Worker and inspector shortages mostly because of vax mandate. The inspectors are USDA, so their mandate continues I guess. Many will lose their jobs if enforced.
For poultry, they have to process once the chickens are ready. Any delay ruins the financial results. If processing is constrained, then they have to constrain growing. Once growing is constrained, there would be a several week delay in the ability to restore the market.
Back in the day, it used to be that poultry processors were most concerned about a visit from INS. Whole plants would become abandoned when a surprise "raid" occurred. Those days seem to be long gone. Now they seem to worry the future holds new kinds of government raids: OSHA coming to check for vax and testing documentation. Oh what a crazy world we live in. Can't you just see vax documents reaching the level of I-9's? smh
Well, just ignore the “mandates”. They aren’t legally binding.