"Virus is expected to reduce meat selection and raise prices" by David Pitt Associated Press, April 27, 2020
DES MOINES — Meat isn’t going to disappear from supermarkets because of outbreaks of the coronavirus among workers at US slaughterhouses, but as the meat plants struggle to remain open, consumers could face less selection and slightly higher prices.
Industry leaders acknowledge that the US food chain has rarely been so stressed and that no one is sure about the future, even as they try to dispel concerns about shortages.
On Sunday, the meat processing giant Tyson Foods ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times and other newspapers outlining the difficulty of producing meat while keeping more than 100,000 workers safe and shutting some plants.
“This means one thing — the food supply chain is vulnerable,” the statement said. “As pork, beef, and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain.”
The vegans will be happy.
“The letter encourages government leaders to unite to address food supply chain challenges,’’ company spokesman Gary Mickelson said. ‘‘We are taking a proactive approach to balance safety and production by moving aggressively with testing and plant closures when necessary.’’
Pork plants in the Midwest have been hit especially hard. The viral outbreaks have persisted despite efforts by the meat companies to keep workers at home with pay if they become sick.
The 15 largest pork-packing plants account for 60 percent of all pork processed, so when even one of those plants closes for days or weeks, the consequences ripple across the industry. Tyson suspended operations at its plant in Waterloo, Iowa, and Smithfield Foods halted production at its plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. Each plant can butcher nearly 20,000 hogs a day. Some plants have reopened days after cleaning.
The result is that the nation’s pork processing capacity had declined by about 25 percent as of last week, said Steve Meyer, an industry economist with Kerns and Associates in Ames, Iowa.
A beef production plant in Green Bay, Wis., is the latest to shut down because of infections among employees. JBS USA said the JBS Packerland plant, which employs 1,200, would be closed temporarily. As of Monday, 255 employees at the plant tested positive for COVID-19, said Claire Paprocki, a spokeswoman for the county health department.
Nationally, although the reduced supply is expected to raise consumer prices, expectations are that the increases will be slight. The US Department of Agriculture said late last week that it expects beef prices to climb 1 percent to 2 percent this year, poultry as much as 1.5 percent, and pork between by from 2 percent and 3 percent.
The agency acknowledged that consumer buying patterns change weekly and that some products face supply-chain disruptions that could affect prices, but the USDA said its planned $3 billion purchase of fresh produce, dairy, and meat should help stabilize prices. The government will work with food distributors to provide the purchased products to food banks, community and faith-based organizations, and other nonprofits serving the needy.
Yeah, no need to worry about where your next meal is coming from!
The USDA is on it!
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With closures in meat processing plants across the country because of the spread of the new coronavirus among workers, food analysts are forecasting shortages of beef, pork and poultry on the shelves of the country's supermarkets in the days ahead. (David Zalubowski/Associated Press/Associated Press).
That is something Americans will never see again. Our supermarkets are now like those in the Soviet Union during the 1990s.
All planned, of course, at the highest levels of evil.
"OSHA releases guidance to keep meatpacking workers safe amid surging cases, food supply fears" by Taylor Telford Washington Post, April 27, 2020
WASHINGTON — The federal government released joint coronavirus guidance Sunday for meat processing and packing facilities amid widespread outbreaks that have killed at least 17 workers, sickened more than 3,000, and threatened the national food supply.
The interim guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration outlines procedures for cleaning shared equipment and reconfiguring workstations. The guidance includes how companies can use physical barriers to create at least six feet between employees, who typically stand shoulder to shoulder in the plants.
It also calls for use of personal protective equipment and changes to attendance policies so employees aren’t penalized for taking sick leave if they have the coronavirus.
The CDC is the last agency I want in charge of anything, and this forced labor tran$formation is all part of the fundamental re$tructuring.
‘‘As essential workers, those in the meatpacking and processing industries need to be protected from coronavirus for their own safety and health,’’ said Loren Sweatt, principal deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, in a news release. ‘‘OSHA’s newest guidance document outlines steps employers can take to provide a safe and healthy workplace for workers in the meatpacking and processing industries.’’
Coronavirus outbreaks in US meat facilities have led to a slew of plant closures, including more than 15 owned by some of the nation’s largest meat processors: Smithfield Foods, Tyson Foods, and JBS. The closures have devastated rural communities, where these companies are often among the area’s largest employers, and threatened the nation’s supply of beef and pork. Industry analysts say production is already down by at least 25 percent.
Major meat companies and OSHA have come under fire for failing to protect workers in the face of fast-spreading outbreaks. Many workers say companies put production over their safety and have failed to provide adequate PPE and promote social distancing. Others say they’ve been encouraged to stay on the job while sick, and though OSHA’s newly released meatpacking and processing guidance offers more detail on practices to protect workers, such guidance remains voluntary.
Most of them are undocumented, and thus $crewed.
‘‘These outbreaks that have sickened thousands and killed dozens were not inevitable in the meat industry,’’ said Debbie Berkowitz, a former senior OSHA official who is an expert on meat processing plants. ‘‘If OSHA had started enforcement, employers like the meatpacking industry who don’t prioritize safety voluntarily would have implemented the CDC guidance and prevented these outbreaks of death and disease in meatpacking.’’
It's enough to make you vegan!
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"A survey of essential workers shows a political divide" by Jonathan Rothwell New York Times,April 27, 2020, 5:53 p.m.
Democrats and Republicans differ on attitudes toward coronavirus risks and in workplace behaviors meant to reduce them, according to a new survey. This partisanship has the potential to hurt efforts to stop the spread of the virus.
The data from Gallup’s COVID-19 tracking panel shows that people deemed essential workers are generating large numbers of close contacts with other people, putting themselves and those they live with at risk. Recognizing this, most workers have changed how they do their jobs to reduce the risk of viral transmission, yet workers living in counties won by President Trump in the 2016 election are slightly less likely to have adopted these changes, with Republicans living in those counties even less likely to have done so.
Over several weeks in April, the survey shows, essential workers generated 22 contacts per day compared with only four per day for nonessential workers. (Contacts were defined as the number of people a respondent came within 6 feet of.) As expected, the workplace accounted for more of the essential workers’ contacts than any other location, but the workplace was the site of hardly any contacts for nonessential workers, most of whom are working from home, if at all.
Overall, essential workers are not taking the risks of transmission lightly. The majority (55 percent) say they are moderately or very concerned about being exposed to the virus at work. Eighty percent of essential workers say they have changed how they do their work to lower the risk of transmission — and those who say they have made such changes generate fewer close contacts than those who haven’t. These efforts include trying to maintain at least 6 feet of distance from customers and co-workers, using masks and gloves, and adopting new and more frequent cleaning practices, yet these attitudes also vary by political geography. Essential workers who identify with the Democratic Party are more likely to be concerned about getting the virus (66 percent) than their Republican Party counterparts (45 percent). They also have far greater confidence in social distancing. Nearly 3 out of 4 (73 percent) of essential workers who affiliate with the Democratic Party say that they are very confident that social distancing saves lives, compared with 27 percent of essential workers who identify as Republicans.
Democrats can stay away from me!
For members of both parties, living in a county won by the president substantially reduces confidence in social distancing. Democrats living in counties won by Trump are 15 percentage points less likely to say they are very confident that social distancing saves lives compared with Democrats living in counties won by Hillary Clinton. These partisan differences are predictive of actual worker behavior, although with a more modest effect.
Republican workers in Trump counties are less likely than their Republican counterparts in Clinton-won counties to say they have made changes to avoid transmission (74 percent versus 82 percent), and both groups are less likely to say they have made changes than Democrats in Trump-won counties (85 percent) or Clinton-won counties (89 percent). The use of personal protective equipment at work fits the same pattern.
The pattern doesn’t always hold perfectly. Most Republican workers in Trump-won counties report trying to maintain at least 6 feet of distance from customers and co-workers (55 percent). That’s higher than the rate for Republicans in Clinton-won counties (47 percent), but it’s still well below Democrats in Clinton-won counties (70 percent).
One potential explanation for the partisan patterns is that some Republican Party leaders or media pundits are playing down the severity of the risks. Another is that population density and the number of confirmed cases and deaths are lower on a per capita basis in the counties won by Trump, but in the data, there is no significant correlation between county disease prevalence and adoption of these countermeasures.
Moreover, while cases and deaths have been lower in Trump-won counties, the growth rate in new cases since April 11 is roughly the same in Trump-won and Clinton-won counties, suggesting that the need to reduce transmission could be just as urgent in these areas.
As debates go on about when and how to reopen the economy, essential workers and their employers are developing best practices to combat the spread of coronavirus, but it will be hard to do so without cooperation and collective action across diverse communities. Because the virus knows no borders, outbreaks in liberal areas will put conservative areas at risk and vice versa.
Yeah, we are all in thi$ together!
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That article was not for me because I'm non-essential.
