Coronavirus Outbreaks Expose Fragile Meat Supply Chain
Four months after the World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic, cases in the United States continue to rise. Many facets of our national economy are being tested by this crisis and the food system has been particularly hard hit. Consumers have faced a broad range of shortages in their supermarkets as food supply chains have been interrupted; and for essential food system workers, the impacts are far more severe. Food and agricultural workers continue to experience some of the highest rates of COVID-19 infections in the country. At the time of publishing this blog, more than 43,000 food workers have become ill and at least 162 have died (given gaps in testing, the true numbers are likely even higher). The vast majority of these cases occurred in meat processing facilities.
Tyson, JBS, and Smithfield (three of the largest meat producers in the U.S.) have been in the spotlight for months as their workers fell ill in unconscionable numbers. When plants closed for weeks at a time to deal with major outbreaks, the highly consolidated meat supply chain all but crumbled. Grocery retailers placed limits on meat and poultry purchases. Wendy’s ran short of hamburgers at some locations. And tragically, hundreds of thousands of animals were killed with inhumane methods like gassing and shot guns when they could not be sent to slaughter due to the backlog in meat processing.
On April 27, John H. Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods’ board of directors, published a full-page ad in major national newspapers threatening meat shortages for consumers if plants were not allowed to remain open. He notably declared that “our [meat] supply chain is breaking,” and claimed that its workers would be unable to fulfill their duty of feeding Americans should plants be required to close.
The supply chain, however, did not start breaking as a result of the pandemic — our meat supply chain was already broken. How could we describe a system in which humans, animals, and communities are relentlessly exploited as anything but broken? Coronavirus only shined a light on the shadowy truth of how our meat supply chain functions. It is incredibly fragile, and even when working as intended, it is harmful to employees, nearby communities, and air and water quality.
The lack of care for workers shown throughout this pandemic is not new; meat-processing workers have experienced low wages, stressful work environments, and high risk of injury for many years. While President Trump declared the meat supply chain critical and signed an executive order to save Americans from a meat shortage in April, that order did not require or “force” meat-packing plants to remain open as COVID tore through their facilities and sickened their workers. It allowed them to remain open. The decision to re-open or continue operations, even after confirmed cases were reported in facilities and droves of employees became ill, was ultimately a choice made by corporate leaders.
Since the executive order, cases have continued to spike in meat processing plants and the disease has spread into communities. Companies not only failed to close facilities or adequately alter procedures to protect workers from the spread of the disease, but, in some cases, they actually offered incentives encouraging workers to come to work without ensuring they were healthy. Employees report working shoulder-to-shoulder (far from the needed six-feet distance for slowing disease transmission), lacking sufficient personal protective equipment, and often having to go to work sick due to inadequate paid sick leave.
While company executives may be happy to suggest that Americans need cheap meat more than we need the lives of meat industry workers, this isn’t the case. COVID has made consumers more aware than ever of the impacts on workers, communities, and the environment, when company policies don’t protect workers. Investors are also taking note. Tyson stock has fallen significantly since January. Numerous petitions have been filed against the company and consumers are calling for boycotts. Just last week, China stopped accepting imports of Tyson poultry due to the known COVID contamination in one of its facilities.
The writing is on the wall for the meat industry; time will tell if companies choose to adapt.