New York (AFP)

The American administration, to ensure that the supermarkets continue to offer meat and that the stockbreeders can make kill their animals, from now on force the slaughterhouses to remain open even as the cases of Covid-19 multiply among the workers.

Invoking a law intended to ensure the security of the country, US President Donald Trump signed a decree on Tuesday ordering factories where cattle, pigs and poultry are slaughtered and processed, to remain open.

However, several of these sites have had to close their doors in recent weeks due to the spread of the new coronavirus among their employees: they work side by side on the production lines and often take their breaks and meals in premises that do not allow for compliance the recommended distance.

According to the main agricultural union in the United States, Farm Bureau, at least 18 meat factories have been closed in the past two months, reducing the country's capacity to process pork by about 20% and that 10% beef.

What to fear occasional shortages of meat on the shelves of stores.

Some breeders on their side can no longer transport their animals to the slaughterhouse.

If the cows and oxen can continue to graze in the meadows without much problem, the pigs are mostly fattened indoors according to a fairly precise schedule. If they become too fat, they lose their value and can be injured.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had to set up a special unit to support producers who need to get rid of their animals, including helping them to euthanize their animals.

"The decree signed by the president will help breeders to avoid difficulties and will allow American families to continue to stock up on healthy and affordable food," said Julie Anna Potts, the head of the federation representing the industry's producers, on Wednesday. meat, Meat Institute.

- Contagious focus -

Companies in the sector claim to have put in place the sanitary measures necessary to protect workers, between screening tests, temperature control, face protections and installation of plexiglass screens.

But these precautions come too late, according to organizations defending employees.

At the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where some 3,700 people slaughter, cut, and usually process thousands of pigs every day, the site "is very old," for example explained to the AFP Kooper Caraway, local leader of the AFL-CIO union.

"The corridors are very narrow, the changing rooms and the dining rooms are small", forcing the employees to work and move "shoulder to shoulder", he said, adding that the management "did not take the situation seriously soon enough. "

And when she finally changed the sanitary rules, "it was too late, several dozen workers were already positive (at Covid-19) and the site became a hotbed of contagion".

According to the UFCW union, which represents workers in slaughterhouses and meat processing plants across the country, 20 of them have died from the virus and at least 6,500 have been affected to varying degrees.

"The health and safety of these workers must be made a priority," the organization's president, Marc Perrone, said in a statement, calling on the authorities to closely monitor the measures put in place by the companies.

The Food and Water Watch association, which campaigns for better surveillance of the food chain, denounces the alarmist remarks of the meat giants on possible shortages, even as the stocks of frozen beef and chicken are at a high level.

"It is crucial that the food industry protects its employees by closing factories when necessary to prevent the entire food chain from collapsing," said one of its officials, Tony Corbo, in a statement. . Rather, he said, the government should "make sure that the abundant frozen meat supply is delivered to the stores and food banks that need it."

© 2020 AFP