President Trump is using the Defense Production Act to ensure that Americans have a reliable supply of beef, pork, and poultry during the global Coronavirus pandemic.
Food supply is critical infrastructure, essential to the health and safety of every American citizen. Recent actions in some states have led to the complete closure of large processing facilities, which can quickly affect meat availability in all parts of the country.
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The closure of a single plant can eliminate more than 80 percent of the supply of particular meat—say, ground beef—for an entire grocery store chain. All told, the failure to keep facilities open could force millions of pounds of meat to disappear from the market, potentially causing long-term disruptions to America’s supply chain.
With President Trump’s executive order this week, the Department of Agriculture can ensure U.S. meat and poultry processors continue to operate uninterrupted to the maximum extent possible. To protect worker safety, processors will continue to follow the latest guidance from the CDC and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.
“The United States of America is undergoing the fastest industrial mobilization since World War II,” White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro says. The President’s use of “the Defense Production Act is a key part of that mobilization.”
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