WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that requires meat processing plants in the country to remain open to ensure the continued supply of products like beef, pork, and poultry to the public.
Signing the order Tuesday, Trump said, 'We're working very hard to make sure our food supply chain is sound and plentiful.'
U.S. meat processing plants had become COVID hotspots, where more than 3,000 workers were infected and 20 others died. Unions fear reopening will endanger workers in the plants, which were closed in the wake of COVID-19 infections.
Invoking the Defense Production Act, the President directed the Department of Agriculture to ensure the meat and poultry processors continue operations uninterrupted to the maximum extent possible.
To ensure worker safety, these processors will be required to follow the latest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Some states had closed large processing facilities following the COVID-19 outbreak.
Given the high concentration of meat and poultry processors in a relatively small number of large facilities, closure of any of these plants could disrupt food supply and affect farmers and ranchers badly.
The White House estimates that closure of a large beef processing plant can result in the loss of more than 10 million servings of beef per day.
Similarly, the closure of a plant can eliminate more than 80 percent of the supply of a particular meat product-like ground beef-to an entire grocery store chain.
Failure to process livestock could force millions of pounds of meat to disappear from the market, potentially leading to long-term disruptions in the supply chain.
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