meatpacking

GARDEN CITY, Kansas — A welding torch caused August’s fire at a Tyson meatpacking plant in western Kansas.

The Garden City Fire Department investigated the fire at the Holcomb plant and completed a report on Oct. 13, saying the fire was unintentional and likely started because a welding torch produced a “spark, ember or flame.”

Cargill Meat Solutions is recalling hundreds of thousands of pounds ground beef products following an E.coli outbreak that caused one death and 17 illnesses.   

According to the USDA, Cargill is recalling over 132,00 pounds of ground beef products that may be infected with E.coli following an epidemiological investigation that found the affected people purchased the meat from grocery stores supplied by Ft. Morgan, Colorado’s Cargill Meat Solution

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, sent a letter to the Finney County, Kansas attorney’s office Wednesday calling for an investigation into an allegation of animal cruelty involving a steer at Tyson Fresh Meats in Holcomb.

Colorado State University recently broke ground on a $20 million center for its meat science program.

As Colorado Public Radio reports, Greeley-based meatpacking giant JBS USA provided much of the money for the facility, which the company and university say will help “advance best practices in food safety, meat sciences and animal handling and welfare.”

From Harvest Public Media:

From Harvest Public Media:

On the worst day of Greta Horner’s life, she was dressed in a burlap robe, waiting by the window for her husband to come home from work.

The couple was down to one car. The other one was in the shop. She donned the costume for a play, set in Old Jerusalem, later that morning, part of Vacation Bible School at the church. She just needed the car to get there. 

From Harvest Public Media:

The nights were often worse for Gabriel, even after long days working on the production line at a pork slaughterhouse in Nebraska.

He had nightmares that the line – what the workers call “the chain” – was moving so fast, that instead of gutted hogs flying by, there were people.

“You’ve been working there for three hours, four hours, and you’re working so fast and you see the pigs going faster, faster,” he says. 

From Harvest Public Media:

In the first nine months of 2015, workers in meat-packing plants owned by Tyson Foods averaged at least one amputation a month. 

That report was gleaned from a Freedom of Information Act request by Celeste Monforton, a George Washington University occupational health professor.

Much has changed in the American meatpacking industry since the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle 109 years ago. The Economist recently joined animal-welfare and autism-awareness advocate Temple Grandin for a tour of a Colorado meat-processing facility. The Fort Morgan facility is a massive operation; the plant employs 2,100 people and slaughters 4,600 cows every day.

From Harvest Public Media:

Fort Morgan is a town of about 11,000 people tucked into the farmland of northeastern Colorado. Among its residents are people of Latino and European ancestry, and more recent immigrants, including refugees from eastern Africa.

The nation’s top safety watchdog lacks the resources or ability to set and enforce rules in a timely manner reports The Washington Post.  In 2012, the Government Accountability office found it takes nearly eight years on average to issue a new rule.  That’s because of the heavy burden of documentation needed to withstand industry lawsuits and a budget that’s declined significantly since 2010.

Case in point is one of the most dangerous jobs in America- meatpacking.  There were over 28,000 reported injuries in 2013, but OSHA says it doesn’t have the resources or ability to set or enforce rules. 

Rules that require more information on meat labels may be on the outs.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack seemed to signal for the first time Friday that the rules are not compliant with World Trade Organization standards and must be fixed.

“We’ve done a 360-degree look and I can tell you that we do not think there’s a regulatory fix that would allow us to be consistent with the law, which I’ve sworn to uphold, and to satisfy the WTO,” Vilsack said.

Harvest Public Media reporter Peggy Lowe has been visiting Garden City working on a series of stories profiling “meat packing towns” and their economic, social and cultural life and challenges.  Fittingly, one of her first contacts was Sister Janice Thome who provided a ground-level orientation to the community.  Here is Peggy’s first field note featuring Sister Janice.

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The billboards that dot the long gray line of Interstate 70 west from Kansas City tried to lure me to tourist towns that promised Wild West shows, lots of sunflowers and even an Oz Winery.