Posted on 04/12/2020 12:21:45 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
Virginia-based Smithfield Foods announced Sunday that it is closing its pork processing plant in Sioux Falls until further notice after hundreds of employees tested positive for the coronavirus — a step the head of the company warned could hurt the nation’s meat supply.
The announcement came a day after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken wrote to Smithfield and urged the company to suspend operations for 14 days so that its workers could self-isolate and the plant could be disinfected.
The plant, which employs about 3,700 people in the state’s largest city, has become a hot spot for infections. Health officials said Sunday that 293 of the 730 people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in South Dakota work at the plant.
“As a critical infrastructure employer for the nation’s food supply chain and a major employer in Sioux Falls, it is crucial that Smithfield have a healthy workforce to ensure the continuity of operations to feed the nation. At the same time, employees need a healthy work environment,” Noem and TenHaken wrote to the plant’s operators.
Smithfield announced a three-day closure last week so it could sanitize the plant and install physical barriers to enhance social distancing. But on Sunday, it announced the plant’s indefinite closure.
“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,” Smithfield president and CEO Kenneth Sullivan said in a statement. “It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running. These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Aren't they owned by the CCP?
I thought I heard the same thing.
293 / 730 = 40%. They are close to the Herd Immunity magic number. Maybe they just continue operations as normal and get there quickly.
Oink Oink. Better go stock up on bacon today!
Bet most of the employees are not American citizens.
Absolutely. Either last year, or the year before they bought up controlling interest, or they outright bought the company. I can’t remember which.
I’ve had the stench of rat in my nose for quite awhile with all of this, and I’m now drowning in the stench.
How in the heck does THAT happen. Does this say something about their facility and practices? (And their employees?)
We never, ever buy Smithfield products, anyhoo, as they are connected to china.
Iowa #1, Minnesota #3 pork producers. This is the place that processes those hogs. So not good.
Acquire bacon. It will be the currency of our new world
Smithfield, a wholly owned subsidiary of the WH Group of China. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.
“””””’Bet most of the employees are not American citizens.”””
I think the sign outside says Pork and Beans.
I’ve been in the Pork business for 40 years and actually worked for Smithfield for a short period of time.
I have recently joked with some of my customers that the absolute last thing to shut down in this world for virtually any reason would be a meat slaughter plant.....Well knock me over with a feather.
Sioux Falls is one of their smaller kill plants so any reduction in product would easily be made up either at another of their facilities or a competitor.
Actually most slaughter plants have cut out their Saturday kill because of poor demand and excess supply.
Of course the author likely has no clue concerning this fact.
That plant likely has sections that are a hundred years old.
We have produce in south Florida rotting in the fields.
Dairy farmers are dumping their daily milking down the drain.
Now closing of pork AND beef slaughterhouses.
Almost all of the big food processors use “other than American” labor, in America.
Importing the workers for the jobs that can’t be exported since 1989 - Bush League Republicans
Pork and Beaner?
It does.....I worked at that plant for a couple weeks when in sales for John Morrell.
Below ground in the “cellar” is where they use to cure vats of bellies in brine.
The walls (foundation) was stone and mortar construction. I believe it was built in 1919 if I remember correctly.
I used to work the night shift and when I went down to inspect the bellies it was dam* spooky I mean to tell you.
Is it not better to buy uncooked food and cook it yourself rather than buying pre-cooked packaged food, prepared by some unknown person who died yesterday?
If prepackaged is the option, would warming it in the microwave kill the virus?
And is washing grapes, lettuce, etc., really enough. Vegetables and fruits are brought to you by some people who you would not allow to be near you in normal times.
I have always thought this kind of national crisis would be brought about through our international food chain.
i thought they got sold to China.
yep the chianeeeeese bought them.
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