President Trump’s Department of Agriculture has a simple new recipe it is eager for you to try. First, generously add as much political influence from a powerful meat industry as the American public can tolerate. Next, stir in a generous amount of animal abuse, environmental damage, and worker exploitation. Lastly, while no one is paying […]
Video Exposes Habitual Animal Abuse by One of Nation’s Leading Pork Processors, Reinforces Enduring Value of Whistleblowers WASHINGTON – Today, Hormel Foods Corp. announced it is launching an investigation into rampant animal abuse at one of its pork plants in Oklahoma after an undercover video, made public by the animal rights group Mercy for Animals, […]
By Roberto A. Ferdman The pigs are not all right. An undercover video taken at one of the nation’s largest pork producers shows pigs being dragged across the floor, beaten with paddles, and sick to the point of immobility. By law, pigs are supposed to be rendered unconscious before being killed, but many are shown […]
(Austin, MN) – In light of newly released undercover video footage taken at a Hormel plant, two former USDA inspectors have come forward to speak about the food safety issues they have witnessed at Hormel’s largest high-speed processing plant. The whistleblowers each originally submitted affidavits (one anonymously) about their concerns to the Government Accountability Project […]
By TOM PHILPOTT In 2004, Elsa Murano stepped down from her post as chief of the US Department of Agriculture division that oversees food safety at the nation’s slaughterhouses. Two years later, she joined the board of directors of pork giant Hormel, a company that runs some of the nation’s largest slaughterhouses. Murano received $238,000 in compensation […]
By TREY MEWES Meat inspectors are speaking out against a high-speed pork production program used by several Hormel Foods Corp. factories. The Government Accountability Project released four affidavits from working and recently retired meat inspectors on Monday, all of whom denounced a Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points project for increasing the contamination in meat […]
KAAL-TV, the ABC affiliate in Austin, Minnesota (where Hormel is headquartered) covered a television news story about USDA whistleblowers at Hormel pork plants raising concerns about high-speed hog inspection. The print version of the story is below. By DAN CONRADT A USDA pilot project is drawing criticism, and that criticism is being felt close to […]
This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post. Americans love pork. But they’d probably think twice about biting into that slice of bacon or Spam sandwich if they knew about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s high-speed slaughter program. Fortunately, a few brave USDA meat inspectors have come forward to let folks know what’s really going […]
by CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN Toenails, hair and fecal matter are finding their way into Americans’ pork under new, faster slaughterhouse regulations. Whistleblowers from inside the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have spoken out against a recent pilot program, saying they let harmful materials be passed on to consumers. They claim that fewer inspectors and higher […]
by TED GENOWAYS Four U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) meat inspectors, all working in slaughter operations owned or operated by the Hormel Foods Corporation, have come forward this week with shocking allegations in affidavits offered to the whistleblower protection organization Government Accountability Project (GAP). A government-run pilot program experimenting with a reduced inspection protocol in […]