Smithfield Claims To Be 'Sustainable' While Remaining One of the Biggest Industrial Polluters in the US

Smithfield is pushing a massive greenwashing campaign to dupe consumers into thinking its products are environmentally friendly.

by

Tyler Lobdell

Published on

Friday, February 19, 2021

by

Food & Water Watch Blog

A sign outside the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in South Dakota, one of the countrys largest known Coronavirus clusters, is seen on April 21, 2020 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. - Smithfield Foods pork plant in South Dakota is closed indefinitely in the wake of its coronavirus outbreak.(Photo by KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)

We’ve all probably seen them, advertisements from corporate polluters that sound like they could have been written by an environmental protection group. This tactic, called greenwashing, has become all the rage with some of the biggest polluters to cover up their poisoning of the environment and harm to communities. And Smithfield Foods is a prime example, pushing an aggressive greenwashing campaign so that consumers will overlook that it is one of the biggest industrial polluters in the United States.

What Smithfield is really doing is doubling down on its legacy of extreme pollution, because its factory farm biogas scheme fundamentally depends on the worst parts of how it has chosen to produce its pork products on the cheap.

Instead of cleaning up its act by actually making its products without destroying the environment and health of those unlucky enough to live near its plants and the factory farms that raise its pigs, Smithfield is investing in slick tag lines and doubling down on its devastating factory farm model. Day in and day out Smithfield gets rich while spewing dangerous pollutants into our water, air, and soil. And now Smithfield is partnering with fossil fuel corporations to push factory farm “biogas” schemes to monetize its deliberate mismanagement of the nearly unfathomable amounts of waste it produces year after year. Factory farm biogas is a false solution that expands and entrenches the worst aspects of mega-factory farms and the dirty natural gas industry. But throughout Smithfield’s marketing — on its websites, social media accounts, and elsewhere—it tells consumers that its pork products are environmentally friendly and that it is a sustainability leader and climate champion. It’s grade-A greenwashing at its finest. 

Not only is this deception bad for consumers and family farmers, it’s illegal. That’s why we’re calling on federal regulators to hold Smithfield accountable and put a stop to its false and misleading advertising. 

Smithfield Is One of the Biggest Industrial Polluters, Making a Mockery of Its Sustainability Claims

Smithfield is one of the most harmful industrial polluters in the United States. It consistently puts profits over people and the environment, with factory farms and processing facilities throughout the country that rack up dozens of environmental violations every year. This is why Smithfield has been hit with tens of millions of dollars in damages as impacted communities have successfully taken the mega-polluter to court for causing conditions that make their homes nearly unlivable. The federal judges did not mince their words, recognizing that “interlocking dysfunctions” are characteristic of how Smithfield produces its products, and that the company willfully and wantonly harmed its neighbors to maximize profits.

Smithfield’s Claims About Factory Farm Biogas Are Quintessential Corporate Greenwashing

Smithfield’s latest scheme to hide its harm to public health and the climate is its promotion of anaerobic digesters to produce so-called “biogas.” These digesters are tanks or lagoons that create an oxygen-free environment where microbes eat part of Smithfield’s manure and emit a mixture of gases, mostly methane and carbon dioxide, that the digester captures. This factory farm biogas can then be refined and burned just like fossil natural gas. Far from showing a “longstanding commitment to sustainability,” as Smithfield claims, building new factory farms and entrenching its irresponsible waste mismanagement to extract biogas only perpetuates the myriad harms caused by its factory farm production model. In fact, Smithfield’s digesters can make its waste even more harmful to waterways than what it started with.

What Smithfield is really doing is doubling down on its legacy of extreme pollution, because its factory farm biogas scheme fundamentally depends on the worst parts of how it has chosen to produce its pork products on the cheap. Smithfield promotes digesters as reducing its methane emissions and producing “renewable” energy, but fails to mention that this methane is the direct result of Smithfield’s preferred waste management practice, where it liquifies enormous quantities of manure and stores it cheaply in rudimentary “lagoons” (pictured in the image above during a flood). In contrast, when animal manure breaks down naturally, on a pasture for example, it does not generate methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is 90 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time period. Simply put, Smithfield misleadingly tells consumers its pork is environmentally friendly and that it is a leader in sustainability because it is slapping a bandaid over the climate destroying pollution that it deliberately created in the first place. But we aren’t letting this deception go unanswered.    

Taking the Smithfield Greenwashing Case to the Federal Trade Commission

Food & Water Watch and a coalition of environmental and sustainable, family farming groups* have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) calling for enforcement of federal law against Smithfield’s false and misleading marketing. Under the FTC Act, companies are prohibited from promoting their products in any way that is likely to mislead reasonable consumers. As our complaint makes clear, Smithfield’s sustainability marketing tells consumers that its pork products have environmental attributes that are in stark contrast to the reality of how Smithfield does business, duping them into buying its products.

This unfair and illegal practice not only harms consumers, but also harms truly sustainable family farmers who invest the time, effort, and money into producing products that actually match what conscientious consumers expect. By illegally marketing its products, Smithfield makes it nearly impossible for these honest producers to compete in the marketplace, and for consumers to tell the difference.

Smithfield reportedly brought in more than $11 billion in revenue in 2020, so it can afford to clean up its act and transition away from the factory farm model that takes such a tremendous toll on the environment and local communities. But instead, it has opted for false solutions like factory farm biogas so it can wring more money out of its dangerous and polluting production facilities. Smithfield’s products are not “sustainable” or “environmentally friendly,” and the FTC must act to hold this mega-polluter accountable for lying to the public and its customers.

Tyler Lobdell joined Food & Water Watch’s legal team as a staff attorney in 2019, and focuses on combating factory farms through legal advocacy. Prior to joining Food & Water Justice, Tyler spent two years as the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Food Law Fellow. A long-time environmentalist, Tyler spent almost 10 years leading conservation programs across the U.S. before attending law school.

