Abstract

"“We Have a Responsibility to Feed Our Country”: Essential Work, Critical Infrastructure, and Food Inspection"

Ashton Merck, North Carolina State University (ashtonwmerck@gmail.com)

On Sunday, April 26, 2020, Tyson Foods took out a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post to publish an open letter in defense of their business practices. At the time, Tyson and other meat and poultry processors had recently been shuttered due to the unusually high number of worker deaths from COVID-19. The plants had previously been allowed to continue operating through initial shutdowns in March and April because the meat and poultry industry had been designated as “critical infrastructure,” or, to use the watchword of that spring and summer, “essential work.” However, even that designation did not override the safety of federal inspectors stationed within the plant, which ultimately led to the mandatory shutdowns.
Food safety has long been designated as a matter of the public interest, but as food producers and retailers are quick to note, food security is also in the public interest as well. Just as Tyson predicted in the letter, the decision to briefly close down plants led to enormous supply chain disruptions that had long-term ripple effects on meat prices and meat supply that extended well into the summer and fall. This paper raises questions about how the risks associated with food safety intersect with the parallel risks of securing a stable food supply, and how workers too often get caught in the middle. More broadly, this paper offers an early reflection on what the meat and poultry industries’ response to the dangers and disruptions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic means for the prospects of co-regulation in food safety.