© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A semi truck and trailer exit the JBS USA Worthington pork plant in Worthington, Minnesota, U.S., October 28, 2020. REUTERS/Bing Guan/File Photo
By Leah Douglas and Tom Polansek
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday it will extend for up to 90 days a trial program that allows six U.S. pork plants to operate faster processing-line speeds while collecting data on how the speeds affect meatpacking workers.
The decision is a win for major meat companies like Tyson Foods (NYSE:) and JBS SA (OTC:), and their farmers, at a time when both are losing money. Some activist groups like Food & Water Watch had opposed the program as a risk to food safety.
The plants, including one in Nebraska owned by Tyson and another in Illinois run by JBS’s Swift Pork Company, were allowed to accelerate line speeds last year under a trial that required them to also implement worker safety measures under agreements with labor unions or worker safety committees.
Companies were eligible to participate in the trial because they had sped up processing speeds under a Trump-era rule that removed speed limits for hog slaughtering facilities….
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