Lack of buyers forces temporary closure of local livestock markets Ross Becker Created: April 10, 2020 07:00 AM (ABC 6 News)-Livestock producers in southeastern Minnesota and north Iowa have nowhere to sell their livestock right now. For the first time since 1947, both the Decorah Sales Commission livestock auction and the Lanesboro Sales Commission auction…
One of the largest pork processing facilities in the US is closing until further notice By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business Updated 12:42 PM EDT, Sun April 12, 2020 New York (CNN Business) One of the country’s largest pork processing facilities is closing until further notice as employees fall ill with Covid-19. The closure puts the…
Can We Afford the Economic Costs of COVID-19? By Dr. John Ikerd A crisis is a point in time when unforeseen circumstances force us to make decisions that will fundamentally affect our future, for either better or worse. We are in a time of crisis. I was shocked when I heard that governors confronted with…
USDA meat inspectors told to find or make their own masks 04/10/20 2:26 PM By Bill Tomson Meat packers need federal inspectors to produce the pork chops, T-bone steaks and ground beef that consumers are counting on to be in grocery stores, but the USDA inspectors on the front line are being told they are…
USDA Continues to Lift Meat Processing Line Speed Limits During Pandemic, Threatening Frontline Workers and Consumers Posted by Claire Kelloway in Beef, Chicken, Newsletter, Pork, Slaughterhouse Labor Photo courtesy of iStock by Getty Images While the country grapples with the COVID-19 crisis, USDA food safety officials have been making decisions that could further sicken Americans…
Meat processors, producers tapping networks to meet increased demand by Joan M. Kasura, Sean Clougherty | Apr 3, 2020 Dwayne Nickerson, owner of Sudlersville Meat Locker, said on a typical Saturday, his store would serve 200 to 250 people. Since the state-imposed restrictions on restaurants and travel, he said about 400 people were coming to…
COVID-19 Is Roiling The Beef Industry, But Some Small Producers Are Spared by Christina Stella, NET News 4.9.20 (Stock Photo: Jahd Khalil, Harvest Public Media) April 8, 2020 – 5:50pm COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the beef industry; cattle prices and futures have plunged while consumer demand has emptied grocery shelves. But some who sell…
Side effects: Fuel demand crash shuts U.S. ethanol plants, meatpackers lack refrigerant Stephanie Kelly, Tom Polansek NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) – A slew of U.S. ethanol plants have shut down as fuel demand has collapsed during the coronavirus outbreak, and meatpackers have been hit by a worrying side-effect: less carbon dioxide is now available to chill…
If you imagine that a local business making surgical face masks is working 24/7, guess again An owner at the North Texas plant is frustrated that his dire warnings went unheeded. Mike Bowen runs America’s No. 1 maker of hospital surgical masks, in North Richland Hills. For more than a decade, he predicted a pandemic…