The meat industry has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Outbreaks of the virus took place in factories operated by the meat packing industry and the poultry processing industry. These outbreaks affected dozens of plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posed a significant threat to the meat supply in the United States. The damage the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the meatpacking industry was unexpected and resulted in a sharp reduction of meat processing and capacity reduction of meatpacking companies.

By September 13, 2020, at least 42,534 workers at meatpacking plants had contracted the coronavirus, and at least 203 had died. COVID-19 cases had been discovered in at least 494 meatpacking plants.

Background

The United States meat industry was worth $213 billion in 2020. The meatpacking industry employed 474,000 workers, of whom 194,000 were categorized as frontline meatpacking workers in slaughterhouses and processing plants. 44.4% of meatpacking workers were Hispanic, and 25.2% were Black. 51.5% of the frontline meatpacking workers were immigrants, compared to 17% of the general workforce in the United States. Before the pandemic, the United States pork industry was expanding, with a 12% increase in pork processing from 2017 to 2019.

According to a 2016 report by the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO), illnesses among meat and poultry workers were relatively high compared with other manufacturing sector workers, even before the pandemic began; meat and poultry workers were also less likely to report illness because of fear of job loss. Employees work close together in plants, making social distancing "virtually impossible" according to a Food & Water Watch spokesperson.

CDC guidelines recommending routine sanitation and social distancing measures were criticized by workers and managers alike as "non-enforceable". In April 2020, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) relaxed protections at 15 poultry plants by allowing an increase in poultry production speeds, which the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said would lead to more crowded working conditions and greater risk of transmitting COVID-19.

Overall impact

By April 23, 2020, there were more than 3,400 reported positive cases in meatpacking facilities in 62 plants in 23 states. By May 1, a tally of meatpacking and processed food plants (including bakeries and dairy plants) counted over 99 facilities with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 6,800 workers who had tested positive, with 25 deaths. As April ended, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report stating that by April 27, at least 4,913 meat and poultry plant workers had COVID-19. Cases were reported in 115 plants located in 19 states, and at least 20 people had died. Sociologist Lourdes Gouveia said the outbreaks revealed longstanding dangerous conditions that meatpackers face at work.

Impact on food supply Christine McCracken, a meat analyst at worldwide agricultural financial institution Rabobank, said that U.S. meat production had declined 20% by late April 2020, and predicted that wholesale meat prices would rise. She said that especially popular items like ground beef were likely to increase in price at the retail level. An investigation by USA Today and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting concluded that by April 21, "coronavirus infections had spread in at least 48 U.S. meatpacking plants, sickening more than 2,200 people and killing 17," and that "The outbreaks also have prompted the closure of at least 17 facilities."

According to a report in The New York Times, the coronavirus pandemic "has revealed how these plants are becoming the weakest link in the nation's food supply chain, posing a serious challenge to meat production." Julie Niederhoff, an associate professor of supply chain management at Syracuse University, said that "Slaughterhouses are a critical bottleneck in the system". Speaking for the meat industry, Smithfield CEO Kenneth Sullivan said that "it is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running," adding that "These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation's livestock farmers."

According to the Daily Livestock Report published by Steiner Consulting, slaughter of cattle in the United States declined 19% in the second and third weeks of April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. According to a report by Bloomberg News on April 23, cold-storage facilities in the country only had enough supply to cover production for another two weeks, and with most plant shutdowns lasting at least that long, shortages would be inevitable.

On May 4, Tyson Foods informed its investors that U.S. pork production had declined 50%. The same day, Costco announced restrictions on sales of fresh meat, limiting customers to purchasing no more than three items among poultry, beef and pork products. Grocery store chains Kroger and Wegmans imposed similar restrictions on customer meat purchases. Other regional grocery store chains such as Price Chopper Supermarkets and Tops Friendly Markets followed suit in restricting meat purchases. By May 5, Wendy's had stopped serving beef hamburgers at about 20% of its 5,500 U.S. restaurants. The company only uses fresh but not frozen ground beef, and the shortages were concentrated in states located near where major beef processing plants had closed. Some locations were posting locally printed signs encouraging customers to buy chicken sandwiches instead. The production of prepared foods was also impacted.

The Guardian reported on April 29 that two million farm animals had been culled as a result of the meat plant closures. As of May 19, 10 million hens had been culled, and around the same number of pigs were scheduled to be culled by September.

