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"Hey, everybody- this is Shad Sullivan coming to you from the headwaters of Bitter Creek, Archer County, North Texas. We have to talk! "State officials will be assisting to help identify potential alternative markets, if a producer is unable to move animals, and if neccessary advise and assist on depopulation and disposal methods." L&G.we are plowing under vegetable crops from coast to coast euthanizing millions of chickens. We are aborting sows and burying feeder pigs. We are dumping milk by the hundreds of thousands of gallons. Now they are preparing us to depopulate the fat cattle ready to harvest, because...

Goodbye, boneless chicken. Food retailers across North America are swapping boneless chicken legs for less popular thighs and drumsticks as a wave of shutdowns at meatpacking plants has reduced supplies of sought-after cuts. Covid-19 infections among workers at some of the largest meat processing plants in the U.S. and Canada have reduced slaughter capacity, and in some cases the types of cuts available. Outbreaks have shut down almost a third of U.S. pork capacity and the growing wave of disruptions has spurred plans by President Donald Trump to order meat-processing plants to remain open. In Canada, Cargill Inc. has idled...

On Tuesday afternoon, President Trump made a crucial move to protect the nation’s food supply chain. Faced with the closings of a number of food processing plants around the country – some of the largest of which, under the Smithfield name, are owned by Chinese interests – the President invoked the Defense Production Act to order food processing plants to remain up and running in order to ensure the nation’s supermarket shelves remain stocked with meats and other food. Jennifer Jacobs ✔ @JenniferJJacobs · 2h BREAKING: Trump plans to order meat processing plants to STAY OPEN, declaring them critical infrastructure...

President Donald Trump plans to order U.S. meat processing plants facing concerns about coronavirus outbreaks to stay open to protect the country’s food supply, a senior administration official said on Tuesday. Trump is likely to sign an executive order later in the day using the Defense Production Act to mandate that the plants continue to function, the official said. The order is designed to give companies such as Tyson Foods Inc and others more liability protection in case employees catch the virus as a result of having to go to work. The order will also include guidance to minimize risk...

(Reuters) - Millions of pounds of beef, pork and chicken will vanish from U.S. grocery stores as livestock and poultry processing plants have been shuttered by coronavirus outbreaks among workers, the chairman of Tyson Foods Inc said.

Americans could start to see shortages of pork, chicken and beef on grocery shelves as soon as May as major packing plants swept by the coronavirus remain shuttered and the nation’s massive stockpiles of frozen meat begin to dwindle. Any empty shelves to date have been the result of bumps in the supply chain, with stores being unable to restock as quickly as customers are buying. But bacon, pork chops and ham could be the first to face actual shortages: The amount of frozen pork in storage nationwide — more than 621 million pounds — dropped 4 percent from March...

Another major pork production plant is shutting down over a spike in cases of the coronavirus, further straining the U.S. meat supply chain and raising fears of potential shortages. Tyson Foods said it is closing its Waterloo, Iowa plant, where it has 2,800 employees and processes 19,500 hogs a day. It is Tyson’s largest pork plant and represents about 4 percent of the nation’s pork processing capacity. “Despite our continued efforts to keep our people safe while fulfilling our critical role of feeding American families, the combination of worker absenteeism, covid-19 cases and community concerns has resulted in our decision...