DPA To Ensure Meat Plants Keep Running. - Page 3

Pook · ‎03-20-2010

Let those who think a mandate to keep plants open no matter what go work there with no mandated protections and companies being released from any responsibility for the safety of their workers!

wishmoon · ‎08-14-2013

Wonder where the DPA's were when health care workers needed masks, gowns, ventilators, etc. Don't kid yourselves, this is for big money only, the owners will benefit. The workers in the meat plants and the health care workers, only the ppl care about them, not the ones in office who could make their lives better. These large companies are literally killing ppl and we're to accept that they're expendable. Watch what they do.

Carmie · ‎10-25-2010

I saw that there will be an executive order but I don't understand how this will work. The plants are closing because workers are sick.

You can't force sick workers to go to work. Even with masks and other gear, it is too difficult to work around saws and other cutting tools with bulky clothing and coverings on your face that block your view.

It seems like an accident waiting for a place to happen.

BluestarFL · ‎08-25-2013

I was in a major grocery store chain yesterday morning picking up an Rx. I saw two disturbing things.

Meat hoarding - as a grocery worker was wheeling out a cart of ground meat to replenish the shelves, he was immediately surrounded by several people all pulling packages of ground meat off his cart and throwing them into their shopping carts. His meat delivery never even made it to the shelves. It was completely emptied by those shoppers. They were not looking at price, type of ground meat, weight of the package - nothing. Just grabbing them from the young man's cart as fast as they could.

Pharmacy employee sneezing without a mask - as I waited for my Rx to get filled I noticed the lady at the Pick Up register kept taking off her mask. She would take it off, talk to customers and then put it back on. Take it off, fidget with her phone and put it back on.

As the lady ahead of me got called to the Pick Up register, the worker took off the mask, laid it on the counter and turned to her right and sneezed into the air and right towards her co-workers and a Pharmacist! She did not cover her mouth, sneeze into her arm, use a tissue - none of those options. These other workers where literally right next to her working. No social distancing between them or her.

Then she put the mask back on and proceeded to wait on the customer. The customer asked for hand sanitizer and just held up her cloth grocery bag and asked the worker to drop her Rx into the bag. She said she was afraid to touch the Rx. The worker looked annoyed.

I had on gloves and a mask, but also asked the worker to drop mine into my bag. I also wiped it off when I got home and let it sit in the garage before bringing it into my house I was so stressed out about it!

When I was leaving the pharmacy area, I noticed that the lady who had been in front of me was talking to the store manager.

With all that is going on in the world today, both of these incidents were disturbing to see. I'm going to switch to home delivery for my groceries and future Rx's for the next little while just to stay out of that store.

Carmie · ‎10-25-2010

@CelticCrafter wrote:
@grandma petes wrote:
I was at Walmart yesterday and people were filling their carts with various meat products. The cashier told me they were considering limiting the amount you can buy due to hoarding. Placing limitations will be necessary to hopefully ensure that everyone has food/ meat available to feed their families. The hard part is for those with large families. Limiting one package per purchase can make it difficult for them.

The dry beans, rice, tuna, ect. isles were almost bare. Even the frozen meats were scarce. There was a sign posted that the price of eggs was going to increase and the supply would be very limited.
They need to place limits on EVERYTHING, not just toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning supplies.

Pasta and Rice - limit it to total packages not 4 spaghetti and 4 ziti and 4 penne, etc.

Eggs - limit 1 or 2 not 1 or 2 dozen of each size.

Bread - 1 bread, 1 english muffins, 1 hamburger rolls, 1 hot dog rolls.

It's the only way there will be something left for the next person to walk down the aisle.

In my area, many food items are already limited and I understand. But, I have three nieces, who have larger families. Two of them have three children and one of them has five.

One loaf of bread won't even last one day for them...same with a dozen of eggs. Not every household has two people living there.

Two teenaged boys consume a lot of food. Since they are home every day parents have no choice, but to feed them. I don't have a solution. I just hope this problem is over quickly.

Spurt · ‎03-20-2010

@Pook wrote:
Let those who think a mandate to keep plants open no matter what go work there with no mandated protections and companies being released from any responsibility for the safety of their workers!

@Pook @Carmie @Marp

Thanks to invesitgations of complaints, the plants are now complying with CDC guidelines---temperature checks, masks, spacing, and quarantine of infected employees.....But complaints have been going on for a long time in this industry....it took the CoronaVirus to give it even more exposure....

BTW Tyson had received complaints long before the pandemic regarding how their plants were operated and worker conditions..... So the plants have been violating health and safety regulations for quite a while....

