Water vapor in the atmosphere may be prime renewable energy source

by Tel Aviv University

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The search for renewable energy sources, which include wind, solar, hydroelectric dams, geothermal, and biomass, has preoccupied scientists and policymakers alike, due to their enormous potential in the fight against climate change. A new Tel Aviv University study finds that water vapor in the atmosphere may serve as a potential renewable energy source in the future.

The research, led by Prof. Colin Price in collaboration with Prof. Hadas Saaroni and doctoral student Judi Lax, all of TAU's Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, is based on the discovery that electricity materializes in the interaction between water molecules and metal surfaces. It was published in Scientific Reports on May 6, 2020.

"We sought to capitalize on a naturally occurring phenomenon: electricity from water," explains Prof. Price. "Electricity in thunderstorms is generated only by water in its different phases—water vapor, water droplets, and ice. Twenty minutes of cloud development is how we get from water droplets to huge electric discharges—lightning—some half a mile in length."

The researchers set out to try to produce a tiny low-voltage battery that utilizes only humidity in the air, building on the findings of earlier discoveries. In the nineteenth century, for example, English physicist Michael Faraday discovered that water droplets could charge metal surfaces due to friction between the two. A much more recent study showed that certain metals spontaneously build up an electrical charge when exposed to humidity.

The scientists conducted a laboratory experiment to determine the voltage between two different metals exposed to high relative humidity, while one is grounded. "We found that there was no voltage between them when the air was dry," Prof. Price explains. "But once the relative humidity rose above 60%, a voltage began to develop between the two isolated metal surfaces. When we lowered the humidity level to below 60%, the voltage disappeared. When we carried out the experiment outside in natural conditions, we saw the same results.

"Water is a very special molecule. During molecular collisions, it can transfer an electrical charge from one molecule to the other. Through friction, it can build up a kind of static electricity," says Prof. Price. "We tried to reproduce electricity in the lab and found that different isolated metal surfaces will build up different amounts of charge from water vapor in the atmosphere, but only if the air relative humidity is above 60%. This occurs nearly every day in the summer in Israel and every day in most tropical countries."

According to Prof. Price, this study challenges established ideas about humidity and its potential as an energy source. "People know that dry air results in static electricity and you sometimes get 'shocks' you when you touch a metal door handle. Water is normally thought of as a good conductor of electricity, not something that can build up charge on a surface. However, it seems that things are different once the relative humidity exceeds a certain threshold," he says.

The researchers, however, showed that humid air may be a source of charging surfaces to voltages of around one volt. "If a AA battery is 1.5V, there may be a practical application in the future: to develop batteries that can be charged from water vapor in the air," Prof. Price adds.

"The results may be particularly important as a renewable source of energy in developing countries, where many communities still do not have access to electricity, but the humidity is constantly about 60%," Prof. Price concludes.

Smart windows that self-illuminate on rainy days

More information: J. Y. Lax et al, On the Spontaneous Build-Up of Voltage between Dissimilar Metals Under High Relative Humidity Conditions, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64409-2

Journal information: Scientific Reports 

Provided by Tel Aviv University 

Living near oil and gas wells may increase preterm birth risk

by Stanford University

A pumpjack operating a well in the Signal Hill neighborhood in Los Angeles County, California. In the San Joaquin Valley, where pumpjacks are also in close proximity to houses, researchers found living near oil and gas development is a risk factor for spontaneous preterm birth. Credit: David Gonzalez

Living in close proximity to oil and gas operations may increase the risk of preterm birth, according to new research on births in California's primary oil-producing region. The work could inform discussions about the state's implementation of setbacks from oil and gas extraction facilities.

Researchers examined 225,000 births from mothers who lived within about six miles of oil and gas wells in the San Joaquin Valley from 1998 to 2011. The results show that women who lived near wells in the first and second trimesters were 8 to 14 percent more likely to experience a spontaneous preterm birth—one that would otherwise be unexplained—at 20 to 31 weeks. Spontaneous preterm birth, in which a pregnancy ends before 37 weeks of gestation, is the leading cause of infant death in the United States.

