Articles by Tom Polansek

Agriculture Officials Find More Avian Flu Cases in Wild Birds, Caution Poultry Farmers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported two more cases of highly pathogenic avian flu in wild birds on Tuesday, raising risks for potential infections in poultry. The USDA on Friday reported the nation’s first case of a Eurasian H5 type …

Bird Flu Found in Wild Duck Could Endanger Poultry Industry

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday confirmed the first case of a highly pathogenic type of avian influenza in a wild bird since 2016 in South Carolina. The virus, Eurasian H5 avian influenza, was found in a wild duck …

Unions Say Meat Plants Relaxed COVID-19 Safety Measures After Outbreaks

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, last year assigned a team of dedicated employees to enforce social distancing and sanitize surfaces at a South Dakota slaughterhouse where COVID-19 infected nearly 1,300 workers, the president of the local labor union …

EPA to Revisit Bayer Dicamba Herbicide Risks After 3,500 Reports of Crop Damage

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is assessing whether the herbicide dicamba can be sprayed on soybean and cotton plants genetically engineered to resist the chemical, without the procedure posing “unreasonable risks” to other crops, an agency official said on Tuesday. …

Pork Plants Allowed to Operate Faster in Trial Program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday that nine pork plants can apply to operate faster processing-line speeds under a one-year trial, after a federal judge in March struck down a Trump-era rule that removed line speed limits. Faster …

Agriculture Department Readying Waivers to Address Pork Plants’ Processing Speed

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on a proposal for a waiver system for hog plants forced by a federal court to slow processing lines, Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday. Waivers to allow plants to speed up processing …

Oklahoma Pork Processor Moves to Delay Court Ruling on Slaughter Speeds

U.S. pork processor Seaboard Foods wants to pursue a 10-1/2-month delay to a federal court decision that would force it to slow the speed of hog slaughtering at a massive Oklahoma pork plant, according to court documents. The second-biggest U.S. …

Many Meatpackers, Other Food Workers Still Waiting for Vaccines

COVID-19 vaccines are making their way into the arms of U.S. meat and agriculture workers, but companies and union officials say progress needs to be faster after coronavirus outbreaks idled slaughterhouses and sickened thousands of workers. Vaccinating food workers could …

Worker Injuries Rise as Oklahoma Pork Plant Speeds Up Slaughtering

One of America’s leading pig slaughterhouses is running faster than ever as meatpackers hustle to keep pork in grocery stores during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plant worker Hector Ixquier says it’s time to slow down. Ixquier said he sought medical treatment …

Texas Ranchers Scrambled to Keep Animals Alive in Extreme Cold

Texas ranchers worked overtime to haul water and hay to cattle to keep them alive during a freak winter storm, but some cows succumbed to unusual icy temperatures that also killed chickens, idled meat plants and threatened crops. The deaths …