Episode 14: Leah Douglas on Covid19, OSHA and meat plant workers

“There’s definitely a need for the private sector to step up in reporting this info and making it publicly available.”

Leah Douglas has been doing Pulitzer Prize-worthy reporting on Covid19 and here she gives us the big picture on the pandemic, OSHA and the meat racket.

From thefern.org: Leah Douglas is an associate editor and staff writer at FERN. Prior to joining the team, she worked for three years as a reporter and policy analyst with the Open Markets Institute, where she researched economic consolidation and monopolization in the food and agriculture industry. She founded and wrote Food & Power, a first-of-its kind resource on food sector consolidation. Her writing on food, agriculture, and land policy has appeared in The Nation, CNN, Fortune, Time, Slate, Civil Eats, and more. For more, see: https://thefern.org/2020/10/could-the-food-system-face-a-new-covid-19-wave-ahead/ and https://twitter.com/leahjdouglas .

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Episode #14 Notes

1:00 - Can you tell us about your background in journalism, particularly as it relates to ag and food?

2:30- Tell us about your work on outbreaks in large meat packing plants during COVID?

7:15 - Tyson and their role in the the current COVID outbreaks at meat packing plants.

9:45 - How have workers responded to these outbreaks at large meat processors?

12:00 - What could and should Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) be doing to protect workers at meat processing facilities?

14:30 - What other specific recommendations stakeholders should be doing to protect meat plant workers?

17:45 - As of mid-October 2020, 45,000 meat plant workers illnesses and 269 deaths related to COVID.

18:30 - Have you seen better behavior from corporate owners in other food supply sectors with regards to best practices around COVID?

21:00 - On asking ourselves: Is this COVID outbreak in the food supply chain acceptable? And what’s your role in it?

22:00 - Chicken price fixing.

25:45 - What can food systems advocates and workers do to demand justice for those injured by corporate mismanagement?

28:30 - What are your practical ideas around changing the food system towards a more just and resilient future?

31:30 - On alternative food systems and breaking up big food.

33:00 - What do you recommend folks read?

The Meat Racket, Christopher Leonard

The Chain, Ted Genoways