Smithfield Foods Is Blaming “Living Circumstances In Certain Cultures” For One Of America’s Largest COVID-19 Clusters

New details show how Smithfield Foods failed to take action in the crucial days before the plant turned into one of the nation’s largest coronavirus clusters.

ANTI LATINX RACISM FROM CHINESE OWNED SMITHFIELD

KETTLE CALLING POT BLACK (WUHAN WILD ANIMAL MARKETS)

Posted on April 20, 2020

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
The Smithfield Foods pork plant in South Dakota is closed indefinitely in the wake of its coronavirus outbreak.

Was there any way to prevent the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in South Dakota from becoming one of the country’s largest known coronavirus clusters, with more than 700 workers infected? It’s hard to know “what could have been done differently,” a Smithfield spokesperson said, given what she referred to as the plant’s “large immigrant population.”

“Living circumstances in certain cultures are different than they are with your traditional American family,” she explained. The spokesperson and a second corporate representative pointed to an April 13 Fox News interview in which the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, said that “99%” of the spread of infections “wasn’t happening inside the facility” but inside workers’ homes, “because a lot of these folks who work at this plant live in the same community, the same buildings, sometimes in the same apartments."

But internal company communications and interviews with nearly a dozen workers and their relatives point to a series of management missteps and half measures that contributed significantly to the spread of the virus. A BuzzFeed News investigation has uncovered new information showing the company did little to inform or protect employees during the critical two weeks after the first case at the plant surfaced. Then, with confirmed cases rising quickly, Smithfield introduced new safety protocols but applied them unevenly across the plant’s departments, leaving hundreds of workers exposed.

In late March, as word of the first confirmed case leaked, workers began seeing flyers on notice boards and doors. “If you are at work and feeling sick,” the flyers stated, “tell your Supervisor and go directly home.” But the directive was posted only in English, three employees said, even though many of the plant’s 3,700 workers have limited comprehension of English. Safety notices at the plant are usually translated into as many as five languages.


Provided to BuzzFeed News
A flyer at the Smithfield plant.

On April 1, the company took the unusual step of offering free lunch. The gesture was meant to show appreciation for those still coming in — but it was also an incentive for workers from all eight floors to pass through the cafeteria.

On April 6, two weeks after the first confirmed case and with the number of infections rising, Smithfield implemented mandatory temperature checks and shut down at least one floor “for cleaning & sanitation,” according to a company text message to employees. Yet the rest of the plant stayed open.

As more people called in sick, Smithfield management stayed mostly silent about the severity of the crisis at the Sioux Falls facility, only informing employees about a confirmed case if they’d recently been “in contact” with the person, according to the spokesperson, while encouraging others in company text messages to “Please report to work as previously scheduled.”

Eighteen days after the first case, once 238 workers had tested positive, Smithfield paused operations on all floors for 48 hours to deep-clean the plant, as well as install cardboard dividers at workstations and plexiglass shields on cafeteria tables. Even then, it moved slowly: Smithfield announced the temporary closure on April 9 but said it would not occur for another few days to allow for an orderly reduction in supply.

On April 10, Michael Bul Gayo Gatluak, a 22-year-old immigrant from South Sudan, clocked in at the hog kill department on the sixth floor. His job requires him to stand for hours on a platform “really, really close” to other workers along the production line where pig carcasses are chopped. “The job is so heavy,” he said. “You have to breathe so hard.” When he got home that night, he started feeling ill. He said he tested positive for COVID-19 three days later.

“With how we work on the line, I would say I got sick because of them not taking safety measures,” Gatluak told BuzzFeed News. “When they had their first case, I don’t think they acted accordingly.”

The plant is now closed indefinitely, cutting the country off from about 5% of its national pork supply. With 725 confirmed cases among workers and 143 more traced to them, the Smithfield outbreak has eclipsed most of the country’s worst-hit nursing homes and prisons among the largest community outbreaks. One Smithfield worker, 64-year-old Agustin Rodriguez, died on April 14 from COVID-19 complications.

Smithfield denied that company policies contributed to the spread of the virus, and said that it has prioritized employees’ well-being and communicated with them extensively about safety protocols. The corporate spokesperson whom the company provided to answer BuzzFeed News’ questions — on the condition that her name not be used — said that higher-ups have worked “around the clock” from the beginning of the outbreak and posted handwashing directives as early as February, but have been hindered by national shortages of protective equipment. Last week, Smithfield shut down plants in Wisconsin and Missouri after employees there tested positive for COVID-19, and announced it was providing all 40,000 company employees with “a $100 million Responsibility Bonus,” which amounts to around $2,500 per person.

Presented with a detailed list of questions, the spokesperson said that it was “purposefully misleading” to portray Smithfield “as reacting to a positive case rather than the very proactive approach” that the company took to the pandemic when it began, but she did not contest any specific facts.

An ongoing BuzzFeed News investigation has exposed how companies around the country have put hourly workers at risk of exposure to the coronavirus. With hundreds of workers in tight confines passing chunks of raw meat through the building, meat processing plants have been especially vulnerable. More than a dozen have fully or partially stopped production since the pandemic began, with hundreds of workers falling ill at plants across the country. Workers at JBS meatpacking plants in Colorado and at a Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Georgia have died from COVID-19.

But for now, the Smithfield facility in South Dakota stands out. The first case arrived when the pandemic was in full swing, with much of the country shutting down and companies everywhere changing the way they worked. The outbreak spread faster than at any other plant.


Provided to BuzzFeed New
A letter provided to Smithfield employees for use in case they are asked why they are out.
Gatluak recalled hearing about a confirmed case on March 24 from his manager. Though this was the first known exposure at the facility, the manager announced “no changes” to operations, he said. The English-language notices telling people to go home if they felt ill appeared the next day, Gatluak recalled. “People were still reporting to work normally.”

The Argus Leader, Sioux Falls’ newspaper, broke the news of the first positive case on March 26. The next day, another Smithfield worker who had been out sick for several days began feeling short of breath and drained of energy, barely able to get out of bed, said her 20-year-old daughter, Amy Cruz. She went to the doctor, took a COVID-19 test, and four days later received a positive diagnosis. She immediately called a Smithfield HR representative to convey the result, Cruz said.

