Smithfield Foods shutters fifth plant as farmers warn they may need to EUTHANIZE pigs

Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, is expected to shut down a fifth processing plant as its number of employees who have tested positive with COVID-19 explode.

Virginia-based Smithfield, which is owned by China’s WH Group Ltd, has now shuttered pork-processing plants in Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

Now a pig farmer has revealed to DailyMail.com that the company is shuttering its plant in Crete, Nebraska. 

Last Friday, Smithfield announced plans to suspend operations at its Monmouth, Illinois, facility

Smithfield closed its St. Charles facility in Illinois, and in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The news comes after a lawsuit filed Thursday in Missouri federal court accused Smithfield of failing to provide employees at a Missouri plant adequate protective equipment.

The lawsuit also alleges that Smithfield refused to give employees time to wash their hands.

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, has shuttered its fifth pork processing plant – this one in Crete, Nebraska – due to an outbreak of COVID-19

The image above taken on Monday shows a Smithfield Foods plant in St. Charles, Illinois, that was ordered closed after employees complained about work conditions that they say make them vulnerable to contracting coronavirus

The shuttering of plants means that pig farmers may be forced to euthanize tens of thousands of animals. The April 14, 2020 image above shows hogs kept in a barn in Inwood, Iowa

More than 200 employees became infected with the coronavirus at the South Dakota slaughterhouse, which produces between 4 and 5 per cent of the nation’s pork.

Aaron Doerr, a pig farmer in Nebraska, revealed to DailyMail.com exclusively that as of Monday morning, his usual delivery of 180 pigs to Smithfield’s processing plant in Crete, Nebraska, had been cancelled.

‘Just got word that my load for this week got cancelled and it sounds like Crete is shutting down,’ Doerr said.

‘They (the pigs) weren’t supposed to go until Thursday, but we got a message this morning that it’s cancelled since they are shutting the plant down tomorrow.’

Doerr said he was told the dreaded news that Smithfield Foods is ‘suspending operations at that plant so all loads in have been cancelled until further notice.’

As more and more pig plants are forced to shut their doors because of safety reasons, Doerr, like many other local farmers, is now faced with the challenge of where to send his pigs for processing.

According to Doerr, the Smithfield Foods plant in Crete, takes in roughly 10,000 pigs daily.

So where are all of these pigs supposed to go?

Doerr, who has some 3,000 pigs, says he hasn’t quite figured out yet, but for the time being will remain on his farm.

Euthanasia is a last resort and no farmer wants to do this, but they may not have a choice.

‘When we combine all the slaughterhouses, we are talking about some 100,000 pigs a day that are being processed,’ a swine vet who asked to remain anonymous told DailyMail.com.

‘Yes, it would be wonderful if an animal sanctuary could take in a thousand pigs, but it’s highly unlikely and it doesn’t solve the problem.’

Employees butcher pork at a Smithfield Foods Inc. pork processing facility in Milan, Missouri, in this 2017 file photo. Employees from the Milan plant are suing Smithfield for what they say are unsanitary work conditions

As of April 22, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) updated their Recommendations for the Depopulation of Swine, with gunshot, electrocution and manual blunt force trauma added to the disturbing list.

According to the swine vet, another solution is feeding the pigs less or halting breeding altogether.

‘What’s going on right now is a clusterf**k to put it mildly,’ Doerr tells DailyMail.com.

‘Most of these packing plants companies have multiple locations, so when one gets closed they try to squeeze some or all of those pigs into other plants.

‘It works fine when only one plant is broke down or something for a day, but when plants are closing by the handful and for weeks at a time it’s just too much for the other plants to absorb.’

Doerr, who comes from a long lineage of farmers, says it’s time for the government to step in and help.

‘There’s no easy answer, but one good one would be the Prime Act, which would give local state inspected facilities more ability to move product into stores,’ Doerr explained.

‘The Prime Act would allow small farms to sell their pork directly to grocery stores and wherever this is a pork shortage.’

As it stands, all meat and pork sold directly to grocery stores must come from a slaughterhouse that has an onsite federal prosecutor.

This law, the Wholesome Meat Act, went into effect in 1967.

However the high costs of adhering to the inspection requirements have made it increasingly difficult for smaller places to compete.

There were some 10,000 slaughterhouses when Congress passed the Wholesome Meat Act.

Now, there are less than 3,000.

‘I don’t see why they (the USDA) can’t send inspectors to smaller plants since they aren’t being used at big plants now,’ Doerr says.

‘It wouldn’t cost the government a dime, and it would help some producers, like myself, take the edge off and help consumers as well.’  

DailyMail.com has reached out to Smithfield Foods for comment. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk