Articles by Tom Polansek

Meat Company Suing New Mexico to Remain Open After Virus Cases

A U.S. meat company that supplies Walmart and Costco is suing New Mexico to fight a state order that seeks to close a production facility where more than 100 workers have tested positive for COVID-19. The lawsuit from Stampede Meat …

EPA Denies Ban; Permits Farmers’ Use of Dicamba-Based Weed Killers for Five Years

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it will allow farmers to spray crops with weed killers based on the chemical dicamba that are sold by Bayer AG and other companies, after a U.S. appeals court blocked sales in …

Tyson Gets OK to Use Employees, Technology for Safety Inspections at Meat Plant

Tyson Foods said on Tuesday it plans in January to have company employees take on duties from more than a dozen federal inspectors at a large Kansas beef plant, after getting a U.S. government waiver. Tyson said the change would …

Meat Plant Workers Being Denied Workers’ Compensation for COVID-19: Reuters

Saul Sanchez died in April, one of six workers with fatal COVID-19 infections at meatpacker JBS USA’s slaughterhouse in Greeley, Colorado, the site of one of the earliest and deadliest coronavirus outbreaks at a U.S. meatpacking plant. Before getting sick, …

OSHA Cites Smithfield Foods For Lax Coronavirus Safety for Meat Plant Workers

The U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday it cited Smithfield Foods for failing to protect employees from the coronavirus, making it the first major U.S. meatpacker to face a fine after outbreaks at slaughterhouses infected thousands of workers. The citation …

Black Farmers Sue to Force Roundup Weedkiller Ban or Product Warnings

A group of Black U.S. farmers filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday, seeking to force Bayer AG to either stop selling its widely used weedkiller Roundup or roll out new product warnings. The National Black Farmers Association’s filing is the …

Derecho Storm Leveled Soybean and Corn Fields, Storage Tanks Across Midwest

A storm packing hurricane-force winds last Monday impacted 37.7 million acres of farmland across the Midwest, including 14 million in Iowa, the Iowa Soybean Association said on Friday, citing estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The toll from the …

Claiming Plaintiff Farmer Not Ruined, Bayer Says Herbicide Verdict Should Be Tossed

Bayer AG contended in court papers that a jury verdict in favor of a Missouri peach farmer was based on a false premise because a private investigator it hired found the farmer was still in business. A jury in U.S. …

Absenteeism at Meatpacking Plants Tied to Workplace Safety Concerns

Smithfield Foods Inc. is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to work after a severe coronavirus outbreak, according to the workers’ union. Tyson Foods Inc. …

Court Rebuffs EPA, Blocks U.S. Sale of Dicamba-Based Herbicide by Bayer, Rivals

A U.S. appeals court has blocked Bayer AG from selling an agricultural weed killer in the United States, the latest setback for a business already fighting an expensive legal battle over another product. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. …