US administration to make faster meat processing permanent

Mar 24, 2025

The Trump administration said on Monday it plans to permanently allow US poultry and pork processing plants to operate more quickly, raising concerns among advocacy groups about worker health and food safety, reported Reuters.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) decision is a victory for meat companies and industry associations such as the National Chicken Council, which have advocated for faster processing line speeds.

However, it adds to health concerns about slaughterhouse workers, who often perform repetitive tasks with sharp knives and toil in extreme heat or cold.

USDA will start a process to make permanent higher speeds that it allows at some facilities under waivers, according to a statement. Chicken plants with waivers can process up to 175 birds per minute, compared to a previous limit of 140 birds.

The agency also will extend waivers, allowing facilities to "meet demand without excessive government interference," the statement said.

USDA's announcement cited a lack of direct links between processing speeds and workplace injuries, but research shows that meatpacking workers face a greater risk of serious harm.

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Video: We Let Dad Drive a 50,000 Pound Dump Truck

There's old hog barns under that field now. The old hog barn site on the farm has been sitting there for decades, and this is the week it finally came out: concrete pad, burn pile, charred lumber, all of it loaded into a CAT 725C rock truck and buried in a pit we dug back in the timber.

Tork's been waiting his whole life to drive one of these, so he gets the keys to a 50,000 pound rock truck and I ride shotgun. The excavator loads, the dozer clears the timber, the drone shows the whole site from above, and by sundown there's nothing left of the old place but a smooth patch of dirt. It's a weird feeling erasing something that was here before either of us, but the farm has to keep moving.