Responsible Meat Packing
2020-05-08 14:52:10.975582+00 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
Cold, Crowded, Deadly: How U.S. Meat Plants Became a Virus Breeding Ground. As we watch Tyson Foods and others plead for bailouts and attempt to socialize risk, it's important that we not excuse their behavior and allow them to get away with the moral hazards:
There are exceptions in the U.S., too. Sanderson Farms Inc., America’s third-largest poultry producer, has had about 100 workers test positive for Covid-19 out of 17,000 employees in its 13 plants across the South. In late March, Sanderson became aware of a coronavirus outbreak in Dougherty County, Ga., near its 1,400-worker plant in the city of Moultrie. It sent more than 400 workers home, with pay, to quarantine for two weeks whether or not they were showing symptoms. The plant had to slow its line speed by 15%, but it averted a spike in infection, a closure, and possibly worse. None of the Dougherty County workers tested positive, and there have been no reports of deaths among Sanderson workers.