The study, published June 5 in Environmental Epidemiology, adds to a small body of population-based research aimed at better understanding how environmental factors may affect the health outcomes of pregnancy, and it is among the first to investigate a potential link between residential proximity to oil and gas operations and spontaneous preterm birth in California. About 17 million people in the United States live within one mile of an active oil or gas well, including 2.1 million in California.

"There's some evidence that environmental exposures increase risk of preterm birth, but this particular exposure—oil and gas—has received very little attention in California, despite having millions of people living in close proximity to wells," said lead author David Gonzalez, a Ph.D. candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). "We're getting a sense that this does potentially have an adverse effect on health outcomes of pregnancy."

The analyses focused on how exposure to wells may affect spontaneous preterm births. Therefore, the researchers excluded multiple births and women who had medical conditions associated with early delivery, like maternal preeclampsia. Of about 225,000 birth outcomes analyzed over a 13-year period, 28,000 were spontaneous preterm births. The negative impact of living near a well appeared strongest among women who were Hispanic, Black or had fewer than 12 years of education.

"For me, the higher risk for the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black women is an important signal and it makes me want to ask more questions," Gonzalez said.

The new findings differ with those from another recent study from the University of California, Berkeley, which found that living near oil and gas operations throughout the state may increase the risk of low birth weight and small gestational age—but not preterm birth. The Stanford researchers note that one thing they did differently was to look only at cases of spontaneous preterm births, which the UC Berkeley group did not do.

"The causes of preterm birth, particularly those that occur spontaneously, remain a mystery. If you group all types of preterm births together, it makes it very hard to identify possible causes," said senior author Gary Shaw, DrPH, a professor of pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "We looked exclusively at spontaneous preterm with our best efforts to look at narrower slices of when babies were born."

While previous studies on birth outcomes in Pennsylvania, Texas and Colorado have focused on unconventional natural gas extraction (commonly known as fracking), most wells in California are drilled using conventional methods. The researchers only analyzed wells that were active or in the preproduction stage—when the wells were being constructed—since those are expected to have the most emissions. The analyses included about 83,000 wells, 12,000 of which were in preproduction. They included mothers living within six miles of a well into their analyses of the highest risk of exposure.

"California is considering regulating how close to sensitive sites like schools these wells should be allowed to operate. I think this paper is strong evidence that we need to think carefully about that decision," said co-author Marshall Burke, an associate professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford Earth. "A key next step, I think, is finding out explicitly how close you need to be to a well for it to cause harm."

The researchers also hope to further explore why living near a well could be associated with a spontaneous preterm birth. Residents near wells may be exposed to a range of environmental contaminants and stressors. For example, they could be breathing in chemicals used in extraction, experiencing stress from drilling noise, drinking contaminated water or breathing in higher levels of particulate matter in the air around such sites.

"We don't understand what causes preterm birth, but we understand that certain factors increase your risk, and environmental exposures are among those factors," Gonzalez said.

In vitro fertilization linked with increased risk of spontaneous preterm birth

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More information: David J. X. Gonzalez et al, Oil and gas production and spontaneous preterm birth in the San Joaquin Valley, CA, Environmental Epidemiology (2020). DOI: 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000099

Provided by Stanford University 

Mexican president urges Canadian mining firms to pay taxes


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday some of Canada’s mining firms were behind on their tax payments and urged the Canadian government to lean on them to avoid the dispute reaching international tribunals.

“There are a few Canadian mining companies that are not up-to-date, they want to go to international tribunals,” Lopez Obrador told a regular government news conference.

The president then urged Canada’s ambassador to prevail on the companies that there was no need to seek legal redress because “it’s very clear that they have these debts with the tax authority, and that (Canada) help us to convince them.”

He did not name any specific companies.

A spokeswoman for Canada’s embassy in Mexico said the embassy does not comment on or confirm private interactions between governments.

Last month Canada’s First Majestic Silver Corp said it had served notice to Mexico’s government under its North American trade treaty obligations to begin talks to resolve taxation disputes.

