唐纳德·特朗普总统签署了一项行政命令，援引《国防生产法》，指定肉类加工厂为在周二冠状病毒大流行期间必须维持运营的关键基础设施。

据一名白宫官员称，这一命令是由一些大型肉类生产商之间的讨论促成的，他们讨论了通过关闭多达80%的加工厂来减缓COVID-19在他们工厂中传播的计划。这将使该国大约20%的肉类加工厂养活整个美国人口。

“我相信，我们今天将签署一项行政命令，这将解决任何责任问题，如果他们有某些责任问题，我们将处于非常好的状态。我们与泰森公司合作，泰森公司是世界上最大的公司之一，我们一直与农民合作。正如你所知道的，有充足的供应，这就是分配，我们今天可能会解决这个问题。这是一个非常独特的情况，因为责任，”特朗普周二下午在签署行政命令前几个小时表示。

工厂已经开始关闭，领先的消费包装肉类公司史密斯菲尔德食品公司已经关闭了威斯康辛州的库达希、密苏里州的马丁市和南达科塔州的苏福尔斯。最近，在1700名员工中的一部分检测呈阳性后，该公司宣布“主动”暂停在伊利诺伊州蒙莫斯的工厂的运营。据该公司称，蒙莫斯工厂占美国新鲜猪肉供应量的3%，苏福尔斯工厂每周供应近1.3亿份。

肉类生产巨头泰森公司最近几周也关闭了一些工厂，包括华盛顿州的帕斯科、爱荷华州的滑铁卢和印第安纳州的洛甘波特的牛肉厂和猪肉厂，这样工人们就可以进行冠状病毒检测。

4月20日，爱荷华州黑鹰县卫生局长纳菲沙·西塞·埃格布奥尼(Nafissa Cisse Egbuonye)表示，该县当时的356例病例中，90%与滑铁卢工厂工人有关。自该县发现病例增加到1346例以来的一周内，但没有检测结果，她周一表示，她无法确定有多少病例与泰森有关。

周二，一名男子在华盛顿特区一家杂货店的肉类区购物。周二，特朗普援引《国防生产法》要求肉类工厂在冠状病毒爆发期间维持运营。

帕斯科工厂的关闭造成了“供应链上的复杂局面”，因为这意味着食品供应减少，给“没有地方放牲畜”的农民带来了问题。泰森鲜肉集团总裁史蒂夫斯托福在声明中表示，该公司正与当地卫生官员合作，一旦被认为安全，就恢复运营。

作为对食品工人安全担忧的回应，一名白宫官员告诉记者新闻周刊劳工部长和劳工部长尤金·斯卡利亚将致力于制定安全标准，以确保肉类加工厂的工人在继续维持国家食品供应的同时不会受到伤害。

这位官员补充说，特朗普政府正在考虑是否为因COVID-19而最有可能出现“严重并发症”的肉类包装工人提供具体指导。

“例如，对于一个超过65岁的加工厂工人，或者一个已经存在的健康状况使他们处于更大风险的人，我们将与劳工部合作，发布强烈建议他们呆在家里的指导，”该官员说。

尽管大流行，特朗普公开为美国的反应辩护，并否认美国存在任何食品短缺问题。周一，他转发了一篇来自柜台，一家非盈利性的数字食品新闻机构称“杂货店货架上的肉并不短缺”

由于供应链中断，重新进货可能需要更长的时间，但柜台声称，冷藏中有“数百万”磅的肉类，冷冻储存将弥补任何短期加工的问题。

计数器的推特帖子是为了回应泰森在《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》和阿肯色州民主党人公报。在广告中，泰森食品公司董事长约翰·泰森写道，“食品供应链是脆弱的”，不得不关闭全国各地的社区意味着“数百万磅的肉类将从供应链中消失。”

根据国防生产法案，联邦政府在紧急情况下加强了对工业生产的控制。总统最初拒绝了使用它的呼吁，但在3月下旬做出让步，以确保呼吸机的充分生产，并打击囤积和哄抬个人防护设备价格的行为。他的前任在许多场合使用过它，尽管它很少被用于与食品供应链相关的任何事情。

一名白宫官员表示，特朗普签署了该命令，因为他和他的顾问们认为，这是COVID-19大流行的“关键时刻”，此时“食品供应链的一个关键部分面临着大幅削减产能的风险”通过要求加工厂保持开放，它们获得了保持运营所需的责任保护。

但这位官员表示，人们对美国人通过食物感染COVID-19的担忧“不如对工人相互感染这种疾病的担忧那么多”，这就是政府通过劳工部发布指导的原因。

这位官员表示:“我们认为这是一项紧迫的需求，在我国正从COVID的余波中走上复苏之路之际，不应该出现食品供应恐慌。”。“就像我们的医护人员、急救人员、执法人员和门卫每天都作为美国重要基础设施的一部分进入一样，我们的食品供应也是我们重要基础设施的一部分。”

TRUMP INVOKES DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT TO FORCE MEAT PLANTS TO STAY OPEN DURING CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

President Donald Trump signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to designate meat-processing plants as critical infrastructure that must maintain operations during the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday.

