Coronavirus shutters meat packing plants

Of the 730 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in South Dakota, 40 percent work at the same food processing site. Virginia-based Smithfield Foods announced this week it is shutting down its Sioux Falls pork plant, which employs nearly 4,000 people, until further notice.

Will this happen at other plants? Other meat processing plants have closed temporarily, including a Tyson Foods facility in Iowa where more than two dozen employees had the coronavirus. “The closure of [the Sioux Falls] facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,” Smithfield President and CEO Kenneth Sullivan said.

Dig deeper: Read Daniel James Devine’s WORLD Magazine report on the pandemic’s potential long-term effect on the U.S. supply chain.