NC agriculture officials: No meat shortages for now, plant worker safety is priority
With coronavirus outbreaks in at least 13 North Carolina meat-processing plants, worker advocates this week said President Donald Trump must do more to protect workers if he wants to keep plants open.
The president issued an executive order Tuesday, invoking the Defense Production Act and declaring the plants critical to food supply chains during the pandemic.
N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler emphasized the importance of North Carolina’s agriculture, farms and food supply chain during a news conference Wednesday.
“We are hopeful that with this executive order, it will move more of an emphasis in (personal protective equipment) going to these plants so we can build that comfort level with these workers and they are able to go back to work,” Troxler said.
Joe Reardon, assistant agriculture commissioner, called Trump’s order “the law of the land” over any potential local and state orders for plants to close.
Panic buying has caused a run on some grocery stores, Mike Sprayberry, state director of emergency management, said during a separate news conference Wednesday.
The state is not closing any grocery stores, he said, and the food supply chain is strong and delivering food regularly to the stores.
“Please resist the urge to stockpile food,” Sprayberry said. “Leave some for others, especially those who can’t afford to buy a lot of food all at once.”
Robert Handfield, executive director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative and an N.C. State University professor, told the The News & Observer in an interview Wednesday that choices could become limited.
“I think ... we’re going to kind of limp along here and see reduced volumes of proteins in the stores,” Handfield said. “People can still buy chicken, but they might not be able to buy the chicken they’re looking for, so they might have to make do with what they can.”
Handfield said Trump’s order was “more political bravado and a bit of show for his base.”
It’s “a pointless command, because they’re already doing as much as they can,” Handfield said. “Those facilities, they’re trying to operate in a safe manner as dictated by the FDA and CDC. They’re not going to break one law to obey another law, if you will.”
Concerns for worker safety
Restaurants, universities and other institutional customers made up about 50% of meat sales before COVID-19, Handfield said, and the other half was retail. Now, retail stores make up 60% of those sales, challenging processors to move from bulk meat production to smaller, different cuts that shoppers want to buy.
Smaller processing plants can’t fill the gap, he said.
“The bottleneck then becomes the food processing facilities — the places like Smithfield and Tyson and others — and those processing plants tend to involve a lot of manual labor and a lot of workers are working really closely together, shoulder to shoulder,” Handfield said. “You can’t just tell people, well, just go to work when there’s a threat for them to get sick.”
Farmers and food processors have repeatedly said COVID-19 cannot be spread through food. But advocates say there are likely more coronavirus cases at the plants than reported, and they worry that the president’s order may increase those numbers if protections aren’t put in place.
The state Department of Health and Human Services has not provided plant names or updated the number of their cases across facilities in Bertie, Bladen, Chatham, Bladen, Duplin, Lee, Lenoir, Robeson, Sampson, Union, Wilkes and Wilson counties.
In North Carolina, Smithfield Foods operates the world’s largest pork distribution facility in Bladen County, handling 30,000 to 35,000 hogs a day. Smithfield also owns 203 farms, six processing plants and six feed mills statewide.
At least one positive case has been reported at the Bladen County plant, and workers there have said they are concerned about crowded working conditions and sick employees urged to keep working.
A recent Washington Post investigation found Smithfield Foods, along with major producers Tyson Foods and JBS USA, failed to provide workers with protective gear and encouraged sick employees to continue working, creating COVID-19 hotspots across the industry.
The Post reported Monday that 31 Smithfield, Tyson and JBS plants have had outbreaks, forcing 15 plants to close and causing a 25% cut in beef and pork production.
At least 17 other U.S. meatpacking plants also have reported infections and deaths, according to USA TODAY and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases at a Mountaire Farms chicken plant in Chatham County rose to 74 cases after mass testing of 356 people at the plant last week, according to WRAL. Nearly 1,600 workers work at the plant.
‘Workers want to feel safe’
The Hispanic Liaison, a Chatham County nonprofit, has received calls, emails and messages from fearful chicken plant workers and their family members around the county.
“If we are going to demand that poultry and meat processing plant workers go back to work there have to be very thoroughly enforced protections, as well ample testing for themselves and their families,” said Ilana Dubester, executive director of the nonprofit. “As far as our community is concerned, I doubt that the workers want to be out of work. I’m also sure that workers want to feel safe and don’t want to feel like they are risking their lives to process chickens.”
Dubester said many Latino immigrant workers fear getting sick and having to work to keep their jobs. Temporary contract workers hired by outside subcontractors at Mountaire Farms don’t get health insurance and may not want to be tested due to financial strain.
TV station WITN reported Wednesday that 58 Butterball employees at the Duplin plant have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to company documents.
“We are working closely with local, state and federal authorities on this unprecedented situation,” said Christa Leupen, a spokeswoman for Butterball poultry facilities, in an email.
“We have a specific procedure for anyone being tested for, confirmed ill with, or asked to quarantine because of COVID-19, which includes pay and benefits,” she stated. “We also strongly encourage any team member with questions to speak with their supervisor or plant HR.”
Response to outbreaks
Candance Cansler, executive director of the N.C. Meat Processors Association, said last week that members of her association are finding out “what the Department of Health in our state is doing to protect the workers at these facilities that may or may not test positive.”
The Farmworker Advocacy Network, a statewide coalition, called on Gov. Roy Cooper last month to do more to protect animal agriculture workers.
In a conference call hosted last week by the coalition, an unnamed Butterball worker in Mount Olive described working shoulder to shoulder, despite feeling sick, because she didn’t want to lose her job.
Lariza Garzón of the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry told The N&O that the worker, her husband and daughter have since developed COVID-19 symptoms. Although an immediate family member did test positive, the worker wasn’t able to be tested due to scarce testing.
“These are all essential workers, and we depend on them to have food on our table,” Garzón said. “Nobody is saying we should shut down the food system. There has to be a way to (protect workers) sustainably and respect the health and dignity of the workers involved. It would be great to see our state leaders move towards that.”
Handfield said the best scenario is that companies will start testing their employees every eight to 10 days for antibodies to the virus.
One company has begun testing its workers, Troxler said, although he did not name the company.
Others could start testing once the tests become more readily available, Troxler said.
For now, poultry and meat processors are implementing CDC guidelines and taking employee temperatures, and encouraging sick leave and doctor visits, Reardon said.
Worries about processors, farmers
Handler agreed most processing plant executives are “legitimately concerned about their workers” and are doing everything they can to get shuttered plants up and running. But it’s still not going to stop a sick person from going to work, infecting others and causing an outbreak that closes the plant, he said.
He urged the government and processors to also pay more attention to their farmers, struggling before COVID-19.
“I’m worried this is the tipping point that will put them over the edge,” he said.
Troxler noted the record low prices that farmers had been earning for commodity products like corn, sweet potatoes and other major state exports. Livestock farmers, if their animals can’t get to market and grow too large to be processed, may be forced to euthanize their herds, he said.
“The only thing that I can lean on is what the economist from N.C. State said ... he does not see how farmers can turn a profit this year,” Troxler said. “So what that means is if we are going to continue to have a stable farm system, a stable food supply, there probably will have to be additional federal intervention.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced roughly $19 billion in federal aid for farmers on April 17 through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.
About $16 billion will provide direct payments to produce, livestock and dairy producers, and $3 billion will pay for direct purchases of meat, dairy and specialty crops. The food will go to food banks, nonprofits, and community- and faith-based groups helping to feed people, according to the USDA.
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 3:14 PM with the headline "NC agriculture officials: No meat shortages for now, plant worker safety is priority."