In the days that followed, as more workers called in sick with symptoms and tested positive, Smithfield bosses informed only employees “who may have come in contact with that person,” the spokesperson said — not the whole floor. The spokesperson said that exposed employees were placed on two-week paid quarantine leave but declined to say how many there have been.

The rest of the workforce continued on for a week without knowing how many of their colleagues had been infected, and with no additional protective equipment. Like many of the hundreds of thousands of hourly workers who supply the country with food and other necessities, they faced the choice of going without a paycheck or risking their health for jobs that typically pay less than $20 an hour.

Some Smithfield employees who spoke to BuzzFeed News requested anonymity because they feared getting fired, but two allowed their children to discuss the matter openly. For both daughters, Amy Cruz and Sara Telahun Birhe, the Smithfield plant was an ever-present backdrop since their earliest memories

Cruz’s mother, four of her uncles, and an aunt have all worked at the plant for more than two decades since migrating from Guatemala; one of those uncles tested positive two weeks after Cruz’s mother did.

Birhe was 6 when her mother started working at the plant 16 years ago, after emigrating from Ethiopia, where she owned a café. They lived near the facility, in a neighborhood in northeastern Sioux Falls, where Birhe grew close with the children of other Smithfield workers: families from Mexico, Nepal, Honduras, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, and elsewhere. “Family events and birthday parties and weddings and quinceañeras,” she said. “Our parents worked this job, and because of that we were all friends.

Her mom earned $17 an hour, which is nearly double the state's minimum wage, which went a long way in Sioux Falls. Over her years at the plant, she bought a car and a house and saved enough money to pay Birhe’s college tuition. She knew of one former Smithfield worker who went on to open a restaurant, another a grocery store

Birhe and her cousins were used to seeing their parents come home from work exhausted, plopping down on the couch to rest before dinner, going to bed early for 6 a.m. shifts. But their parents’ sacrifice took on a new light when the pandemic reached the Smithfield plant. Birhe recalls a series of conversations with her cousins about whether they should try to get their parents to stop going to work. “Our parents were worried about paying our bills, and we were worried about their health,” she said.

Unemployment benefits aren’t available for people who quit their jobs without being sick or at a high risk, and many at Smithfield had built stable careers with higher pay than what would be available if they started fresh elsewhere. One worker’s daughter, who requested anonymity, said that she, her brother, and her mother had all been laid off or furloughed from their own jobs. For her father, who began at the plant 15 years ago after migrating from Mexico, “it wasn’t an option if you go to work,” she said. “He’s proud of what he does. He feeds so many people.”

Over the week following the first confirmed case at the plant, workers continued to dine in the cafeteria as normal. To keep production flowing seamlessly on all floors, crews synchronized their breaks based on their position on the processing line: On each floor, a team of workers would take lunch once they finished a batch and passed it down to the next team. They filed through hallways and staircases, joining teams from other floors in the sixth-floor cafeteria, which is mostly staffed by immigrants from Latin American countries. Gatluak found the meals delicious, he said: “Every day we get something new.” Three employees estimated that at least 200 people from various floors would be in the cafeteria at any given time.

On April 1, a day after Cruz’s mother tested positive, Smithfield management directed entire floors to take lunch breaks in deliberately staggered shifts to reduce crowds. But alongside those precautions came the announcement that lunch was now free, though some employees preferred to eat their homemade meals in the locker room rather than risk passing through the dining area. A Smithfield representative declined to comment on the free lunch.

Over the next few days, Smithfield started introducing new safety measures. Management put up new flyers encouraging social distancing in the cafeteria and set up tents outside the facility for mandatory temperature checks. Those with a fever were sent home with instructions for where to get tested.


Bloomberg / Getty Images
A sign outside the Smithfield plant notifies employees that their temperatures will be taken before entering work, April 15.

Still, many workers brought their own masks because Smithfield provided only hairnets for their faces. “That doesn’t do any good,” one worker said. And, as the Argus Leader first reported, the company offered a $500 bonus to employees who didn’t miss any shifts in April. “That was not a good move, because if anyone fell sick they’d be like, 'Oh, I have to go to work because I have to get that bonus,'” Gatluak said.

When the company ceased operations on the eighth-floor packing department on April 6, workers assumed it was because of the virus, two employees said. Company text messages noted that the floor was “shut down for cleaning & sanitation”; the department’s workers were told they should not come to work but would be paid for the week. “All other departments will be operating as scheduled,” the message stated. Smithfield did not respond to a question about why it closed that floor and not the other

It is unclear how many cases Smithfield was aware of during this time. The company declined to comment, citing employee privacy protections. But on April 8, the state health department announced an outbreak of 80 confirmed cases at the plant.

The next day, the company announced it would “suspend operations in a large section of the plant” — but not until April 11. Only on April 12 and 13 would the plant “completely shutter” for “rigorous deep cleaning” and the construction of “additional physical barriers to further enhance social distancing.

Gatluak said he clocked in at work on April 10. For weeks, he’d been taking precautions to minimize the chances of exposing his mother and brother at home. He washed his hands regularly and sanitized everything he came into contact with, “from doorknobs to stair rail, the handles, countertops,” he said. “I know I was a risk because of where I was working.”

He began to feel a headache, fever, and chills after returning home from his shift. The next morning he called the hospital, then took a test at a drive-through center.

That day, the number of confirmed cases at the plant hit 190. Still, Smithfield maintained its plans to reopen the plant after the 48-hour shutdown. But on April 11, Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken and Gov. Kristi Noem published a letter asking Smithfield’s CEO to close the plant for longer. The next day, Smithfield complied, closing it down indefinitely.

The company warned of the economic impact of an extended shutdown.

“It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running,” Smithfield President and CEO Kenneth Sullivan said in a statement that day. “These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers.”

