Why Can't The USDA Regulate The Pork Industry?

Photo: Food Business News

There is no doubt that President Trump is in strong favor of deregulating businesses.  That is to say, remove all obstacles of safety for the corporation in the hope that the bottom line for shareholders will be increased dramatically (increased).   More revenue for corporations translates to increasing the bottom line (i.e., direct profits) for shareholders.  Recently, a discussion of safety for workers in the pork industry was started in Congress. 



The Trump administration would love to remove all safety aspects for workers.  Speed the processing line up to run more pork through the facility.  Nevermind, that there are human beings on the line processing pork.  What could go wrong?  A worker might have to use the restroom in their pants?  Tainted meat could be missed and passed onto the consumer?  All of the above.  Reporting by Politico Agriculture shed light on the issue before Congress regarding the safety of workers in the Pork industry:

PORK SLAUGHTER RULE ON THE DOCKET TODAY: A federal district court in Minnesota will hold a hearing at 3 p.m. on the government's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by labor advocates against a USDA rule that eliminates line-speed limits in pork slaughterhouses and shifts certain inspection tasks from federal inspectors to plant workers.

— The United Food and Commercial Workers and advocacy group Public Citizen argue the final rule should be thrown out because the agency didn't consider how the policy would affect worker safety, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

— USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has repeatedly said it doesn't have the authority or expertise to regulate worker safety issues, although the agency did seek public comment on that specific issue during the rulemaking process.

The three UFCW local unions that filed the lawsuit represent slaughterhouse workers in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Oklahoma, at plants that USDA expects will accelerate their processing line speeds and adopt new inspection methods under the final rule, according to the complaint.

How we got here: The government filed a motion to dismiss the case in December, arguing the union and its locals don't have standing to bring the suit because "no establishment that employs their members has adopted — or has concrete plans to adopt" the new inspection system. USDA also reiterates in its motion to dismiss that it doesn't have a statutory mandate to regulate worker safety.

The rule is also the subject of additional lawsuits, including a case recently filed by food safety advocates who argue the inspection changes will increase the risk of tainted meat reaching the marketplace. USDA's own inspectors have also warned "unsafe" pork would likely reach consumers under the new system, NBC reported last month.

Ask your Congressional leader to take action and throw out rules which throw out the safety of workers on the processing line.  Otherwise, profits trump safety -- which is both sad and very dangerous.


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