First Majestic did not return a call seeking comment.

Nearly 70% of foreign-owned mining companies operating in Mexico are based in Canada, according to Global Affairs Canada. The value of Canadian mining assets in Mexico totaled C$18.4 billion in 2017, according to the Mining Association of Canada.

Lopez Obrador has made cracking down on tax breaks a priority. A number of major companies, including the Mexican unit of U.S. retailer Walmart Inc and Mexican conglomerate Femsa have recently agreed to make tax payments to Mexico.

Lopez Obrador also said Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp is in the process of doing the same thing. Representatives for Toyota in Mexico had no immediate comment.

The president’s comments come as Mexico and the private sector have also been having a major dispute on energy policy.

Lopez Obrador has allowed officials to call into question contracts worth billions of dollars signed by companies from Canada, the United States and Europe under the previous administration, setting up a potentially messy legal scrap.

Rhodes Must Fall: Oxford protesters target statue of colonialist

OXFORD, England (Reuters) - More than 1,000 protesters converged on a college at Oxford University on Tuesday, chanting “take it down” and “shame on you” to demand the removal of a statue of 19th century British colonialist Cecil Rhodes.

A wave of anti-racism protests sweeping across the United States and Europe has reignited a debate about monuments glorifying Britain’s imperialist past, which many people see as offensive in today’s multi-ethnic society.

Dramatic images on Sunday of protesters in the port city of Bristol tearing down a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and throwing it into the harbour inspired campaigners in Oxford to seize the moment.

“Rhodes represents such a violent legacy of colonialism, imperialism, slavery, particularly in southern Africa,” said protester Morategi Kale, a South African graduate student at Oxford. “The beginning is to take down a statue that celebrates that.”

Many academics and public figures oppose the removal of such monuments, arguing they merely reflect history and should be used as points of discussion.

But demonstrators said the statue of Rhodes should no longer have pride of place on the facade of Oriel College, which overlooks Oxford’s High Street.
A general view as demonstrators protest for the removal of a statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes on the outside of Oriel College in Oxford, following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Oxford, Britain, June 9, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
“I think what he did should be in the museum, but not on an institution of higher education. It’s just the wrong place,” said Butch Smith, a chef, who had brought his young daughter to the protest.

Javan Ravindian, a student, said the statue showed the university was failing to engage with issues faced by students from ethnic minority backgrounds.

“For black and brown students to have to walk around this university and see these symbols of slavery and colonisation is frankly quite abhorrent,” he said.

CONTESTED HERITAGE

A previous student campaign in 2015, modelled on the “Rhodes Must Fall” movement in South Africa that led Cape Town University to remove its statue of Rhodes that year, failed to convince Oriel to follow suit.

In a statement ahead of Tuesday’s demonstration, the college said it abhorred racism.

“We understand that we are, and we want to be, a part of the public conversation about the relationship between the study of history, public commemoration, social justice and educational equality,” it said.

“As a college, we continue to debate and discuss the issues raised by the presence on our site of examples of contested heritage relating to Cecil Rhodes.”


Slideshow (9 Images)

A mining magnate, Rhodes was a central figure in Britain’s colonial project in southern Africa, giving his name to Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe, and founding the De Beers diamond empire.

He made his fortune from the exploitation of African miners, secured power through bloody imperial wars and paved the way to apartheid with his beliefs and measures on racial segregation.

A student at Oriel in his youth, Rhodes left the college money when he died and also endowed the Rhodes Scholarships, which have allowed more than 8,000 students from countries around the world to study at Oxford over the past century.

The demonstration was peaceful, and there was no attempt to remove the statue, which stands in a niche high up on a building whose construction was partly funded by Rhodes.

Israel's Supreme Court strikes down law legalising settlements on private Palestinian land

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a law on Tuesday that had retroactively legalised about 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
FILE PHOTO: A general view picture shows the Israeli settlement of Efrat (L) in the Gush Etzion settlement block as Bethlehem is seen in the background, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

A nine-judge panel voted to repeal the 2017 measure, under which settlers could remain on land if they built there without prior knowledge of Palestinian ownership, or if homes were built at the state’s direction. Eight voted in favour and one against.