Two days later, Gatluak said he received his positive test result. He has had relatively mild symptoms. Another member of his crew has also tested positive, he sai

Smithfield workers and their relatives now account for more than half of South Dakota’s confirmed cases, a pool of residents who may soon have the option to volunteer as test subjects for the nation’s first statewide clinical trial for hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug promoted by President Donald Trump as a potential coronavirus treatment but which has not yet been proven as effective against the virus. Noem announced last week that the testing would begin once at least 2,000 people signed up. While 45 states have issued stay-at-home orders, the governor has declined to do so.


Provided to BuzzFeed News
Text messages sent to Smithfield workers.

On Monday, April 13, a Smithfield worker in his fifties received a company text message: “You are essential to prepare the Sioux Falls facility for a full shutdown. Please report to work on Tuesday as previously scheduled.”

One of around 50 workers at the plant that day, he deboned ham in the basement freezer and filled in on several other jobs to make up for the reduced staff. Though most of the plant had shut down, his department was near the end of the processing line, just before the meat was packed and loaded. Operations would continue until all the meat in stock had made its way through the system and into the trucks.

He kept the mood light around his children, especially when they expressed concern. When his daughter showed him a news story listing his plant as one of the five biggest outbreaks in the country, he quipped, “Oh boy, I’ve never been in the top five of anything!”

By April 14, Smithfield had built plexiglass barriers on cafeteria tables, installed cardboard dividers between worker stations, and provided plastic face shields. The basement worker ate his lunch in the locker room, as he had every day in recent weeks. He worked 13 hours that shift, until every piece of pork passing through his station was packaged.

When he returned home, he took a seat at the kitchen table, his shoulders slumped, and told his family he didn’t have to go into work anymore.

“He was just so relieved,” his daughter recalled. “I’ve never seen him so tired.”

When she asked him if everyone else was done too, he shook his head and said, “Others still need to go in tomorrow.” ●

Albert Samaha is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

Katie Baker is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in London.

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Smithfield Foods sued over working conditions in Missouri, closes Illinois plant

Faced with a lawsuit and numerous coronavirus infections, the company says it is "proactively" 

suspending operations at one plant after being sued over working conditions at a different facility
The closed Smithfield Foods pork plant is seen as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Sioux Falls, S.D., on April 16, 2020.Shannon Stapleton / REUTERS

April 24, 2020, By Alicia Victoria Lozano and Reuters

Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's largest pork processor, announced Friday it is indefinitely closing an Illinois plant next week after a "small portion" of its 1,700 employees tested positive for COVID-19.

Employees will be paid during the closure, the company said in a statement.

The Monmouth plant represents approximately 3 percent of U.S. fresh pork supplies, according to Smithfield, and also produces bacon.

The news comes one day after Smithfield was accused in a lawsuit of failing to adequately protect workers at a Missouri plant who have been forced to work "shoulder to shoulder" during the coronavirus pandemic.

Virginia-based Smithfield, owned by China's WH Group, would not say how many Illinois employees were infected with coronavirus.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Missouri federal court claims Smithfield has created a "public nuisance" by providing inadequate protective equipment to workers at the plant in the town of Milan, refusing to give them time to wash their hands and discouraging workers who are ill from taking sick leave.

Workers have also been disciplined for covering their mouths while coughing or sneezing, because it could cause them to miss pieces of meat coming down the processing line, according to the complaint.

"Put simply, workers, their family members, and many others who live in Milan and in the broader community may die — all because Smithfield refused to change its practices in the face of this pandemic," the Rural Community Workers Alliance, a Missouri-based worker advocacy group, said in the complaint.

VIDEO Some workers sounding alarm over coronavirus concerns at meat facilities

APRIL 10, 2020 01:49

The group in the complaint said that conditions at the Milan plant have worsened since Smithfield shuttered other pork-processing plants in Missouri, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

Keira Lombardo, executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance at Smithfield, denied the allegations and said "the health and safety of our employees is our top priority at all times."

"The allegations contained in the complaint are without factual or legal merit and include claims previously made against the company that have been investigated and determined to be unfounded," Lombardo said. "We look forward to aggressively defending the company in court.”

More than 200 employees became infected with the coronavirus at the South Dakota slaughterhouse, which produces 4 percent to 5 percent of the nation's pork.

The group, which was joined in the lawsuit by an anonymous employee at the Milan plant, is seeking a court order requiring Smithfield to change its practices to comply with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and orders from state public health officials.

Tyson Foods Inc last week extended the closure of a pork slaughterhouse in Columbus Junction, Iowa, that it had shuttered due to coronavirus cases among employees. Companies like Cargill Inc, JBS USA and National Beef Packing Co have also shut U.S. meat plants.

The complaint against Smithfield says that rather than taking additional steps to protect workers at the Milan plant, the company actually sped up the processing lines and forced employees to work in cramped conditions.

Language barriers helped turn Smithfield Foods meat plant into COVID-19 hotspot

The CDC found 40 languages are spoken at the South Dakota plant where 783 workers tested positive and two died but workers were only given informational packets in English.

 Workers walk out of Smithfield Foods pork plant as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Sioux Falls, S.D., on April 16, 2020.Shannon Stapleton / Reuters file

April 23, 2020, By Corky Siemaszko

Forty different languages are spoken at the South Dakota pork processing plant that has become a coronavirus hot spot, but workers who showed symptoms were sent home with informational packets that were written only in English, federal investigators revealed Thursday.

That failure to communicate may be part of the reason why 783 workers at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls have tested positive and two have died from COVID-19, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a 15-page memo.

“We understand that if an employee was found to have a fever or symptoms consistent with COVID-19, they were given an informational packet (in English) and instructed to return home,” the CDC report stated.

But “plant management reported that there were approximately 40 different languages spoken by employees at the plant.”



Inside meat processing plant linked to nearly 900 coronavirus cases APRIL 20, 2020

While English is one of “the top 10 languages,” so too are “Spanish, Kunama, Swahili, Nepali, Tigrinya, Amharic, French, Oromo and Vietnamese.”