In April 2020, beef and pork production was reduced by more than a third. For the week ending May 30, pork production was down 6% year-on-year.

Culling techniques and concern over animal welfare

Methods of culling included gassing, suffocation, drowning, shooting, anaesthetic overdose, "blunt force trauma" and ventilation shutdown (VSD), which animal welfare groups have criticized as inhumane. The technique of VSD was endorsed by the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV), and guidelines for the method have been issued by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Evidence of substandard VSD culling was found at some farms.

Policy and enforcement Two inspectors for the United States Department of Agriculture have died of COVID-19 as of April 23, 2020. One of those inspectors was based in the Chicago office of the Food Safety Inspection Service and was on a "patrol assignment" visiting various meat processing facilities each day to conduct inspections. At least 137 USDA meat inspectors have tested positive for coronavirus, and 704 others have stopped working due to lack of protective equipment in a high-risk environment.

On April 26, 2020, the United States Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines for meat packing and meat processing plants, calling for six feet of separation between workers, temperature checks, health screenings and use of cloth facemasks by workers.

When slaughterhouses were being closed to stop the spread of the virus, meat companies lobbied the federal government to take steps to keep plants open.

On April 28, Donald Trump issued an executive order under the Defense Production Act, to ensure meat plants stay open. White House General Counsel Pat Cipollone consulted with various companies for the order. It was supported by companies but drew criticism from labor unions, who raised concerns about worker safety and urged the administration to prioritize enforcable safety standards and support for infected workers.

CDC advice to meatpackers

Meat and poultry processing facilities are considered critical infrastructure workers, and CDC advises that they may be permitted to continue work following potential exposure to COVID-19, provided they remain asymptomatic and additional precautions are implemented to protect them and the community. However, their work environments may contribute substantially to their potential exposures, as they often work close to one another on processing lines during prolonged work shifts.

For engineering controls, CDC and OSHA recommend configuring communal work environments so that workers are spaced at least six feet apart including along processing lines, using physical barriers such as strip curtains or plexiglass to separate workers from each other, and ensuring adequate ventilation that minimizes air from fans blowing from one worker directly at another worker. For administrative controls, they recommend staggering workers' arrival, break, and departure times, cohorting workers so they are always assigned to the same shifts with the same coworkers, encouraging single-file movement through the facility, avoiding carpooling to and from work, and considering a program of screening workers before entry into the workplace and setting criteria for return to work of recovered workers and for exclusion of sick workers.

For personal protective equipment, they recommend face shields and considering allowing voluntary use of filtering facepiece respirators such as N95 masks. They also recommend wearing cloth face masks that should be replaced if they become wet, soiled, or otherwise visibly contaminated during the work shift, although cloth face masks are not considered to be personal protective equipment.

The CDC's advice may be difficult to implement, as facilities are designed for maximum efficiency with workers working close together. Wearing a mask can be hard during the physically challenging and messy work. Installing recommended ventilation may be expensive for older plants. As of late May, employees at meat plants were still "standing elbow-to-elbow" and coming to work with symptoms for fear of not being paid. Physical barriers and face shields were used, though some masks were reported to be of low quality.

Cases by processor

Allen Harim

Allen Harim is a regional chicken processor based in Delaware, owned by the Harim Group of South Korea. On April 8, the company announced that it would begin "depopulating flocks in the field" due to a labor shortage caused by the pandemic. The company was unable to process its normal volume because about 50% of its employees were not reporting to work. About two million chickens were to be killed and disposed of at local farms in Delaware and Maryland and would not reach the market.

American Foods Group

American Foods Group is the 5th largest beef processor in the United States. On April 21, health officials announced that 39 coronavirus cases were associated with an American Foods Group plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin. By May 1, 203 workers had tested positive at the Green Bay plant.

Details of another major COVID-19 outbreak were announced on May 28, 2020, at another American Foods Group meat packing facility in Long Prairie, Minnesota, doing business as Long Prairie Packing. As of that date, 227 of the 296 confirmed cases in Todd County, Minnesota, were employees of that facility, accounting for 76.7% of all cases in the county. These 227 cases represent 36% of the facility's workforce. As of May 28, the facility planned to continue operation. As of May 28, this was the third largest COVID-19 outbreak at a meat packing or processing facility in Minnesota.

Bell and Evans