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Meatpackers convinced Trump officials to keep plants running during COVID crisis -U.S. House report -Breaking

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© Reuters. FILEPHOTO: This road sign leads traffic to Smithfield Foods’ pork-processing facilities in Smithfield Virginia. It was placed October 17, 2019. Picture taken October 17, 2019. REUTERS/Tom Polansek

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Leah Douglas

(Reuters) – The top U.S. beefpacking companies drafted President Donald Trump’s executive order in 2020. This was to ensure that meat plants were kept running. He also convinced his administration to allow workers to continue working during the COVID-19 epidemic, as per a Thursday report by a U.S. House panel.

The report by the House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis details the meat industry’s influence on Trump’s White House as it tried to keep production rolling even as employees fell ill. More than 59,000 meatpacking workers at plants owned by the nation’s top five meatpackers contracted COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic and at least 269 died, according to the first report by the panel released in October.

The committee chair, Representative James Clyburn stated that the “shameful conduct by corporate executives in pursuit of profit during crisis situations and government officials willing to perform their bidding regardless if it causes harm to others must not be repeated.”

North American Meat Institute is the largest meat industry trade association. They claim the report “distorts truth”, “uses 20/20 hindsight, cherry picks data, and supports a narrative that is totally unrepresentative” of the initial days of an unprecedented national emergency.

Based on interviews with union representatives and workers as well as thousands of documents, the report found that meatpacking firms led by in April 2020. Tyson Foods Smithfield Foods (NYSE:), and Smithfield Foods (NYSE:), drafted an executive ordering invoking Defense Production Act, (DPA), for meat plant operations to remain open.

This law, which was established in 1950, grants the president extraordinary powers to manage the domestic economy.

Before the finalization of the order, which was signed by the USDA on April 28th, the report revealed that the companies had sent the draft to the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

At the time, industry executives claimed that worker absenteism was threatening domestic meat supplies.

According to the House report, those concerns were not “baseless”. USDA data shows that 622 Million Pounds of Frozen Pork was available to meatpackers in March 2020. Additionally, pork exports from the top meatpackers grew by 370% during the first year after the pandemic.

Smithfield and Tyson did not respond immediately to our request for comment.

Meat industry officials also lobbyed USDA for April 2020 in an effort to increase absenteism reporting. The result was a statement by Mike Pence (ex-Vice President) that was made public.

Mindy Brashears (the USDA under secretary for safety and food) was an industry representative. They corresponded via email and telephone with each other, potentially violating the Federal Records Act.

Robert Redfield (ex-director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) also stated to the House that he had added language like “if possible” to CDC guidance for controlling COVID-19 spread from meat plants, because he was convinced by concerns expressed by the industry about its potential impacts.

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