Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., filed a bill on Tuesday that would suspend all current and future line-speed waivers for meatpacking plants during the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with a companion House bill from Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and others. The legislation would cover both meat and poultry processing.
“The situation has only worsened since the USDA has approved nearly 20 requests from meatpacking plants to exceed regulatory limits on line speeds despite the risks posed to workers, consumers, and animal welfare,” Booker said.
But the idea of slowing line speeds is being met with pushback from the U.S. meat industry. Smithfield Foods CEO Ken Sullivan said that slowing them by 50% “means euthanizing half of our nation's livestock, the collapse of farm prices (law of supply and demand), burying food in the ground, food insecurity and higher food prices for everyone including, most importantly, those that can least afford it.”
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