February 2001
Tyson Foods voluntarily recalled 2.3 million pounds of chicken products shipped across the U.S. and internationally from its Rogers, Arkansas plant due to possible under‐processing. The problem was discovered through Tyson’s Quality Assurance program based on consumer complaints. The products were distributed to retail establishments, restaurants, and food service establishments naonwide and in Bermuda, Bahrain, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Indonesia, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, and St. Marn. Products were also distributed to military installations nationwide and abroad.

January 2003
In 2003 Consumer Reports carried out tests on chicken for salmonella or campylobacter––the bacteria most likely to give Americans food poisoning companies, including Tyson, had claimed to stop using antibiotics in their chicken production. Overall, chicken had less bacterial contamination than a previous study carried out in 1997 but there was still widespread antibiotic resistance in the bacteria. Of all the chickens tested, 42 percent harbored
campylobacter, down from 63 percent in 1997 tests. Among big brands, incidence of antibiotic resistance ranged from 34 percent to 56 percent. This highest percentage was found in Tyson chicken.

And again in 2015....and even last year March 5, 2019...

FOOD & BEVERAGE

US to issue meat company guidelines as recalls mount, official says

PUBLISHED TUE, MAR 5 20197:56 AM EST

CNBC.com---

KEY POINTS

The U.S. government plans to issue new guidelines for food companies as early as this week after an increase in recalls of meat and poultry products possibly containing metal, plastic and other foreign materials, a food-safety official said on Monday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will advise foodmakers to start internal investigations when they receive customer complaints and to notify the government within 24 hours if contaminated products are in the marketplace.
Since the beginning of 2018, Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and other companies have launched more than 25 recalls involving millions of pounds of foods.

Animals are reliable, full of love, true in their affections, grateful. Difficult standards for people to live up to.”

Spurt · ‎03-20-2010

@Carmie wrote:
@CelticCrafter wrote:
@grandma petes wrote:
I was at Walmart yesterday and people were filling their carts with various meat products. The cashier told me they were considering limiting the amount you can buy due to hoarding. Placing limitations will be necessary to hopefully ensure that everyone has food/ meat available to feed their families. The hard part is for those with large families. Limiting one package per purchase can make it difficult for them.

The dry beans, rice, tuna, ect. isles were almost bare. Even the frozen meats were scarce. There was a sign posted that the price of eggs was going to increase and the supply would be very limited.
They need to place limits on EVERYTHING, not just toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning supplies.

Pasta and Rice - limit it to total packages not 4 spaghetti and 4 ziti and 4 penne, etc.

Eggs - limit 1 or 2 not 1 or 2 dozen of each size.

Bread - 1 bread, 1 english muffins, 1 hamburger rolls, 1 hot dog rolls.

It's the only way there will be something left for the next person to walk down the aisle.
In my area, many food items are already limited and I understand. But, I have three nieces, who have larger families. Two of them have three children and one of them has five.

One loaf of bread won't even last one day for them...same with a dozen of eggs. Not every household has two people living there.

Two teenaged boys consume a lot of food. Since they are home every day parents have no choice, but to feed them. I don't have a solution. I just hope this problem is over quickly.

@Carmie

I can certainly sympathize with them....but this is what hoarding has caused...If people would have just continued purchasing their normal weekly grocery order this wouldn't have happened. But people wiping out entire meat selections and essential goods caused the limitations to be put in place....They can thank the hoarders....

Some options would be that unfortunately they will have to go to the store more often during the pandemic....Or shop in bulk through places like Sams or Costco (Instacart will shop there even if they arent members)

Animals are reliable, full of love, true in their affections, grateful. Difficult standards for people to live up to.”

KKJ · ‎03-11-2010

@BluestarFL wrote:
I was in a major grocery store chain yesterday morning picking up an Rx. I saw two disturbing things.

Meat hoarding - as a grocery worker was wheeling out a cart of ground meat to replenish the shelves, he was immediately surrounded by several people all pulling packages of ground meat off his cart and throwing them into their shopping carts. His meat delivery never even made it to the shelves. It was completely emptied by those shoppers. They were not looking at price, type of ground meat, weight of the package - nothing. Just grabbing them from the young man's cart as fast as they could.

Pharmacy employee sneezing without a mask - as I waited for my Rx to get filled I noticed the lady at the Pick Up register kept taking off her mask. She would take it off, talk to customers and then put it back on. Take it off, fidget with her phone and put it back on.

As the lady ahead of me got called to the Pick Up register, the worker took off the mask, laid it on the counter and turned to her right and sneezed into the air and right towards her co-workers and a Pharmacist! She did not cover her mouth, sneeze into her arm, use a tissue - none of those options. These other workers where literally right next to her working. No social distancing between them or her.

