The nation is in various stages of reopening as the number of new COVID-19 cases falls in some regions. Yet among the vulnerable workers who produce our food, the pandemic is still raging.
An under-the-radar market has sprung up to prevent euthanizing pigs and help support farmers. But communities on the receiving end have limited processing capacity and big concerns.
As the COVID-19 pandemic draws new attention to industrial-scale livestock agriculture, animal welfare groups are criticizing the way healthy farm animals are killed.
The executive action signals that decisions around whether to close or reopen plants should be driven by the federal government, not local authorities.
Health Dept. complaints show JBS Swift workers said the company was not doing enough to protect them from coronavirus; dozens are infected and one is dead.
With meat packing plants closed, the end for hundreds of thousands of pigs is likely to arrive in an orgy of waste that turns the stomachs of even the most pragmatic.
The closure of major pork processing plants across the U.S. has state officials and pork producers in South Dakota planning for the worst — the potential euthanization of thousands of hogs that cannot be sold.
A relatively small number of plants process much of the beef and pork in the United States, and some of them have closed because workers are getting sick.
Some employees are coming in sick, and one woman died after being ordered back to work. “Our work conditions are out of control,” a longtime Tyson employee said.
Four of the fellows who participated in the program this year will discuss their ongoing research, activism, and experiences with publishing their ideas in the public sphere.
With job loss and stifled development in the renewable energy sector, economists, politicians, and advocates say policy action is necessary to stay on track.
