meatpackers
Tyson meatpacking workers averaged an amputation a month
Federal workplace records show that during the first nine months of 2015, "workers in meatpacking plants owned by Tyson Foods averaged at least one amputation a month," says Harvest Public Media, which credits occupational health professor Celeste Monforton for getting the data through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Senate sends ag-reauthorization bill to House
With time running out, the Senate passed and sent to the House a bill to reauthorize federal inspection of export grain and a requirement for meatpackers to report purchase prices of cattle, hogs and sheep.
Export inspection, price-reporting bill cleared for Senate vote
The Senate Agriculture Committee approved a bill to reauthorize federal inspection of export grain and the requirement that meatpackers report purchase prices of cattle, hogs and sheep. The five-year reauthorization now goes to the Senate floor for a vote. The House approved separate bills to reauthorize the programs on June 9 by voice votes.
It’s grueling work and too complex for a robot
Meatpackers may as well put up a sign: No robots need apply, says KUNC's Luke Runyon in a story on the limits of technology and the economics of meat plants.
JBS in deal to buy Cargill’s pork farms and packing plants
The giant Brazilian meatpacker JBS, a relative newcomer to North America, will buy the pork operations of agribusiness rival Cargill for $1.45 billion, the companies announced.
Crucial House vote near on repeal of meat-origin labeling
The House could vote as early as Wednesday on repeal of mandatory country-of-origin labels (COOL) on packages of beef, pork and chicken sold in grocery stores. Meatpackers and the largest cattle and hog groups, who opposed COOL from the start, have their best chance in years to get rid of it. The World Trade Organization has issued a final ruling against COOL as a barrier to imported meat and livestock.
Lawmakers consider relaxing Nebraska “packer ban” for hogs
A bill in the Nebraska legislature would exempt hogs from the 15-year-old state ban on ownership of livestock by meatpackers other than immediately before slaughter, says Fortune.
A debate on farming’s future in no-corporate-farms Nebraska
For a generation or more, Nebraska has banned corporate farming as a way to protect small operators, says Harvest Public Media, and now the Cornhusker State is "at the center of a debate that gets to the core of what it means to be a farmer."
WTO ruling on U.S. meat-label rules expected in mid-May
A WTO panel expects to rule by mid-May on whether the United States violates global trade rules with its requirement for packages of beef, pork and poultry to say where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered, said AGCanada.com.
Doubts about White House proposal for single food agency
Three weeks after the White House proposed a central agency for food safety, the proposal "is already running into opposition from some food safety experts, consumer groups and the inspectors who would be most affected.
A roadblock for livestock drug that boosts weight
Efforts by drugmaker Merck to re-introduce its growth-promoting drug Zilmax to the market are "stuck in a kind of veterinary purgatory," says the NPR blog The Salt.
Recession slowed cattle imports, not labeling rules-Report
The slow economic recovery from recession is to blame for a downturn in U.S. cattle imports, not the requirement to put labels on meat packages that list where cattle, hogs and chickens were born, raised and slaughtered, says a study by an Auburn U economist.
“We’re stuck” on revising meat-origin labels, says Vilsack
Congress will have to resolve the international snarl over U.S requirements for labels on beef, pork and chicken meat that identify where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. U.S. law requires the so-called country of origin labels (COOL) but the World Trade Organization has ruled three times that U.S. regulations discriminate against Canada and Mexico.
Agriculture’s top hope for lame duck – revival of tax breaks
Congress is fairly likely during its post-election session to revive a package of tax incentives that expired on Jan 1, said the leaders of the two largest U.S. farm groups. The package includes the $1 a gallon tax credit for biodiesel, tax credits for wind and solar power, and generous write-offs for purchases of equipment and other assets. Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, told reporters the so-called tax extenders package was...
US appeals court rejects re-hearing of challenge to COOL
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to re-hear a meatpacker lawsuit challenging USDA's country-of-origin meat-labeling rules, said Feedstuffs.
Cattle and meatpackers shift north and east from Plains
Recurrent drought has combined with a smaller cattle inventory to begin shifting the cattle industry, centered in the southern and central Plains, to the north and east, says Meatingplace in a seven-part story, "Dry Age Beef."