alarm at the impact of Covid-19 on their operations.
Last week Smithfield shut down one of the largest pork plants in the country after hundreds of employees contracted the coronavirus. The plant in South Dakota – whose output represents 4–5% of US pork production – is reported to be the largest single-source coronavirus hotspot in the US, with more than 600 cases. In response, the company said it was “critical” for the meat industry to “continue to operate unabated”.
Now it has emerged that as a wave of plants announces closures, US meat plants are being granted permission to increase the speed of their production lines. This comes despite warnings that the waivers for higher speeds on slaughter and processing lines will compromise food safety....
Food workers state: "If one gets sick, we all get sick." (click here)
