WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday bought meat-processing plants to remain available to secure the food supply in the United States, regardless of concerns about coronavirus break outs, drawing a reaction from unions that stated at-risk employees required more security.
With issues about food lacks and supply chain interruptions, Trump provided an executive order using the Defense Production Act to mandate that the plants continue to work.
The world’s biggest meat business, consisting of Smithfield Foods Inc, Cargill Inc, JBS USA [JBS.UL] and Tyson, have actually stopped operations at about 20 slaughterhouses and processing plants in North America as workers fall ill, stiring worldwide worries of a meat shortage.
The order is created in part to provide business legal cover with more liability security in case employees capture the infection as a result of having to go to work.
John H. Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, said on Sunday that the food supply chain was “breaking” and cautioned of the potential for meat lacks.
Before providing the executive order, Trump informed reporters in the Oval Office that signing the order, “… will solve any liability issues,” including, “And we constantly deal with the farmers. There’s a lot of supply.”
The executive order, released Tuesday evening, said the closure of just one big beef-processing plant might lead to 10 million fewer individual portions of beef in a day.
” Such closures threaten the continued functioning of the nationwide meat and poultry supply chain, weakening critical infrastructure throughout the national emergency