The language barrier also stymied the CDC team of veterinary epidemiologists, industrial hygienists and others who toured the plant on April 16 and 17.

“Our team was unable to identify important demographic information about this workforce, limiting our ability to understand the diversity of the employees,” the CDC report said.

“We were also unable to obtain information about the workstations of confirmed positive cases. This type of information could provide a better understanding of what workplace factors contributed to the spread of COVID-19 among employees.”

The first plant worker tested positive on March 24, but the plant was not shut down until April 14. But before that happened, the CDC reported that workers were promised extra money if they showed up for work during the pandemic.

“Additionally we learned of a ‘responsibility bonus’ of $500 being offered to employees who did not miss time (e.g. were not late or sick) during the time period of April 1, 2020 through May 1, 2020," the report stated.

There was no immediate response from Smithfield’s CEO, Kenneth Sullivan, to the findings. The company's chief spokesperson, Keira Lombardo, said in a statement: "We will thoroughly and carefully examine the report point by point and respond in full once our assessment is complete."

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Smithfield Foods is one of the biggest clusters of coronavirus cases in the country and has put an unwanted spotlight on Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican who has been criticized for not issuing a shelter-at-home order in a state where as of Thursday nine deaths and 1,956 cases have been reported.

Noem has, however, urged residents to practice social distancing and avoid large gatherings.

“I want to thank Vice President Pence, Secretary of Agriculture Perdue, and the CDC for prioritizing the situation at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls,” Noem said in a statement. “Their partnership has been critical to the work that we’ve done to get this cluster under control and safeguard the health of this workforce.”

Noem also pledged that the South Dakota health department “will continue to work with Smithfield and offer any assistance we can to help them implement these CDC recommendations, so they can safely reopen this plant as soon as possible.”

Later, at a press conference, Noem said she is "anticipating" Smithfield will act on the CDC's recommendations.

Meanwhile, Tyson Foods Inc. announced it was closing a meat processing plant in Pasco, Washington that produces enough beef in one day to feed four million people.

“We’re working with local health officials to bring the plant back to full operation as soon as we believe it to be safe,” Steve Stouffer, head of Tyson Fresh Meats, said in a statement.

Tyson has already closed two pork processing plants and a chicken processing plant in Tennessee because of the coronavirus.

Experts warned that all these closures could result in meat shortages.

“Meat shortages will be occurring two weeks from now in the retail outlets,” Dennis Smith, a senior account executive at Archer Financial Services, told Bloomberg News.

More than 5,000 meat and food processing workers have been infected of exposed to COVID-19 and 13 have died since the pandemic struck, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union reported Thursday.

At Smithfield Foods in South Dakota, the CDC report suggested 11 recommendations for the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, including speeding up the installation of plexiglass barriers on production lines, adding 100 more time clocks to prevent bottlenecks, boosting the number of hand sanitizer stations to 3,500 so there is at least one per worker, and designating staffers to roam the floor and provide hand sanitizer to workers on the line every 30 minutes.

“A combination of control measures with ongoing education and training will be useful in reducing or eliminating transmission in the workplace,” the report said. “These recommendations are intended for this specific Smithfield plant, but broader interim recommendations for meat and poultry processing industries are in development.”

The South Dakota Department of Health is requiring the company to submit a plan of action before it reopens and expects it to follow the CDC recommendations.

“For each recommendation, please indicate a timeframe for implementation,” Health Department secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon and state epidemiologist Dr. Joshua Clayton wrote in a letter dated Thursday to Sullivan.

”If a recommendation cannot be implemented or a different solution is proposed, please provide the justification,” it said.

They also asked for a date when the plant, which processes fresh pork, bacon, hot dogs, deli and smoked meats, will re-open.

Smithfield is owned by Hong Kong-based WH Group, which is the largest pork processor in the world and which also operates plants in Wisconsin, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Two of the U.S. plants were closed after workers there tested positive for the coronavirus.

EMPLOYEES SAY SMITHFIELD PLANT IN WISCONSIN CONCEALED COVID-19 INFECTIONS

 PRESSURED THEM TO WORK ELBOW TO ELBOW WITHOUT PROTECTION

The closed Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., on April 15, 2020. Photo: Dan Brouillette/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Lee Fang -THE INTERCEPT-  April 19 2020

SMITHFIELD FOODS, the meat industry giant facing mounting questions over its handling of the coronavirus crisis, repeatedly failed to protect its workforce at a Wisconsin plant, according to workers who spoke to The Intercept.

The workers at the Patrick Cudahy factory, in Cudahy, Wisconsin, faced a Covid-19 outbreak weeks ago, but say managers initially concealed the number of infections, pressured employees to avoid quarantine measures, and failed to provide any face masks or dividers.

A recent outbreak at Smithfield’s pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is now one of the largest Covid-19 hotspots in the U.S., with 644 confirmed cases tied to the facility. The Smithfield outbreak represents nearly half of all confirmed cases in that state.

Now, the Wisconsin plant, which employs more than 1,000 workers, has more than two dozen confirmed cases and closed down on Wednesday for cleaning and sanitation. Workers at the plant, who spoke to The Intercept under condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, say much more should have been done.

One plant worker with asthma said that when he asked for a mask last month, an official at the company declined his request because if he was provided one, Smithfield would “have to do it for everyone else.”

He said that one of his co-workers had brought his own mask and was reprimanded to Smithfield’s human resources department, which told him that wearing his own mask would result in suspension.

After days of back and forth between the plant managers and workers, the Cudahy plant allowed its workforce to bring its own masks. Some appeared at work with homemade cloth masks, but most continued to work without basic safety equipment, such as N95 masks.

“Eventually they tried to do some social distancing in the cafeteria, but actually, they’re working elbow to elbow on the line, so there’s no social distancing there,” said the sister of another plant worker. There are currently no Plexiglas dividers between workers, though UFCW Local 1473, which represents workers at the plant, has called for such safeguards to be installed.