Rights groups say the measure, which was frozen soon after passage while the court heard petitions against it, had legalised more than 50 settler outposts built without government approval.

The law “unequally infringes on the property rights of Palestinian residents while giving preference to the proprietary interests of Israeli settlers,” Chief Justice Esther Hayut wrote in the panel’s ruling.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party said it was “unfortunate” that the court had intervened on “an important law for settlement activity and its future” and that it would work to re-enact it.

But Likud’s new coalition partner, Blue and White, said the law “in its format runs counter to the constitutional situation in Israel, and its legal problems were known at the time of its approval”.

“We respect the High Court’s ruling and (will) ensure it is implemented,” Blue and White said.

Under Netanyahu, the government has pledged to extend sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians seek for a state.


The government is due to begin discussing the de facto annexation on July 1, but it is unclear whether Israel’s main ally, the United States, will give the step the green light.

The Palestinians have rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace blueprint, under which most of Israel’s settlements would be incorporated into “contiguous Israeli territory”.


Editing by Timothy Heritage

THE CORONAVIRUS REVEALED TWO PUBLIC SECRETS 

ALL CAPITALISM IS STATE CAPITALISM

Cathay Pacific unveils US$5 billion bailout plan

France pledges 15 bn euros for stricken aviation firms

CAPITALISM IS SO WEAK IT CAN EASILY 
BE DEFEATED BY A GLOBAL MASS STRIKE 
EVERYONE STAYS HOME NO CREATING VALUE
FOR THE BOSSES NO ONE SHOPPING AND 
SPENDING WAGES

AND IT SAVES THE PLANET TOO 

Airlines heading for $84 billion loss this year: IATA

PARIS (Reuters) - Airlines are set to lose $84 billion as the coronavirus pandemic reduces revenue by half to mark the worst year in the sector’s history, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast on Tuesday.


With most of the world’s airliners currently parked, IATA said revenue would likely fall to $419 billion from $838 billion last year.

“Every day of this year will add $230 million to industry losses,” IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac said.


The average loss amounts to almost $38 per passenger flown.

In 2021, IATA warned losses could hit $100 billion as traffic struggles to recover and airlines slash fares to win business.

“Airlines will still be financially fragile in 2021,” De Juniac said, predicting “even more intense” competition.


“That will translate into strong incentives for travellers to take to the skies again,” he added.

IATA forecast a rise in 2021 revenue to $598 billion.

Airlines are counting the cost of weeks of lost business, a debt pile swollen by bailouts and a diminished demand outlook.

Passenger numbers are seen falling to 2.25 billion this year before rising to 3.38 billion in 2021, still more than 25% below 2019 levels.

Yields, a proxy for fares, are seen falling 18% this year, contributing to a $241 billion decline in passenger revenue.

Cargo, a relatively small share of the overall business, brought some relief as mass plane groundings drove price increases expected to top 30%, IATA said, helping revenue to a near-record $111 billion.

Even in markets where COVID-19 infection rates have fallen sharply, airlines still face a patchwork of travel restrictions and wary consumers.

A 14-day quarantine for arriving passengers introduced by Britain this week has prompted an angry response and legal threats from the travel industry amid reports that it may be loosened in favour of “air corridors” to some destinations.

Brazil restores detailed COVID-19 data after Supreme Court ruling
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil on Tuesday restored detailed COVID-19 data to its official national website following controversy over the removal of cumulative totals and a ruling by a Supreme Court justice that the full set of information be reinstated.

The move came after days of mounting pressure from across the political spectrum and allegations the government was trying to mask the severity of the outbreak, now the world’s second-largest.

President Jair Bolsonaro has consistently sought to play down the severity of the new coronavirus, dismissing it as a “little flu” and urging governors to reverse lockdown measures that are battering the country’s economy.

