“Major US meat producer warns ‘food supply chain is breaking’”, 27 April 2020

Tyson Foods, one of America’s largest meat producers, has warned “the food supply chain is breaking” amid [COVID-19], say[ing] “there will be limited supply of products” until it can open plants forced to close. [John Tyson, CEO]…warned that “farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed”…

The Department of Agriculture (USDA)…vowed to work with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to “ensure the safety of the US food supply and protecting agricultural health”. The USDA had been criticized for the millions of pounds of foodrotting while the country’s food banks became increasingly depleted…

[T]he United Food and Commercial Workers International Unions [say]…at least 10 meatpacking workers and three food processing workers have died from the coronavirus and…5,000 meatpacking…and 1,500 food processing workers have been directly affected. The company had faced backlash for slow response to worker safety.

Tyson [has committed]…to “waiving the waiting period to qualify for short-term disability so workers can immediately be paid if they get sick”…, [also] agree[ing]…to pay nearly $60m in bonuses to more than 115,000 workers and truck drivers. Tyson Foods referred…to an emailed statement to Time, [saying] it “places team member safety as our top priority”…