“There’s been people sick at the plant. I know at least three people I know at work are sick,” said another worker, who explained that the company first refused to release information about infections at the plant and those who have been in contact with them.

Last week, Fox6 News, a local news affiliate, reported on rising tensions within the Cudahy plant, with many workers expressing fear that the company was not doing enough to prevent an outbreak. Fox6 News obtained records from the Cudahy Health Department showing at least 28 cases at the facility. William Garron, a former union representative, also told Fox, “They really trying to hide the number.” Following the report, Smithfield announced plans to close the plant for cleaning and said only partial crews would work intermittently.

Read Our Complete CoverageThe Coronavirus Crisis


Wisconsin currently has over 3,555 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Gov. Tony Evers has promoted telework and stay-at-home policies for nonessential businesses. The state’s response to the crisis has been the focus of national attention in recent weeks after Republicans on the state Supreme Court ruled that the state must proceed with April 7 in-person voting over protests from public health advocates and the governor.

Smithfield, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate WH Group, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The Cudahy plant and the town in which it is located is named after Patrick Cudahy, an industrialist who pioneered mass pork production across Wisconsin in the late 19th century. The company, which became a subsidiary of Smithfield in 1984, produces branded bacon and dry sausage at the plant, which is near the Milwaukee airport.

Smithfield, which owns meat plants across the country, has a long history of worker injuries and fatalities. The company often uses foreign guest workers, many of whom have reported abusive treatment. In 2007, a number of guest workers from Thailand working in Smithfield plants reported slave-like conditions. The workers later reached a confidential settlement with Smithfield and a recruiting company called Global Horizons.

In response to national attention to the spread of the disease at the South Dakota plant, Smithfield announced last week that it would temporarily close some plants in Missouri and North Carolina.

In a statement published on the Smithfield Foods website, CEO Kenneth Sullivan struck a defiant tone.

“We have a stark choice as a nation: we are either going to produce food or not, even in the face of COVID-19,” wrote Sullivan. The current push to temporarily close plants for cleaning, he added, “is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply.”

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https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TYSON

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=MEAT+PACKING

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USDA terminates Chinese-owned Smithfield farm aid contract
WHICH ONLY HURTS ITS EXPLOITED WORKERS

Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture terminated a $240,000 purchase contract with Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods that had been awarded under the Trump administration’s agricultural trade bailout program, a move taken at the company’s request, a department spokesman told Reuters on Friday.
FILE PHOTO - Some of the products of Smithfield Foods are displayed in front of at a news conference on WH Group's IPO in Hong Kong April 14, 2014. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

The move comes weeks after Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, one of the country’s biggest farm states and the biggest hog-producing state, slammed Smithfield for receiving what he said was aid from the USDA that was meant to help American farmers hurt by China’s trade tariffs.

“Smithfield requested to terminate their contract awarded under the Food Purchase and Distribution Program. USDA has agreed to the termination,” Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the USDA, told Reuters.

Murtaugh said the transfer of funds for the food purchase contract had not yet taken place, and that Smithfield’s request to cancel the contract was received on Nov. 13.

Smithfield, owned by Chinese conglomerate WH Group (0288.HK), was not immediately available for comment. The company is the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer with $15 billion annual revenues, according to its website.
President Donald Trump in late May announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, prompting retaliation from top trading partners like China that has since spilled into agriculture markets.

To help offset damage to American farmers, a key constituency for Trump, the USDA rolled out a $12 billion aid package that included $1.2 billion in purchases of commodities. The program allocated around $558 million to pork purchases.

Grassley, who has represented Iowa in the U.S. Senate since 1981 and is one of the most senior Republicans in the chamber, complained in late October about Smithfield’s approval for what he said was federal aid.

“I don’t understand why Chinese owned Smithfield qualifies for USDA $$ meant to help our farmers,” he wrote on Twitter.

A spokeswoman for Smithfield at the time denied the company had applied for federal assistance, but confirmed it was a qualified vendor to take part in the food purchase program.

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https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TYSON

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For meat plant workers, virus makes a hard job perilous

In this April 13, 2020, photo, Kulule Amosa steps out of the apartment she shares with her husband who works at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. He tested positive for the coronavirus this week after an outbreak at the plant. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves)


APRIL 19, 2020

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Kulule Amosa’s husband earns $17.70 an hour at a South Dakota pork plant doing a job so physically demanding it can only be performed in 30-minute increments. After each shift last week, he left exhausted as usual — but he didn’t want to go home.

He was scared he would infect his pregnant wife with the coronavirus — so much so that when he pulled into the parking lot of their apartment building, he would call Amosa to tell her he wasn’t coming inside. When he eventually did, he would sleep separately from her in their two-bedroom apartment.

“I’m really, really scared and worried,” Amosa said Monday.
In this April 14, 2020, photo, a package of Smithfield Foods breakfast sausage sits in a shopping cart outside of a local grocery story, in Des Moines, Iowa. The surge of coronavirus cases at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, S.D. has highlighted the vulnerability of meat processing workers, who stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and congregate in crowded locker rooms and cafeterias. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) 

This was no abstract worry: At the Smithfield Foods plant, the locker rooms were so tightly packed Amosa’s husband told her he sometimes had to push his way through a crowd. Coughs echoed through the bathrooms. The plant in Sioux Falls clocked so many cases that it was forced to close this week. It has reported 518 infections in employees and another 126 in people connected to them as of Wednesday, making it among the largest known clusters in the United States. A 64-year-old employee who contracted COVID-19 died Tuesday, according to his pastor.

The concentration of cases has highlighted the particular susceptibility of meat processing workers, who stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and congregate in crowded locker rooms and cafeterias. As many as half a dozen plants have shut because of outbreaks. Because the workers who slaughter and pack the nation’s meat are vulnerable, so, too, is the supply of that meat. Smithfield CEO Kenneth Sullivan said the closure of the plant, which produces roughly 5% of the U.S. pork supply each day, was “pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply.”