According to a White House official, the order was prompted by discussions among a number of large meat producers regarding plans to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in their facilities by shutting down as much of 80 percent of their processing plants. This would leave roughly 20 percent of the meat processing plants in the country to feed the entire U.S. population.

"We're gonna sign an executive order today, I believe, and that'll solve any liability problems, where they have certain liability problems, and we'll be in very good shape. We're working with Tyson, which is one of the big companies in that world, and we always work with the farmers. There's plenty of supply, as you know, it's distribution, and we will probably have that solved today. It was a very unique circumstances because of liability," Trump said Tuesday afternoon, a few hours prior to signing the executive order.

Plants are already starting to close and Smithfield Foods, the leading consumer packaged meat company, has already shuttered doors in Cudahy, Wisconsin, Martin City, Missouri, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Most recently, the company announced it was "proactively" suspending operations at the Monmouth, Illinois, facility after a portion of its 1,700 employees tested positive. The Monmouth plant accounts for about 3 percent of America's fresh pork supplies and Sioux Falls supplies nearly 130 million servings per week, according to the company.

Tyson, a meat-producing powerhouse, also closed a number of facilities in recent weeks, including a Pasco, Washington, beef facility and pork plants in Waterloo, Iowa, and Logansport, Indiana, so workers could undergo coronavirus testing.

On April 20, Nafissa Cisse Egbuonye, health director of Black Hawk County, Iowa, said 90 percent of the then-356 cases in the county were tied to Waterloo plant workers. In the week since the county has seen cases increase to 1,346, but without test results, she said on Monday she could not determine how many were linked to Tyson.

A man shops in the meat section at a grocery store on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to require meat plants to maintain operations during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Pasco plant's closure makes for a "complicated situation across the supply chain" as it means reduced food supplies and creates problems for farmers who have "no place for their livestock." It produces enough beef in one day to feed four million people and Steve Stouffer, group president of Tyson Fresh Meats, said in the statement, that the company was working with local health officials to resume operations once it can be deemed safe.

In response to concerns about food workers' safety, a White House official told Newsweek the Department of Labor and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia would be working to develop safety standards to ensure that workers at meat processing plants are not put in harm's way as they continue to keep up the nation's food supply.

The official added that the Trump administration is considering whether to provide specific guidance for meatpacking workers who are most at risk of developing "severe complications" due to COVID-19.

"For example, for a processing plant worker that is over 65, or one that has pre-existing health conditions that put them at a greater risk, we would work with the Department of Labor to issue guidance strongly suggesting they stay at home," the official said.

Despite the pandemic, Trump's publicly defended America's response and denied the country was having any problems with food shortages. On Monday, he retweeted a post from The Counter, a nonprofit digital food news outlet, that said there was "no shortage of meat destined for the grocery store shelf."

It may take longer to restock shelves due to supply chain disruptions, but The Counter claimed there were "many millions" of pounds of meat in cold storage and the frozen stockpile would make up for any problems with short term processing.

The Counter's Twitter thread was in response to a full-page ad Tyson published in the New York Times, Washington Post and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. In the ad, Tyson Foods Chairman John Tyson wrote the "food supply chain is vulnerable" and having to shutter doors in communities nationwide meant "millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain."

Under the Defense Production Act, the federal government has increased control over industrial production during an emergency. The president initially rejected calls for to invoke it but gave in in late March to ensure adequate manufacturing of ventilators and to fight hoarding and price gouging of personal protection equipment. His predecessors have used it on numerous occasions, although it's rarely been invoked for anything having to do with the food supply chain.

Trump signed the order, a White House official said, because he and his advisers feel that this is a "critical time" in the COVID-19 pandemic when "a key part of the food supply chain was at risk of substantially reducing capacity." By requiring processing plants to stay open, they're provided the liability protection they need to remain operational.

But the official said there is "not as much" concern about Americans contracting COVID-19 through food as there is about workers contracting the disease from each other, which is why the administration is issuing guidance through the Labor Department.

"We see it as an urgent need and there should not be a panic on food supply at a moment when our country is embarking on the path of recovery from the fallout of COVID," the official said. "Just like our healthcare workers, first responders, law enforcement, and janitors go in each and every day as a part of America's critical infrastructure, our food supply too is also a part of our critical infrastructure."