April 28, 2020

Trump Orders Meat Packing Plants to Stay Open

A Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Perry, Iowa, where two dozen workers tested positive for COVID-19 last weekend.Jack Kurtz/ZUMA

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Um, what?

President Donald Trump plans to order meat-processing plants to remain open, declaring them critical infrastructure as the nation confronts growing disruptions to the food supply from the coronavirus outbreak, a person familiar with the matter said. Trump plans to use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open during the pandemic, and the government will provide additional protective gear for employees as well as guidance, according to the person.

Trump just plays for the crowd every chance he gets, doesn’t he? I mean, I’m a big time carnivore, but even I don’t think meat is critical infrastructure. I can make do with bread and cheese and fruit for a while if I have to.

But his base hears “meat shortage” and goes cuckoo, so Trump sees a chance to show them whose side he’s on. And it’s not the side of liberal elites, that’s for sure. Nor is it the side of the brown-skinned people who mostly work in packing houses these days. However, I’m sure they’ll be mollified by Trump’s promise of “guidance” to their bosses.

Aside from the obvious bad news here—meat packing workers dying of coronavirus—there’s a more subtle bit of bad news. Right now, people can be kinda sorta sure that if a plant has a coronavirus breakout it will be shut down, thus ensuring that the meat you buy is safe no matter where it comes from. But now? People might start to worry that Trump is forcing everyone to stay open regardless of whether their meat is safe. And since there’s no way to know which packing plant your meat comes from, you might just decide to avoid all meat. I don’t know how likely this is, but it’s something to think about. When the same thing happened to financial instruments in 2008, the entire world economy went belly up.

POSTSCRIPT: The alternative to Trump’s executive order is for the USDA to step up testing at meat packing plants and issue strict new workplace rules for the duration of the pandemic. But that’s just stupid, I guess.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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