Amosa and her husband, who are originally from Ethiopia, once saw working at the plant, where she also had a job until she became pregnant, as key to building their new life in the United States: It was well paid, union employment that gave them a community. But amid the coronavirus pandemic, the couple found themselves — like many workers whose jobs cannot be done remotely — exposed on two fronts: Both their health and their livelihoods were at risk. The couple agreed to speak to The Associated Press on the condition that Amosa’s husband not be named because he feared losing his job.

The plant is vital to a burgeoning immigrant community in Sioux Falls, offering opportunities for even those without a college degree or fluent English. Smithfield offers pay starting at over $15 an hour, health insurance and plenty of overtime.



The plant has attracted a diversifying workforce to the city, where Somali and Vietnamese restaurants have joined diners and craft breweries. But the city remains fairly divided, with many immigrants living in neighborhoods near the plant, which employs 3,700 people in a city of about 180,000.

(THIS IS THE RESULT OF REAGAN POLICIES OF AMNESTY, DEREGULATION AND SELF REGULATION IN ORDER TO UNION BUST BY DRIVING WAGES DOWN IN THE MEAT PACKING INDUSTRY)

The outbreak at the plant has also presented a significant test to a governor who has resisted issuing sweeping stay-at-home orders. As Republican Gov. Kristi Noem was pressed again this week to impose tighter restrictions on Sioux Falls, her response instead was to announce that the state would give wide access to an anti-malarial drug championed by President Donald Trump as a promising treatment for COVID-19, but that has yet to be proven effective.

Noem has fired back, arguing that plant workers were deemed essential and would have been reporting for duty regardless.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, but, for some, especially the elderly or infirm, it can cause severe illness and lead to death.

Even before the coronavirus began sickening workers, jobs in the meatpacking industry have been considered among the most dangerous in the U.S. Workers are exposed to a long list of dangers from hazardous chemicals to sharp knives. Just last month, a maintenance worker at a Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Kansas died after investigators say he got caught up in the assembly line belt.

The work is physical, starting with butchering hogs that weigh nearly 300 pounds (135 kilograms). On the processing line, repetitive-motion injuries are common. One worker at Smithfield described often waking up with his right hand so swollen he couldn’t make a fist. 
FILE - In this April 9, 2020, file photo, a car with a sign calling for a safe and healthy workplace drives past Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, S.D., during a protest on behalf of employees after many workers complained of unsafe working conditions due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The surge of coronavirus cases at Smithfield Foods has highlighted the vulnerability of meat processing workers, who stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and congregate in crowded locker rooms and cafeterias. (Erin Bormett/The Argus Leader via AP, File)

Union leaders and immigrant advocates cheered the decision to close the plant indefinitely but wish more had been done sooner.

Smithfield spokeswoman Keira Lombardo said difficulty in getting masks and thermal scanners led to delays in implementing some safety measures when the plant was open. But she said last week the plant was adding extra hand-sanitizing stations, scanning employees’ temperatures before they entered and installing Plexiglas barriers in some areas.

Six current employees interviewed by the AP who, like Amosa’s husband, insisted on anonymity because they feared they would be fired described far more haphazard measures. They said they were given flimsy masks made of hairnet-like material, hand-washing stations were in disrepair, and there was pressure to keep working even if they felt sick.

One employee told his supervisor on March 30 that he had a fever the previous day, but he was told to report to work and not to tell anyone about the fever. He worked that day, missed the next two and returned when the fever broke, he said.
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“No one asked if I went to the doctor, if I was tested,” the employee said.

Lombardo said Smithfield “fully rejects any claims that employees were pressured to report to work,” calling it “completely counterproductive” to do so.

Smithfield has said it plans to clean the plant and implement more protections in the hopes of reopening. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control sent a team to the plant this week to examine how it can be safely restarted.

But that may be difficult. Workers say they cannot fathom how butchering lines could be reconfigured to accommodate social distancing.

Meanwhile, Amosa and her husband are both home now — nervously awaiting their first child. But they also have a new worry: His coronavirus test came back positive Tuesday.

___

Associated Press writer Amy Forliti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, contributed to this report

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https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TYSON

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=MEAT+PACKING

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=COVID19

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US Meatpackers cautiously reopen plants amid coronavirus fears

By STEPHEN GROVES

1 of 8
Healthcare workers run a coronavirus testing site for Smithfield employees in the Washington High School parking lot on Monday, May 4, 2020 in Sioux Falls, S.D. (Erin Bormett/The Argus Leader via AP)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening Monday after being shuttered for over two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak that infected more than 800 employees.

Employees reporting for work in Smithfield Foods’ ground pork department filed through a tent where they were screened for fever and other signs of COVID-19. Some said they felt the measures Smithfield has taken would protect them from another virus outbreak, while others were not confident that infections could be halted in a crowded plant.

Lydia Toby said she was “kind of worried” as she entered the plant before 6 a.m. for her first shift in over two weeks. Managers met employees in her department Friday and explained they had installed dividers on the production line and would require everyone to wear masks.

“I think it’s going to be OK,” Toby said.

In the wake of an executive order from President Donald Trump ordering meat plants to remain open, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods was also resuming “limited production” Monday at its pork plant in Logansport, Indiana, where nearly 900 employees tested positive. And the JBS pork plant in Worthington, Minnesota — just an hour east of Smithfield’s South Dakota plant — planned a partial reopening on Wednesday.



Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday called meatpacking plants — along with nursing homes — “the most dangerous places there are right now.” He called for greater protections for meatpacking workers, as well as a $13-an-hour pay premium.

“They designate them as essential workers and then treat them as disposable,” Biden said, on a conference call about protecting essential workers, such as meatpacking workers, that was organized by the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Virginia-based Smithfield is offering COVID-19 testing to all employees and their family members, according to a text message sent to employees. The message told employees to report to a local high school to be tested. Gov. Kristi Noem said employees aren’t required to undergo tests before returning to work, though it’s strongly encouraged. Noem’s health commissioner, Kim Malsam-Rysdon, said it was Smithfield’s decision to make the tests optional.

