We are in an unprecedented situation. Farmers have meat ready to be processed, processors are shut down or scaled back due to the COVID-19 situation, consumers are panic-buying food at an alarming rate. This has become a mess that we could never have seen coming.
President Trump invoked his powers under the Defense Production Act to help get meatpackers up and running, but this is by no means a magic bullet for the situation. Getting back online for processing is still a distance off and market-ready hogs are ready to go now.
Euthanization is going to start happening at processing facilities very soon. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN 7th) addressed the issue and what they are trying to get done, yesterday afternoon. He spoke to a group near Worthington, Minnesota, home to a JBS packing facility.
Chairman Peterson talks about the work he has been doing with the JBS plant in Worthington to bring them back online in some capacity to help with the euthanization of hogs. There is a severe backup of hogs that need to be disposed of. There has been and will continue to be testing done for the employees to assure their safety. Another issue is finding places to dispose of these hogs. Peterson says they are on a path to get things going.
Peterson says the goal is to bring the JBS plant in Worthington, Smithfield in Sioux Falls, SD, and the Tyson plant in Waterloo, Iowa back online for euthanization. That goal was announced by U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue. Peterson says the top priority is making sure the workers were safe.
Iowa Congressman Steve King (R-IA 4th) has been working with Chairman Peterson said he never thought he would see something like this in America. The hogs are healthy, but the workers are sick.
Peterson said that the daily rate of euthanization across the country is going to be over 160,000 hogs per day. Peterson says that JBS has been easy to work with, however, Smithfield will not respond to requests to follow suit. Peterson said if you do not like the situation, blame him.
The honking you are hearing in the background is from JBS plant workers who came to the site of the talk to protest the move to bring their plant back online.
The biggest concern out there is the safety of the plant workers. They are nervous, and they have every right to be. Peterson says, at the end of the day, the workers’ safety comes first.
Chairman Peterson said the goal at the Worthington Facility is to process 3,000 hogs per day. The original goal was 13,000, but they do not have enough trucks available to keep up that pace. The goal is to do all that can be done to help relieve the logjam of market-ready hogs until plants can come back online for food production.
The next question is who is paying for this loss of hogs? The United States Department of Agriculture?s (USDA) Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) usually handles the logistics of large-scale euthanization of animals. The problem is that authorization is only for sick animals. These animals are not sick, the people are. Chairman Peterson said he has been talking with AMS head and USDA Undersecretary Greg Ibach. The Chairman said he is going to guarantee that the USDA and Secretary Perdue will have the authorization to pay for these hogs as part of the next wave of COVID-19 relief that comes through the Congress.
The Chairman said the work that is done now, will be a model for the future. If a situation like this ever arises, we will have the plans in place and the lessons learned from this situation. Peterson vowed that we would no longer be caught flat-footed on his watch.
Both Peterson and King called this situation something they couldn?t even bring themselves to talk about only a month ago, but the situation has deteriorated rapidly. The paramount goal is to get meatpackers producing meat again and keeping the workers safe.
