Empty Shelves, Culled Animals: COVID-19 Intersects with Decades of Industrialized Agriculture For decades, whistleblowers have told us that it is dangerous when Big Ag puts profits over people. Companies such as Tyson, JBS, and Smithfield, which have historically bulldozed independent businesses to gain control of our meat supply, have built fragile global supply chains in [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 8, 2020 Food Integrity Campaign Petition to Protect Meat Inspectors During COVID-19 Garners Thousands of Signatures Petition Launch Follows Thousands of COVID-19 cases in Meat Industry WASHINGTON – This week, the Government Accountability Project’s Food Integrity Campaign launched a petition to expand and strengthen protections for essential workers employed within the meat industry. Meat industry [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30, 2020 Trump Administration Issues Executive Order Keeping Meat Plants Open Amidst Pandemic WASHINGTON – President Trump announced on Tuesday that he intended to order meat plants to stay open by declaring them essential infrastructure under the Defense Production Act. This order comes after more than 6,000 meat workers have tested positive and 20 have died of COVID-19. Across the country, plants have been closing in [...]
Note: this article, featuring Government Accountability Project and the Food Integrity Campaign, was originally published here. Kentucky Slaughterhouses Battle the Coronavirus’s Spread Amid Fears of Meat Shortage Major meat processors across the country have continued to battle coronavirus hotspots in their plants — including in Kentucky. Two Western Kentucky poultry plants, each the largest employer [...]
Note: this article, featuring Government Accountability Project and the Food Integrity Campaign, was originally published here. USDA OKs Record Number of Poultry Line-Speed Waivers in April The federal government in April approved a record number of line-speed waivers for poultry slaughterhouses—the most ever in a single month—as the Covid-19 public health crisis makes it harder for customers [...]
Note: this podcast, featuring our Food Integrity Campaign Director Amanda Hitt, was originally published here. Amanda Hitt on Why the Animal Agriculture Industry Needs Whistleblowers In an age where almost everything we eat is produced outside of public view, whistleblowers are critical to maintaining the integrity of our food systems. These principled insiders are often the [...]
Note: this article, featuring Government Accountability Project and the Food Integrity Campaign, was originally published here. USDA Sued for Increasing Slaughterhouse Kill Speeds to 175 Chickens Per Minute A coalition of animal welfare groups has filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for increasing the killing ‘speed limit’ in chickens slaughterhouses [...]
Note: this article, featuring Government Accountability Project and the Food Integrity Campaign, was originally published here. Federal Pork Inspectors Are Sounding the Alarm Over USDA’s Plan to Give Industry More Control After 20 years of studying the issue through four administrations, USDA is moving forward to give industry a bigger say in food safety operations. [...]
Note: this article, featuring Government Accountability Project and the Food Integrity Campaign, was originally published here. Amid Widespread Disease Transmission Concerns Linked to Meat Consumption, USDA Approves Slaughterhouses to Kill Birds 25% Faster In light of the Coronavirus, we are seeing first hand how wildlife trade and meat consumption are related to infectious diseases and the deadly risk it poses to public health. [...]
Note: this article, featuring Government Accountability Project and the Food Integrity Campaign, was originally published here. Lawsuit Filed Over Increase in Poultry Slaughter Line Speeds Several animal welfare groups and the Government Accountability Project have filed a lawsuit over the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2018 increase of poultry slaughter line speed limits. In September 2018, [...]