Smithfield didn’t respond to requests for comment.

About 250 employees were told to report to work on Monday, according to the union that represents them. The plant employs about 3,700 workers and produces roughly 5% of the nation’s pork.

Salaheldin Ahmed, who works in a department that has not yet reopened, said he was called in by plant management to look at changes.

“They fixed a lot of things,” he said, describing how workers would be spread apart where possible.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report Friday said more than 4,900 workers at meat and poultry processing facilities have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, including 20 who died. Not all states provided data.

The CDC researchers cited risks including difficulties with physical distancing and hygiene, and crowded living and transportation conditions. They suggested enhanced disinfection and that workers get regular screening for the virus, more space from co-workers and training materials in their native languages. Many meatpacking employees are immigrants; a CDC report on the Smithfield outbreak found that employees there spoke about 40 different languages.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents most beef and pork workers and about one-third of poultry workers nationwide, has called for stricter measures than the CDC’s, including mandating that workers be spaced 6 feet apart on production lines. It has appealed to governors for help enforcing worker safety rules. The union also wants to get rid of waivers that allow some plants to operate at faster speeds.

As plants warily reopen or others operate at diminished capacity with many workers staying home sick or in fear, it’s unclear Trump’s order will guarantee an unbroken supply of meat.

Tyson Foods reported record meat sales in the first quarter but warned investors Monday that it faces continued production slowdowns. Company officials said it expected lower productivity “in the short term until local infection rates begin to decrease.”

Zach Medhaug, a maintenance employee at Tyson’s pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa, said he will feel comfortable returning to work when the plant reopens, even as he fears that one of his closest colleagues may soon die from the coronavirus.

Jose Ayala, 44, is in critical condition on a ventilator at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics after catching the virus a month ago. Medhaug has been calling Ayala, who is medically paralyzed but may still be able to hear, encouraging him to keep fighting.

Medhaug tested positive himself for the coronavirus on April 20. He said he had mild symptoms and expects to return to work later this week at the plant, which suspended production April 22. Medhaug said Tyson has made key safety changes, such as vowing to enforce rather than just encourage social distancing and providing employees with masks instead of telling them to bring their own.

“That’s a huge step,” he said. “The people returning, I see them having a better chance of not getting it at all.”
__


Associated Press writers Ryan J. Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, and Dee-Ann Durbin in Ann Arbor, Michigan, contributed to this report.

Smithfield Foods to shutter California meat-packing plant


VERNON, Calif. (AP) — Meat-packing giant Smithfield Foods said Friday it will close its only California plant next year, citing the escalating cost of doing business in the state.

The Farmer John meat-packing plant in Vernon, an industrial suburb south of Los Angeles, will shut down in February, with its 1,800 employees receiving severance and job placement support along with bonuses for those who choose to stay on the job until the closure, said Jim Monroe, vice president of corporate affairs.

Some workers, who on average earn about $21 per hour, also will have opportunities to relocate to other facilities owned by the Virginia-based Smithfield Foods Inc.

The Vernon plant slaughters pigs and packages products such as ham and bacon. Some operations will be moved to other facilities in the Midwest, but the overall reduction in processing capacity is prompting Smithfield to reduce its sow herd in Utah. The company also said it is exploring ways to exit its farms in California and Arizona.

Monroe said operating costs in California are much higher than in other areas of the country, including taxes and the price of water, electricity and natural gas.

“Our utility costs in California are 3 1/2 times higher per head than our other locations where they do the same type of work,” he said.

The shutdown is not expected to reduce supply or increase costs on products, and Farmer John Products will still be sold in California, Monroe said.

“There won’t be any impact on our customers,” he said.

The Vernon plant has been the target of repeated protests by animal rights activists over its treatment of hogs. It also was hard-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some 300 employees exposed to infections in 2020. Several were hospitalized.

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined Smithfield Foods about $60,000 for safety violations that exposed workers to infection.

Smithfield Foods was founded in Smithfield, Virginia, in 1936 and according to its website provides more than 40,000 jobs in the United States. It was acquired in 2013 by Hong Kong-based WH Group.

'Spread out? Where?' Smithfield says not all plant workers can be socially distanced
FILE PHOTO: The closed Smithfield Foods pork plant is seen as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continued, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, U.S., April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork processor, said workers cannot be socially distant in all areas of its plants, in response to U.S. senators who pressed meatpackers on coronavirus outbreaks in slaughterhouses.

Meatpackers are under mounting pressure to protect workers after more than 16,000 employees in 23 states were infected with COVID-19 and 86 workers died in circumstances related to the respiratory disease, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker last month said Smithfield, Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N), JBS USA [JBS.UL] and Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] had put workers in harm’s way to maintain production. The senators asked the companies how much meat they shipped to China while warning of domestic shortages due to slaughterhouse outbreaks.


Smithfield, in a June 30 response made public on Friday, said it erected physical barriers and took other steps to protect workers in areas where social distancing is impossible.

The company, owned by China’s WH Group Ltd (0288.HK), balked at slowing processing line speeds to increase space between employees. It said slowdowns would back up hogs on farms, leading to animal euthanizations and higher food prices.

“For better or worse, our plants are what they are,” Smithfield Chief Executive Kenneth Sullivan said. “Four walls, engineered design, efficient use of space, etc. Spread out? Okay. Where?”


Tyson told the senators it decreased the number of employees on production lines and created barriers or required face shields in areas where employees cannot be distanced.

“These companies clearly cannot be trusted to do what is right,” said Booker. He and Warren called for new legislation to protect workers.

Smithfield, Tyson and JBS did not disclose how much meat they have exported. JBS, a unit of Brazil’s JBS SA (JBSS3.SA), said it accounted for less than 10% of U.S. pork exports to China. Cargill said it has not exported U.S. beef or turkey to China this year.


Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Leslie Adler