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Investigate Midwest The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/tag/hogs/)

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Hogs

Agribusiness

Closure of Smithfield and other plants forces South Dakota pork producers to consider desperate measures

By Nick Lowrey/South Dakota News Watch | April 22, 2020

The closure of major pork processing plants across the U.S., including the massive Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, has state officials and pork producers in South Dakota planning for the worst — the potential euthanization of thousands of hogs that cannot be sold.

Food for thought

Opinion: New vaccine for pigs could help relieve prices at the grocery store

By By Dave Dickey/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | January 7, 2016

It has been a tough couple of years for U.S. livestock producers. Columnist Dave Dickey looks at the challenges the industry faces.

Food for thought

Opinion: Is China taking over the U.S. pork industry?

By Dave Dickey/The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting | November 16, 2015

This past summer, the International Olympic Committee awarded China the winter games for 2022. What does that have to do with agriculture, you might reasonably ask?

OSHA and USDA waited months into pandemic to coordinate effort into COVID-19 crisis in meatpacking plants, emails show

OSHA and USDA waited months into pandemic to coordinate effort into COVID-19 crisis in meatpacking plants, emails show

OSHA and USDA waited until April of last year — more than three months into the pandemic and after a plant shut down because workers fell ill — to plan a response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases at meatpacking plants, according to emails obtained by Public Citizen.

Database: Tracking Covid-19’s impact on meatpacking workers and industry

USDA photo by Preston Keres

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) meat inspectors and graders perform their mission.

The Trump Administration told an Illinois health department to leave Rochelle Foods alone. Then a second COVID-19 outbreak struck the plant.

The Trump Administration told an Illinois health department to leave Rochelle Foods alone. Then a second COVID-19 outbreak struck the plant.

A May 1 conference call with federal, state and local health officials sent one message: Despite a COVID-19 outbreak amongst it workers, Rochelle Foods was to remain open. This fall, a second outbreak at the plant wasn’t publicly reported.

‘They think workers are like dogs.’ How pork plant execs sacrificed safety for profits.

‘They think workers are like dogs.’ How pork plant execs sacrificed safety for profits.

From City Hall to the White House, our investigation found, officials let Triumph Foods stay open as hundreds of workers got coronavirus. Four died.

Opinion

  • Opinion: Big Meat must provide transparency for COVID response

    Well, times are changing, and Big-Meat won't be able to be so caviler to the shiny new House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis chaired by U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn. The South Carolina Democrat wasted no time after his appointment to demand Big-Meat to account for its COVID response.

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Rural America

  • Farmers already felt isolated. The COVID-19 pandemic made it worse.

    When COVID-19 first hit, Illinois farmers Adrienne and Drew DeSutter weren’t sure how the pandemic would affect their lives. Farmers already deal with a lot of uncertainty and lead isolated lives, they said.

From the USDA

  • FACT SHEET: Update on USDA Activities to Contain the COVID-19 Pandemic

    USDA Deploys 301 Disaster, Public Health Specialists to Assist with Federal Response WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2021 -- In January 2021, President Biden released the National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness.

SEEDS OF DESPAIR: Isolated, and with limited access to mental-health care, hundreds are dying by suicide.

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