Workers Risk Lives for You to Eat

Smithfield Foods is the largest pig and pork producer in the world

The United States has not been fighting the novel coronavirus well, with over 78,300 deaths and President Donald Trump is anticipating 100,000 deaths.

A number of the 1.32 million cases are in meat-processing plants, where workers are not well paid, nor are they practicing social-distancing measures in the factories or given proper personal protective equipment or PPE, where they are churning out meat products for customers across the country and beyond.

Workers are not social distancing on the processing line

One of the meat-processing companies is Smithfield Foods, the largest pig and pork producer in the world.

It has had to shut several of its plants in various locations because of positive cases. There were allegations by workers themselves that they didn't have PPE from the company to protect themselves and that the company blamed local transmission of the virus on the ethnicity of the workers.

And it's interesting to note that Smithfield Foods is wholly owned by Chinese company WH Group, formerly known as Shuanghui Group that is publicly listed and headquartered in Hong Kong. One would think because of how COVID-19 ravaged China that WH Group would step up efforts to protect its workers, but it has not done any such thing.

The company has had to shut down plants because of the virus

Instead it seemed to be more focused on filling supermarket shelves than the well-being of its workers in this statement in part:

"We believe it is our obligation to help feed the country, now more than ever. Operating is not a question of profits; it is a question of necessity.

"During this pandemic, our entire industry is faced with an impossible choice: continue to operate to sustain our nation's food supply, or shutter in an attempt to entirely insulate our employees from risk. It's an awful choice; it's not one we wish on anyone. It is impossible to keep protein on tables across America if our nation's meat plants are not running. Across the animal protein industry, closures can have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions up and down the supply chain."

How about protecting workers' health with proper PPE?

As of May 6, the US Centers for Disease Control says at least 4,200 workers in meat and poultry plants have contracted the coronavirus, and 20 of them have died.

Is it really worth eating meat when it puts people's lives at risk? Now is a good time as any to seriously consider cutting down on meat consumption and look at having a more plant-based diet... the planet will thank you for it too.