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro said the World Health Organization has lost credibility in its handling of the pandemic and that Brazil could pull out of the international body.

The controversy over how Brazil presents its coronavirus numbers came as Sao Paulo’s health department reported a record number of COVID-19 deaths for one day, just as the country’s most populous state was starting to reopen its economy and relax some social distancing rules.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second-largest city, also started to ease quarantine rules, including by allowing soccer games without spectators, but a judge on Monday overruled decisions by local government, allowing only essential services to operate due to the state’s surging death toll of over 7,000 fatalities.

Over the weekend, the health ministry abruptly removed cumulative totals of coronavirus cases and deaths, causing outrage across the political spectrum. Last week, it delayed the release of the numbers until late in the evening and past Brazil’s main news program.

Health experts had feared that by not publishing accumulated totals and releasing only deaths that occurred in the past 24 hours, cases in which someone tested positive for the coronavirus days after their death date could disappear from public view.

In Brazil, where testing has been haphazard, such cases are common.

Supreme Justice Alexandre de Moraes said in a statement on the court’s website that the health ministry must “fully re-establish the daily dissemination of epidemiological data on the COVID-19 pandemic, including on the agency’s website, under the terms presented until last Thursday.”

Acting Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, speaking at a cabinet meeting broadcast on TV, said there had never been any intention to revise the numbers, nor any suggestion that figures had been over-reported.

For Justice Moraes, the government’s actions in recent days made it “impossible” to monitor the spread of the virus and to implement adequate and necessary control and prevention policies.

On Tuesday afternoon the official website covid.saude.gov.br/ covid.saude.gov.br/, reverted to showing detailed information, with cumulative totals of deaths and infections - as well as breakdowns by state - as it had last week.

Brazil’s confirmed cases, at more than 700,000, are the second-highest in the world behind only the United States, and the death toll is now over 37,000, the world’s third-highest.


Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, Jamie McGeever, Eduardo Simoes and Anthony Boadle; writing by Anthony Boadle and Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Marguerita Choy and Dan Grebler

Brazil must publish COVID-19 data in full, says Supreme Court justice

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s top court waded into the controversy surrounding official reporting of coronavirus death and infection rates, as a Supreme Court justice ruled the Health Ministry must revert to releasing the full set of data it had previously made available.
FILE PHOTO: Judge Alexandre de Moraes speaks during a meeting with Brazil's Lower House's President Rodrigo Maia, in Brasilia, Brazil October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

Over the weekend, the Health Ministry abruptly removed troves of detailed coronavirus data and said it would no longer publish cumulative totals, causing outrage across the political spectrum. Last week, it pushed back the release of the numbers late into the evening and past Brazil’s main news program.

In a statement on the Supreme Court website early on Tuesday, Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the ministry must “fully re-establish the daily dissemination of epidemiological data on the COVID-19 pandemic, including on the agency’s website, under the terms presented until last Thursday.”

Interim Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, speaking at a cabinet meeting broadcast on local TV, said there had never been any intention to revise the number of casualties, nor any suggestion from within the government that the figures have been over-reported.

He said registering fatalities from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, by the date of death rather than the day of registration better reflected the epidemic’s “true curve.”

On Monday, the ministry rowed back on its earlier position, saying it would release data earlier and include cumulative totals.

Health experts had feared that by no longer publishing accumulated totals and only releasing deaths that occurred in the past 24 hours, cases in which someone tested positive for the new coronavirus days after their date of death could disappear from public view. In Brazil, where testing has been haphazard, such cases are common.

For Justice Moraes, the government’s actions in recent days made it “impossible” to monitor the spread of the virus and to implement adequate and necessary control and prevention policies.

Brazil’s confirmed cases, at more than 700,000, are the second highest in the world behind only the United States, and the death toll is now over 37,000.

Also on Tuesday, President Jair Bolsonaro repeated his threat to pull Brazil out of the World Health Organization, which he claimed had acted irresponsibly as the pandemic unfolded and lost credibility.


Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Jamie McGeever; Editing by

Ontario testing migrant farm workers after coronavirus deaths, severe cases

Allison Martell, Kelsey Johnson

TORONTO/OTTAWA (Reuters) - Ontario has started testing about 8,000 migrant farm workers for COVID-19 in a hard-hit rural region of the province after two young workers died and the coronavirus was found on at least 17 farms, according to the local public health authority.

The Ontario outbreak has centered on farms in the Windsor-Essex region, across from the Michigan border. Canadian farmers rely on 60,000 temporary foreign workers predominantly from Latin America and the Caribbean to plant and harvest crops.

Two workers from Mexico, aged 24 and 31, have died in recent days after contracting the virus. The provincial coroner is investigating the death of the 31-year-old worker.

Nurses, doctors and paramedics, including home care nurses who speak Spanish, are going to farms to check on sick workers and ensure exposure to the virus is contained, said Erie Shores hospital chief of staff Ross Moncur.

“The impact on the individuals has been more severe than we would have anticipated,” he said. “Going into this, we would have said, temporary foreign workers are young, healthy, folks in general ... but we’ve seen some severe cases.”

About 200 farm workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, said Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health for Windsor-Essex.

“We’re dealing with an emergency,” said Ahmed, whose unit is considering a new binding order to improve worker accommodations.

The order could limit the number of people who can isolate together, require employers to make it easier for public health to reach workers, and set standards for food in isolation.

Moncur said transportation, language and cultural barriers mean workers have not received as much follow-up care as people with COVID-19 usually would in Canada.

Farm workers, who often live in bunkhouses, are entitled to healthcare in Canada.

“Bunkhouses on farms for migrant workers are, relative to other things in Canada, very crowded spaces, in which transmission is very easy,” said Allison McGeer, an infectious disease expert from Toronto’s Mount Sinai hospital.

Public health advocates had warned that shared housing could put workers in danger.

Scotlynn Group, a fruit and vegetable farm in Norfolk, another rural area with a large migrant worker population, has reported 164 cases - two severe enough to require hospitalization - among 216 migrant workers. The farm has been working closely with local health authorities.

“It’s been difficult to keep the operation going and to see our men infected with this virus. It’s been rattling,” Scotlynn Group owner Scott Biddle told Reuters.

Ministry of Labour data requested by Reuters showed that Scotlynn Group was the subject of a complaint about a “lack of COVID-19 measures” one week before its first reported case on June 2. It declined to give further details.

Biddle said the ministry has visited the farm twice and did not find any problems.

Reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto and Kelsey Johnson in Ottawa; Editing by Bill Berkrot
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

AFTER THE PANDEMIC THEY STILL WANT TO KILL YOU

Republican lawmakers ask Agriculture Department to ease regs on meat production

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Six Republicans in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee urged the U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday to ease regulations on meat processors that they said make it harder for smaller companies to compete.

The price paid to ranchers for cattle dropped and meat prices rose earlier this spring when operations at some slaughterhouses were slowed by workers falling ill with the new coronavirus, while others closed. President Donald Trump responded in May by insisting that the Justice Department open an antitrust probe.

The six lawmakers, led by the top Republican on the committee, Jim Jordan, urged Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to “revisit burdensome regulations that create barriers to entry and lessen competition in the nation’s meat processing industry.”

The lawmakers requested that Perdue consider giving smaller processors “more flexibility” in handling Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Plans to address food safety issues and to clarify and streamline the approval process for meat labels.

They also asked Perdue to reduce the regulatory burden keeping smaller meat processors from participating in a program that allows them to sell across state lines and to find a way to reduce the expense of inspections, which falls on meat processors if an inspector works overtime.

Farmers have increasingly turned to small processors to slaughter their livestock as the pandemic hobbled big slaughterhouses run by companies like Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) and JBS USA. Around 80% of U.S. beef is produced by four large companies. In addition to Jordan, the letter was signed by Republican Representatives James Sensenbrenner, Ken Buck, Matt Gaetz, Kelly Armstrong and W. Gregory Steube.