By Susan Kelly on 3/20/2020 MeatingPlace.com
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday issued guidance for industries including animal agriculture and meat packing whose workers it deems part of the critical infrastructure needed to mount a national response to slow the coronavirus outbreak.
The guidance is intended to inform community decision-making in identifying the sectors and critical functions that should continue normal operations, modified to account for Centers for Disease Control workforce and customer protection guidance, DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said.
“As state and local communities consider COVID-19-related restrictions, CISA is offering this list to assist prioritizing activities related to continuity of operations and incident response, including the appropriate movement of critical infrastructure workers within and between jurisdictions,” DHS said.
• Food manufacturer employees and their supplier employees, including those in areas of food processing such as packers, meat processing, livestock and poultry slaughter facilities, and the production of food packaging.
• Farm workers employed in animal food, feed and ingredient production, packaging, and distribution; manufacturing, packaging, and distribution of veterinary drugs; truck delivery and transport; and farm and fishery labor needed to produce our food supply domestically.
• Animal agriculture workers including those employed in veterinary health; manufacturing and distribution of animal medical materials, animal vaccines, animal drugs, feed ingredients, feed, and bedding; transportation of live animals, animal medical materials; transportation of deceased animals for disposal; raising of animals for food; animal production operations; slaughter and packing plants and associated regulatory and government workforce.
“We recognize that states and local governments are working hard to ensure operational continuity. As part of that effort, we urge state and local governments to swiftly follow and implement this federal directive,” National Pork Producers President Howard A.V. Roth, a pork producer from Wauzeka, Wis., said in a press release.