One of the country's largest pork-producing plants has closed indefinitely, after almost 300 employees tested positive for COVID-19.
A Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., that produces 4% to 5% of the nation's pork supply has become the latest meat processing facility to shut down as COVID-19 sickens plant workers.A Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., that produces 4% to 5% of the nation's pork supply has become the latest meat processing facility to shut down as COVID-19 sickens plant workers.
"It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running," Smithfield Foods CEO Kenneth Sullivan saidSmithfield decided to close its plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., which provides 4% to 5% of the pork produced in the United States. The move came after South Dakota Gov.
JBS USA has closed a Souderton, Pa., beef plant until at least Thursday and has reduced production at a second facility in Greeley, Colo., because of high absenteeism among employees.Sullivan warned that the growing shutdowns are hurting the nation's meat supply in a way that is reaching throughout the U.S. economy.
"These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation's livestock farmers. These farmers have nowhere to send their animals," he wrote. No evidence exists that COVID-19 can be passed through food or food packaging, the Food and Drug Administration
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