One of the largest pork processing facilities in the US is closing until further notice
One of the largest pork processing facilities in the US is closing until further noticeBy Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business
Updated 12:42 PM ET, Sun April 12, 2020
Read here: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/12/business/meat-plant-closures-smithfield/index.html
Excerpts:
"The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply," the meat processor's chief executive, Kenneth Sullivan, said in a statement Sunday.
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The Sioux Falls, South Dakota, facility accounts for 4% to 5% of the country's pork production and employs about 3,700 people, according to Smithfield.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said during a Saturday news briefing that Smithfield employees accounted for more than half of the active coronavirus cases in the state. About 240 employees are sick, she said, out of roughly 430 active cases in the state. Because of that, she and the mayor of Sioux Falls recommended that Smithfield suspend operations for at least two weeks. The problem extends beyond South Dakota. Meat processors in Iowa and Pennsylvania have also shut their doors because of sick employees.
This is our society's payback for demanding dirt-cheap products from A-to-Z in any quantity and 24/7 availability.
KY............
= new reply since forum marked as read
food supply worker protections would have had high priority, next to shielding medical workers. Food supply workers are a low pay group and probably have terrible health care coverage. Now, we're paying the price for decades of cheap food.
With a plan in place and perhaps even rehearsed in the plants, these factories perhaps would have shifted to say, half-production rates for worker protection and at least would still be open. Instead, we have a total crash.
Since Republicans can't govern, despise our government and are against regulations and labor laws, they are responsible.
KY.........
Des Moines Register
12:40 p.m. EDT Apr. 12, 2020
Link: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/videos/news/2020/04/12/see-inside-plant-processes-1-million-chickens-week-costcochicken/2866441001/
Workers process chickens for Costco at the Lincoln Premium Poultry plant in Fremont Nebraska. Note: These scenes were filmed in February, before the adoption of social distancing measures to limit the spread of of coronavirus.
Even with enhanced precautions inside these plants, they can't control what workers do outside the gate......
Except for small businesses whose owners specifically hire and encourage bigots, there are always decent people around and more of them. And big businesses tend to require people to work together without causing trouble; for obvious reasons, HR frowns on troublemakers. 
I read that a large poultry processor in south GA sent over 400 employees home with pay for two weeks because of increasing incidence of COVID in their county, as a control for spread, not because any were infected. Poultry companies have a huge interest in keeping their plants open, of course. Protections lagged need, also of course, but now workers in general, not just Costco plants, are being tested, wearing masks, etc. We'll see how they work. Two from a south GA plant died recently.
doubt racism is prevalent, overt expressions are not considered respectable -- except by some against liberalism and Democrats, but they don't know political bigotry is bigotry. And although heavily white and extremely conservative politically, our schools, government, workplaces and other gatherings have long been integrated. A tiny local KKK nest dried up and blew away over 15 years ago because people in this county refused to reward their attempts to act out with attention.
Also, of course liberal and conservative are the two big personality types, genetically linked before political orientations are developed. Very loosely, roughly half of humanity is wired liberal and the other wired conservative. So I know a lot of political conservatives here whose attitudes cause me to suspect they're either naturally liberal by personality or only moderately conservative, not that I'd insult them by saying so, 
, but it does help in choosing what we can talk about. We're California liberals, btw, one atheist, one Jew, so lots of provocation for the kind of acting out you see for those inclined. And we do see that too.
working conditions safer.
The laundry mat reminded me. They're mostly in low-income neighborhoods and probably too often hot spots where races mix. When we first moved to GA, a black friend of our son's told us he'd become friends with a white female friend in his apartment house but couldn't accompany to the laundromat for her safety because it was too potentially dangerous. In the 21st century!
As a real estate appraiser, I took assignments in some of L.A.'s gang neighborhoods that would have otherwise fallen to a couple of young men. A small, middle-aged white woman with a clipboard was a curiosity but never taken as a challenge; an occasional kid loping across the road in my direction for fun was about it. I was told to get in my car and leave once, but best I could guess it was a warning from a concerned citizen, didn't stay to ask questions.
Oh, well. We're still the nation who elected Obama twice. Things'll get better, they always do. Just hope they don't get worse first.
These days most "middle class" kids of all colors seem to have grown up seeing themselves more as white collar. I suspect like the people on TV, whether the sitcoms show whites or mnorities. Three subcontractors who built our house in semirural north GA felt a need to explain immigrant labor because local kids wouldn't take the jobs, or do them if they did. Our contractor, btw, was the best in the area (the head of the local building department told me he'd built 3 houses for him), and his subs were also excellent, in demand and well paid. I mean, these are good trainee jobs, paths to solid middle class, and even better in the case of some, incomes. The kids, probably children of their friends, neighbors, fellow churchgoers, wanted something else for themselves.
The Republican politicians who caused a huge problem by denying visas to seasonal seafood workers undoubtedly imagined people from the low-income coastal area would take the jobs. Uhuh. They're just not appropriate aspirations for those whose parents live the American dream, even modestly.
Back when Trump was demonizing anyone in sight that is not white and born in America, and particularly migrant workers, I immediately wondered who they proposed would replace workers in numerous sectors in commerce and industry (based on what I've seen out in the real world):
* Roofers: for years around here, almost all roofing crews have been Mexican.
* Clean-up crews in large, dirty plants like power, pulp and paper and cement plants:They always do the hot and nasty parts.
* Room service people in motels and hotels.
* Commercial and residential lawn care crews.
* Food gathering and processing industries: beef and chicken (and as you said, seafood) processing in particular but also seasonal crews to pick fruit and vegetable crops (I remember Georgia and Alabama farmers saying they would go bankrupt without illegal immigrants).
The reason I'm re-hashing all that is because I have not seen any investigative journalism on how this has worked out with these businesses affected since Trump came into office.
In other words, what have they done to replace those workers, or are they still using illegals? Something tells me they have not been replaced with those from our failing native middle class. Or, perhaps they have a nefarious plan to force the failed middle class into poverty so they have no choice but take whatever low-paying jobs are available.
One thing's for sure: right-wingers have destroyed many of the rungs one needs to climb the ladder to success.
KY................
PS: I like the way you phrased this: "These days most "middle class" kids of all colors seem to have grown up seeing themselves more as white collar."
the need to maintain balance in our diets with other sources of those nutrients such as protein. I believe there are a number of vegetarian web sites that do just that.
I'm a retired male of 72 and I cook for my son and I (he's 34) as best I can. After hearing how meat prices have skyrocketed recently, I told him we may have to make major changes in our meal planning. Thank goodness we both like steamed and sauteed veges, but he's having trouble breaking his addiction to fast foods.
So yes, I agree with you it's great that we'll become less dependent on meats to help reduce the stress on our planet.
KY..........