Then she put the mask back on and proceeded to wait on the customer. The customer asked for hand sanitizer and just held up her cloth grocery bag and asked the worker to drop her Rx into the bag. She said she was afraid to touch the Rx. The worker looked annoyed.

I had on gloves and a mask, but also asked the worker to drop mine into my bag. I also wiped it off when I got home and let it sit in the garage before bringing it into my house I was so stressed out about it!

When I was leaving the pharmacy area, I noticed that the lady who had been in front of me was talking to the store manager.

With all that is going on in the world today, both of these incidents were disturbing to see. I'm going to switch to home delivery for my groceries and future Rx's for the next little while just to stay out of that store.

My opinion is you can't expect to live in a totally 1000% sterile environment all the time. Just do your best--keeping hands washed, etc. Good grief, until the stay-at-home order was put in place I worked in a grade school and I kid you not, little kids were sneezing and coughing all over me everyday, because we know they're not good about covering their mouths. You can only do so much. If we let fear take over our lives this much then we might as well lock ourselves in our rooms & never come out.

stevieb · ‎03-10-2010

@Spurt Better late than never...

In my pantry with my cupcakes...

Carmie · ‎10-25-2010

@Spurt wrote:
@Carmie wrote:
@CelticCrafter wrote:
@grandma petes wrote:
I was at Walmart yesterday and people were filling their carts with various meat products. The cashier told me they were considering limiting the amount you can buy due to hoarding. Placing limitations will be necessary to hopefully ensure that everyone has food/ meat available to feed their families. The hard part is for those with large families. Limiting one package per purchase can make it difficult for them.

The dry beans, rice, tuna, ect. isles were almost bare. Even the frozen meats were scarce. There was a sign posted that the price of eggs was going to increase and the supply would be very limited.
They need to place limits on EVERYTHING, not just toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning supplies.

Pasta and Rice - limit it to total packages not 4 spaghetti and 4 ziti and 4 penne, etc.

Eggs - limit 1 or 2 not 1 or 2 dozen of each size.

Bread - 1 bread, 1 english muffins, 1 hamburger rolls, 1 hot dog rolls.

It's the only way there will be something left for the next person to walk down the aisle.
In my area, many food items are already limited and I understand. But, I have three nieces, who have larger families. Two of them have three children and one of them has five.

One loaf of bread won't even last one day for them...same with a dozen of eggs. Not every household has two people living there.

Two teenaged boys consume a lot of food. Since they are home every day parents have no choice, but to feed them. I don't have a solution. I just hope this problem is over quickly.
@Carmie
I can certainly sympathize with them....but this is what hoarding has caused...If people would have just continued purchasing their normal weekly grocery order this wouldn't have happened. But people wiping out entire meat selections and essential goods caused the limitations to be put in place....They can thank the hoarders....

Some options would be that unfortunately they will have to go to the store more often during the pandemic....Or shop in bulk through places like Sams or Costco (Instacart will shop there even if they arent members)

I don't think it matters when something is already in short supply how much anyone buys. The bottom line is that there will not be enough for everyone.

When people can't purchase something and it is finally available, they will tend to buy more than they need for immediate use because they are afraid they will not be able to get anymore. It is a cycle.

I don't think all the problems were caused by hoarders...well, maybe the TP.

Right now in my area things that are difficult to come by are flour, yeast, rice, dried beans, jarred spaghetti sauce, canned tuna, canned salmon, cleaning supplies, dish washing soap, TP and napkins.

I don't think people are hoarding these things. I think they are cooking more and eating at home. They are passing the time by baking and trying new recipes.

I shop at Sams and Costco. Sam's shelves are bare. Costco is doing okay, but some items are limited.

Part of the problem is when one item is gone,people will substitute with another item. For instance, if bread isn't available, people will bake it...causes a surge in flour and yeast purchases.

When there is a shortage of meat, people will buy rice and beans and seafood. It's trickles down the food chain. There isn't one major cause. It's a,combination of things.

A family with children and two parents who do not eat breakfast and lunch at home, now have to eat at home. They cannot just buy what they usually do. It won't be enough.

The big issue here is not cause by hoarders. It's caused by people having a change of lifestyle and their purchasing had to change too.

BTW, we have no Instacart or any other delivery or pick up service in my area. They are so backed up that they won't take any more orders. Some places had four weeks away for a delivery date and they finally shut down the service.

As seniors, we have to realize that we are not alone in the world. There are families out there trying to put food on their table with as little money as possible. Right now the food banks are also buying more food. The demand is different than it was pre-COVID.