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WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ New analysis of independent data show that reported new COVID-19 infection rates among meat and poultry workers are 60% lower than in the general U.S. population and two-thirds lower than case rates in the sector in May 2020.
According to data from the
Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN), the meat and poultry sector was reported to have an average of 32.64 new reported cases per 100,000 workers per day in January 2021, two-thirds lower than the average of 98.39 new reported cases per 100,000 workers per day in May 2020.
New York Times reports that in January 2021, the average new case rate for the U.S. population climbed to 78.59 cases per 100,000 people per day, more than 11 times higher than the new case rate in May.
Smithfield put additional safety measures in place to protect workers from spreading and contracting COVID-19. Letters sent to OSHA as well as Tyson, Smithfield and JBS into coronavirus outbreaks at meatpacking plants.
The U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis launched an investigation Monday of coronavirus outbreaks at meatpacking plants nationwide, which have resulted in the deaths of more than 250 employees. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., sent letters to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as well as to Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and JBS USA. Public reports indicate that under the Trump Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration failed to adequately carry out its responsibility for enforcing worker safety laws at meatpacking plants across the country, resulting in preventable infections and deaths,” Clyburn wrote to OSHA. “It is imperative that the previous Adminis
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2/2/2021 The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis launched an investigation Monday into the spread of COVID-19 at meatpacking plants during the course of the pandemic. The committee sent letters to the country’s top meatpackers JBS, Smithfield Foods, and Tyson Foods as well as to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), requesting scores of information on the entities’ management of the spread of the virus among meatpacking workers, with a response deadline of Feb. 15. “Public reports indicate that meatpacking companies … have refused to take basic precautions to protect their workers, many of whom earn extremely low wages and lack adequate paid leave, and have shown a callous disregard for workers’ health,” subcommittee chairman Rep. James Clyburn wrote to meatpackers. “These actions appear to have resulted in thousands of meatpacking workers getting infected with the virus and hundreds dying.”
OMAHA (DTN) A House subcommittee has launched an investigation into COVID-19 outbreaks at meatpacking plants owned by Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA and Smithfield Foods Inc., as well as the response from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
When COVID-19 started showing up in packing plants across the country early last year, packing plant closures caused cattle markets to crash even as meatpackers raised prices on retailers. Farmers faced a backup of livestock on the farm, leading to billions of dollars in losses, and packers scrambled to safeguard plant workers.
Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, more than 50,000 meatpacking plant workers have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 270 workers have died from the virus, according to the House subcommittee.
President Joe Biden believes agriculture has an important role to play in addressing climate change. When signing the climate change executive order, Biden said, “We see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process.”
The executive order stated: “America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners have an important role to play in combating the climate crisis and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, by sequestering carbon in soils, grasses, trees, and other vegetation and sourcing sustainable bioproducts and fuels.”
It directs USDA to “collect input from farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders on how to use federal programs to encourage adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices that produce verifiable carbon reductions and sequestrations and create new sources of income and jobs for rural Americans.”