There have been tons of stories in the national and international media about how Smithfields failed their employees, to many to link, just get out the googles, oh but this one is good.
One of the major perceptions is that since these employees are immigrants they don’t know how to wash their hands and they have been literally living in a one bedroom apartment with eight beds. After you stop tragically laughing from these claims (who I would assume are coming from Smithfields’ management) it is simply hog sh*t! But what makes it even worse is that the mayor of the state’s largest city and the governor are pushing this misinformation campaign.
Even if we recover quickly from this, Paul and Kristi need to be called out about their apparent ignorance or at least pushing this flat out lie. I have talked to several Smithfield employees, they have no doubt the spread happened at the plant, as the CDC pointed out today.
I also want to say that ham, bacon and hot dogs are not essential food. In fact, I would go even farther and say if you stopped eating this crap you would probably live a lot longer. This is another lie they are pushing about being ‘essential’. If Smithfields was selling super food smoothies, I would defend them. I have the super foods list posted on my fridge, and it doesn’t include a pork product, in fact there is NO animal protein on the list except salmon.
There has also been some conflicting remarks about supplying the American food chain, as I understand it, a lot of this food is going to China. I have not been able to nail down the exact percentage, but some of the claims (10% to China) are questionable and need to be investigated.
Also, besides the fact that this plant has had to pay fines due to water and air pollution, they now are putting workers at risk. If we had a Federal government with a conscious, this place would have been closed down years ago.
What makes the Governor’s ignorance (or flat our lies) even more egregious is that she now wants a sales tax bailout from Federal taxpayers. Why? Because taxing goods and services, gambling and FOOD is not real lucrative. Gee I wonder why? When you have a regressive tax system that taxes the poor at a higher rate while giving massive tax breaks and tax havens to high income earners, this was bound to happen. It doesn’t take an economist to figure this out.
It’s time for a corporate and high earner income tax to the wealthy of the state, and eliminate the taxes on hot dogs. Because, you know, hot dogs are ESSENTIAL, and why should I be taxed when buying them?
Freaking Morons!