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Economy
'We have to harvest these animals or people will starve.' Pig farmers choke up while explaining they will be forced to euthanize thousands of hogs because pork processing plants are shutting down due to COVID-19
2020-05-06
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Pig farmers in rural Minnesota are in fear of losing their farms if the pork processing plants don't reopen in the coming weeks, they tell DailyMail.com

  • Randy Wiertsema, 56, a third generation farmer from Rushmore, Minnesota. told DailyMail.com he is weeks away from killing several of his healthy pigs

  • He said he cares for his animals, so 'the last thing I want to do is euthanize them. To kill a pig, not for food, is a financial, physical, emotional and mental strain'

  • The nearby processing plant JBS USA has been down since April 20, after more than 200 employees tested positive for COVID-19

  • Another farmer has already faced the same horrific decision, Brad Lonneman, 37, saying he had to euthanize 145 piglets, losing up to $20,000

  • 'I didn't have a choice,' he said choking up. 'We find no joy in euthanizing animals here, it's unethical'

  • Wiertsema said: 'Animal production needs to open back up or people will starve. It's a matter of national defense and security'

  • David Bullerman, 50, CEO of SON-D-FARMS, said the shutdown has been devastating to his family-run business that has more than 100 employees

  • He said: 'We have to destroy these animals... Just the mental aspect of it, we are going to have to put down a quality healthy pig for nothing'
Related:
Processing plant: 2020-05-02 Coronavirus roundup
Processing plant: 2020-05-01 Food Supply Issues Means U.S. Can No Longer Sustain Entire Country Being Morbidly Obese
Processing plant: 2020-05-01 Assam: Thousands of pigs die of African Swine Fever, suspected to have come from China, sale of pork banned in 6 affected districts
Related:
Pork processing plant: 2020-04-20 SD Gov. Noem Drops a Truth Bomb on Critics Demanding She Issue a Stay-at-Home Order
Pork processing plant: 2020-04-19 SD Gov. Noem attacked by Main Stream Media over Smithfield Hams (video)
Posted by:Skidmark

#22  Sinclair makes Mikey Moore seem a beacon of calm reason by comparison. Sheesh.
Posted by: Lex   2020-05-06 23:37  

#21  So, why can't they subcontract this too?

Because USDA regulations. In theory, they could swap with other hog farmers, slaughter strange pigs and send the output to grocery stores. Thanks to Upton Sinclair's hysterical and completely made-up novel that many have mistaken for a thinly-veiled slice of reality, farmers can't butcher animals and package their meat for sale.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2020-05-06 22:19  

#20  Driving the country road home from the village, I'd see the sign "Slaughtered Pigs, $" for years. Figured it required a freezer and an appetite beyond my capacity to make it worth while.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-05-06 20:44  

#19  ^What they did before?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-05-06 15:26  

#18  a few very large meat packing plants

It's pretty capital intensive. Not really a cottage industry type of operation.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-05-06 15:15  

#17  "What is your name, child? What did your mother call you?"

"She called me Babe..."
Posted by: Lex   2020-05-06 15:00  

#16  The real issue, of course, is not killing the critters themselves, but losing money instead of making it. But Mail writers are driven by scandal and sentimentality.
Posted by: trailing wife   2020-05-06 14:56  

#15  p.s. Is it just me, or does this business of concentrating things - a few very large meat packing plants doesn't really works out?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-05-06 14:40  

#14  #11 So, why can't they subcontract this too?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-05-06 14:36  

#13  #8 Yes. Henhouse and diary. And I also used to hunt & fish.

"Professor"
Never been even close to a tenure track. And never played piano in a whorehouse.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-05-06 14:33  

#12  I blame MuckFerDoo ("meat is murder")
Posted by: Lex   2020-05-06 14:01  

#11  Farmers are feeling very sad about this loss of life.

My impression is that they sub-contract the slaughter to the slaughterhouses, so the psychic pain of having to kill animals that they raised doesn't materialize. But when they have to kill the animals themselves - that's a little different. It's kind of weird how distant from our ancestors we've become, that personally slaughtering animals raised for their meat causes farmers anguish.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2020-05-06 13:56  

#10  ^ Chinamen.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2020-05-06 13:52  

#9  Who will get the farms when the independent farmers go under? International agribusiness companies?
Posted by: Glenmore   2020-05-06 13:26  

#8  Ever deal with animals professor.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2020-05-06 13:19  

#7  Actually, I went to agricultural school.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-05-06 13:18  

#6  Never farmed or ranched have you.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2020-05-06 13:15  

#5  Let me see if I grasped the problem.
(1) These pigs were supposed to go to the processing plant, to be turned into sausage.
(2) Since the processing plant is closed, they're going to be killed without being turned into sausage.
(3) Farmers are feeling very sad about this loss of life.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-05-06 12:54  

#4  That is because those pens are needed for the next group of piglets. So you have a choice keep feeding the ready to go pigs that are just consuming food to keep alive with no increase in the pounds of meat per pounds of feed and kill piglets or kill the ready to slaughter pigs to make room for the next group .
Same thing with chickens the chicks are put in the broiler house which are to be sold in a certain time frame. You don't make enough money to justify feeding them just to maintain.
Posted by: Vinegar Spolusing6485   2020-05-06 12:42  

#3  Seems extreme. Why can't they keep on feeding them until the slaughterhouses are ready to process them?
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2020-05-06 12:16  

#2  Tyson reopens its largest US pork plant in Iowa two weeks after it was shuttered amid COVID-19 outbreak that infected 444 workers and killed two
Posted by: Skidmark   2020-05-06 10:28  

#1  Nearly 150 federal meat inspectors diagnosed with coronavirus, 3 dead: report
Posted by: Skidmark   2020-05-06 10:10  

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