The Plot to Keep
Meatpacking Plants
Open During COVID-19 By Michael Grabell , ProPublica
As hundreds of meatpacking workers fell sick from the coronavirus that was spreading through their plants and into their communities in April 2020 , the CEO of Tyson Foods reached out to the head of another major meatpacker , Smithfield Foods , with a proposal .
Smithfield ’ s pork plant in Sioux Falls , South Dakota , had been hit particularly hard , and state and local officials were pressuring the company to shut it down .
“ Anything we can do to help ?” Tyson CEO Noel White asked in an email .
Smithfield ’ s CEO Ken Sullivan replied that he wished there was .
But White had an idea . Would Sullivan like to discuss the possibility of getting President Donald Trump to sign an executive order to keep meatpacking plants open ?
So began a high-pressure lobbying campaign by the meat industry , according to a report released Thursday by congressional investigators , leading to one of the most consequential moments in the nation ’ s COVID-19 response :
a presidential order that effectively thwarted efforts by local 66 x The Trial Lawyer health officials to shut plants down and slow the spread of COVID-19 .
In 2020 , ProPublica obtained thousands of emails and other documents showing that the meatpacking industry had ignored years of pandemic warnings , tried to overrule public health officials and exposed vulnerable workers and their communities to COVID-19 .
But the new report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis , along with revelations in a wrongful death lawsuit , make clear that the callousness of meatpacking executives and the level of industry influence over the Trump administration were far greater than previously known .
For example , ProPublica had reported that the meat industry ’ s trade group shared a draft executive order with the Trump administration that bore striking similarities to the one the president signed days later .
Emails released by the subcommittee now show that the proposed order was drafted by Tyson ’ s legal department . The goal , according to Tyson ’ s vice president of government relations , was to shield the company from legal liability .