Hog Futures Soar After Biden Moves to Speed Up Slaughter-Lines, Ignoring Safety Fears

By Kenny Stancil

The Biden administration's Wednesday announcement allowing several pork processing plants to speed up production was well-received by livestock traders—pleased to see an immediate spike in hog futures—but progressive critics warned that the move will make slaughterhouses, and the nation's food supply, more dangerous.

After the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) unveiled a pilot program that permits nine pork processing plants to apply to accelerate slaughter-line speeds, lean hog futures rose on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Reuters reported Wednesday.

"The announcement eased concerns that slower processing speeds had slowed meatpackers' demand for pigs to slaughter," the news outlet noted, citing traders.

Earlier this year, a federal judge invalidated part of the Trump administration's New Swine Slaughter Inspection System (NSIS), a 2019 rule that removed slaughter-line speed limits and weakened inspection procedures, which economic justice and food safety advocates warned would have devastating consequences for plant workers and public health.

The court found that "the Trump administration acted unlawfully in 2019 when it eliminated limits on pork plant line speeds without considering the increased risk of injury to workers," the Washington Post reported. The ruling did not, however, affect the part of NSIS that "gave pork plant owners greater control over their facilities by allowing them to replace some USDA inspectors on slaughter-lines with their own employees."