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Jun 17, 2021 · Four companies slaughtered about 85% of U.S. grain-fattened cattle that are made into steaks, beef roasts and other cuts of meat for consumers in 2018, according to the most recent data from the U ...
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- Cargill Meat Solutions. Wichita, KS. 2022 Sales: $165 billion. Cargill is one of the biggest meat producers in the US with products that span the whole range of meat production.
- Sysco. Houston, TX. 2022 Sales: $68.636 billion. Sysco is known for its wide range of food services, including meat production and food preparation. They are a wholesaler who sells all their products, both fresh meats and prepared foods, in bulk.
- JBS USA. Greeley, CO. 2022 Sales: $64.984 billion. JBS USA is the American offshoot of Brazilian meat producers JBS S.A. Across all of the JBS operations, they are the largest meat producer in the world.
- Tyson Foods. Springdale, AR. 2022 Sales: $53.282 billion. Known mostly for their poultry products, like chicken nuggets, Buffalo wings, and tenders, Tyson is the largest meat producer in the US for all kinds of meats.
- Recommendations
- Methodology
- I. Background
- II. Workers’ Health and Safety
- III. Risks Fueled by Rapid Work Speed
- IV. The Way Forward
- V. International Human Rights Law
- Acknowledgments
To the US Department of Labor
1. Conduct a comprehensive rule-making effort regarding a work speed standard for meat and poultry slaughtering and processing establishments to reduce work speed to levels commensurate with worker health and safety. 2. Conduct a comprehensive rule-making effort regarding a standard on best practices and airborne exposure limits for common chemicals used for sanitation and antimicrobial purposes in poultry and meat slaughtering and processing plants, such as peracetic acid (PAA), to reduce ex...
To the US Department of Agriculture
1. Stop issuing waivers for poultry slaughtering and processing establishments to operate slaughter lines at speeds in excess of the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s rule-making on maximum line speeds (9 CFR 381.69(a)). 2. Stop pursuing regulatory efforts to lift maximum slaughter line speed caps in the poultry, hog, and cattle industry. Particularly, stop pursuing the proposed rule, Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection (83 FR 4780). 3. Assure that the Food Safety and Inspection Se...
To the US Congress
1. Allocate sufficient resources to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration to fulfill its mandate to assure safe and healthful working conditions through meaningful and effective inspections and oversight of establishments across industries in the United States. 2. Pass a law authorizing the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to re-promulgate an ergonomics standard. 3. Pass the POWER Act (Protecting our Workers from Exploitatio...
This report is based on research conducted between September 2018 and May 2019. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with 49 current and former meat and poultry slaughtering and processing plant workers, and also interviewed 53 professionals with relevant experience and expertise on issues discussed in this report, including community organizati...
Each year, at thousands of factories across the United States, workers kill and disassemble tens of millions of cattle, hundreds of millions of pigs, and over nine billion chickens.Across the Southeast and Midwest, tractor-trailers loaded with chickens, hogs, or cattle stream into large factories along rural stretches of highway from nearby farms. ...
Workers in the meat and poultry industry labor in environments where workspaces are often refrigerator-cold or excessively hot, cramped, coated with grease and blood, and filled with deafening noise and the smell of dead animals or overpowering chemicals. Workers are regularly exposed to industrial equipment, stressful repetitive motions, sharp-edg...
Nearly all workers who spoke with Human Rights Watch identified the same factor that compounds their risk of injury and illness: speed. “It’s like a storm,” said John D., a worker at a beef plant in Nebraska. “The speed of the line is fast, fast.” For decades, federal studies, medical literature, and workers’ surveys have found that rapid work spee...
Regulate and Improve Oversight
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) should enact relevant, binding standards to protect workers from the abuses to health and safety documented in this report, particularly concerning ergonomic hazards, exposure to chemicals commonly used in the industry, and work speeds. OSHA has issued non-binding guidelines for the industry concerning some of these issues.However, as documented in this report, and in decades of reporting on the risks to workers’ h...
The issues addressed in this report implicate a range of basic rights protected under international law, including: the right to safe and healthy working conditions, including a right to a working environment free from violence and harassment, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the right to sanitation, and the right to equal pr...
This report was researched and written by Matt McConnell, Stanford Law School International Postgraduate Public Interest Fellow in the Business and Human Rights Division and United States Program of Human Rights Watch. It was reviewed and edited by Komala Ramachandra, senior researcher in the Business and Human Rights Division, and Grace Meng, seni...
Jul 14, 2021 · September 8, 2021 update: The Biden administration today published a briefing rounding up the impacts of meat-industry consolidation on individuals’ grocery bills, and laid out the programs and policies the administration is using to try to break up the Big Four companies’ control of the meat processing market in the U.S., including support for smaller producers and direct payment to ...
Mar 14, 2024 · Per capita consumption of red meat in the United States from 2010 to 2024, by type (in pounds) Premium Statistic Per capita consumption of poultry meat in the U.S. 2010-2023, by type
4 days ago · An E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounders sold at locations across the United States has sickened at least 75 people, landed 22 in the hospital and caused one death. Cases have ...
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Feb 13, 2024 · Feb 13, 2024. Hormel Foods Inc. was among the top meat and poultry processing company in the United States in 2022. In that year, the company generated an estimated 12.5 billion U.S. dollars net ...
