Meatpacking plants have joined nursing homes and prisons as hot spots of COVID-19 cases, and the infections are affecting the surrounding communities as well. It's one more way that the industrial model of food production that's permeated the U.S. is failing and, rather than supplying healthy food for the public, is causing environmental destruction and disease. In an April 2020 report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that COVID-19 cases among U.S. workers in 115 meat and poultry processing facilities were reported by 19 states. The facilities employ approximately 130,000 workers and have seen 4,913 cases and 20 deaths. "Factors potentially affecting risk for infection include difficulties with workplace physical distancing and hygiene and crowded living and transportation conditions," the CDC noted.1 An analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) further revealed that counties containing meatpacking plants, or located within 15 miles of one, are also facing an above-average number of COVID-19 infections.2 Nearly Double the COVID-19 Infections in Meatpacking CountiesUsing cases reported by Johns Hopkins University, EWG revealed that, as of May 6, 2020, counties with meatpacking plants, or within a 15-mile radius, reported 373 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, which is close to double the U.S. average of 199 cases per 100,000. EWG reported:3
A Bloomberg analysis also revealed that, during the week after the order that meatpacking plants remain open, cases of COVID-19 increased 40% in counties with major meat slaughterhouses compared to a 19% rise across the U.S.4 While such counties represent just 7.5% of the U.S. population, they accounted for 10% of new COVID-19 cases and were described as new hot spots in the mostly rural areas. Neighboring communities are also at risk, because while the average U.S. commute is 15 miles one way, many meat plant workers likely travel much farther to get to work. "… [B]ecause the 15-mile radius around meatpacking plants often crosses county or state lines, seemingly isolated case clusters not only endanger one community but can also spread the virus to neighboring counties or states," EWG noted.5 As an example, EWG cited Dakota City, Nebraska, which is home to Tyson Foods. The plant reported 669 cases on April 30, 2020, but the seven counties that are located in a 15-mile radius of Dakota City have an average of 1,000 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people. Worse still are the counties that are near more than one meatpacking plant, "creating a deadly Venn diagram with overlapping zones of potential plant-linked infections."6 Tama, Black Hawk and Marshall counties in central Iowa, which have three meatpacking plants, have an average of 1,483 cases per 100,000 residents — more than seven times the U.S. national average. Consolidation Leads to Rises in COVID-19 and Meat ShortagesTyson, JBS USA, Smithfield Foods and Cargill Inc. control the majority of U.S. meat and poultry, most of which are processed in a limited number of large plants. Because the processing is concentrated into a small number of large facilities, a U.S. government statement noted, "[C]losure of any of these plants could disrupt our food supply and detrimentally impact our hardworking farmers and ranchers."7 While the move to keep meat and poultry processing plants open was met with criticism from unions calling for increased protections for workers in the cramped conditions, the government cited statistics that closing one large beef processing plant could lead to a loss of more than 10 million servings of beef in a day. Further they noted that closing one processing plant can eliminate more than 80% of the supply of a given meat product, such as ground beef, to an entire grocery store chain.8 It's unknown just how many COVID-19 infections have occurred among the more than 500,000 workers employed by the approximately 7,600 slaughter and processing facilities in North America.9 Some states and counties are not releasing information about which facilities have cases. Even the workers at some facilities have been kept in the dark as outbreaks occurred. EWG reported, however:
EWG also reported the meatpacking plants with the most COVID-19 cases, with the top 10 as follows:11
CAFOs Killing Off Unprecedented Number of AnimalsThe problems caused by consolidation in the meat industry are perhaps no more apparent than to the farmers left with hundreds of thousands of animals quickly growing too large for slaughter, and nowhere to send them. Farmers with large pig farms are being particularly hard hit, although egg and poultry farmers have also been affected. If slaughterhouses close, the farmers have nowhere to send their animals, and with a new, younger group waiting to replace them, have no room to spare. Across the U.S., farmers are being forced to gas, lethally inject or shoot food animals in the head, a waste of meat during a time when many are struggling to find food, and a sentence that's causing emotional damage to farmers. "The economic part of it is damaging," Steve Meyer, a pork industry analyst, told The New York Times. "But the emotional and psychological and spiritual impact of this will have much longer consequences."12 The mental turmoil is also giving way to another environmental problem — what to do with all the dead bodies. The Times reported:13
Meat Inspectors Spreading DiseaseThe U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is tasked with conducting inspections on U.S. meat supplies. This requires inspectors to travel to slaughterhouses, processing plants and other facilities across the U.S. FSIS inspectors speaking to Government Executive criticized the agency's handling of the inspection process during the pandemic, detailing unsafe working practices that are likely contributing to the spread of disease.14 Prior to April 2020, multiple inspectors said they were prohibited from wearing masks during inspections because it would create fear in the facilities. Reports have emerged of potential disruptions to the food supply chain as meat plants, including facilities in Greeley, Colorado, and Columbus Junction, Iowa, closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks among employees and federal inspectors. However, prior to the closure, as inspectors in Greeley fell ill, the USDA sent another round of inspectors to the plant to supplement the workforce there. FSIS also relocated employees from a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Smithfield plant that closed to a facility in Waterloo, Iowa, where inspectors were also testing positive for COVID-19. While inspectors questioned the strategy of moving employees potentially exposed to COVID-19 from one hot zone to the next, FSIS told inspectors to keep working, even if they'd been exposed, as long as they had not yet developed symptoms.15 FSIS has not revealed how many inspectors have contracted COVID-19, but Buck McKay, an FSIS spokesperson, stated that "ensuring the U.S. supply chain remains strong is [the agency's] top priority."16 'The Sickness in Our Food Supply'In an article titled "The Sickness in Our Food Supply,"17 author Michael Pollan succinctly sums up many of the problems facing the food supply, and how they've now been thrust into the spotlight due to COVID-19. Americans, for the first time in decades, have been faced with empty grocery store shelves and meat shortages. In May 2020 Costco began limiting the amount of meat each shopper could purchase, while Kroger warned customers that it could soon have limited inventory.18 The problem, however, isn't a shortage of food but problems with distribution and breaks in the supply chain. Adding insult to injury, the foods that the industrialized food system promotes, including heavily processed junk foods, are those that contribute to the chronic diseases that make people most at risk from severe COVID-19 infection. And some of the most questionable practices of all, like the massive planting of corn and soybean crops, are likely to be unscathed by the pandemic. Pollan wrote:19
Support the PRIME ActUnder current government regulations, the USDA, not individual states, has control over how meat is processed. Small livestock producers are forced to drive long distances to have their animals slaughtered at slaughterhouses that meet federal inspection standards — the same slaughterhouses that are now being shut down because the giant facilities are breeding grounds for disease. Small, custom slaughterhouses are not permitted to sell any of their meat to grocery stores, schools or restaurants, even though it could now prove to be a lifeline to states. The Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act, introduced by Representative Thomas Massie, R-Ky., would allow farmers to sell meat processed at these smaller slaughtering facilities and allow states to set their own meat processing standards. Because small slaughterhouses do not have an inspector on staff, a requirement that only large facilities can easily fulfill, they're banned from selling their meat. The PRIME Act would lift this regulation without sacrificing safety, as random USDA inspections could still occur.20 Massie stated that the shutting down of meat processing plants is driving the euthanizing of animals that may lead to shortages in the supermarket, including a shortage of beef by the fall. "Let those small meat processors fill in the gaps so that we don't have the dangerous situation where we're euthanizing animals instead of providing them as food. My bill would allow that to happen," he stated.21 from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/05/26/covid-19-infections-nearly-double-in-meatpacking-counties.aspx
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