Meat factory clusters?

maestroamado

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

I'd say time to close them down

so we all stop eating meat?

if we didn't die of hunger it be great.
good for envionrment too they say.

I just had beef stir fry yummy...

I’ve no interest in stopping eating meat and something like this won’t stop meat being sold.

Anyway, the working and living conditions in fruit and veg packaging facilities are so similar that it may not be long before we see a cluster in one of them too. The only real difference being less cold areas.

Ash.J.Williams

I’m a meat eater but we waste so much it’s barbaric at this stage

It needs to become a luxury item , fillet steak used to be a privilege.

the purple tin

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

I’m a meat eater but we waste so much it’s barbaric at this stage

It needs to become a luxury item , fillet steak used to be a privilege.

Lab-grown meat will become the norm soon.

Something will have to give, factory farms are unsustainable, terrible for the environment and they are a hotbed for viruses and diseases that can jump to humans.

Odelay

the purple tin wrote: »

Lab-grown meat will become the norm soon.

Something will have to give, factory farms are unsustainable, terrible for the environment and they are a hotbed for viruses and diseases that can jump to humans.

So if a human spends say 10 minutes per kilo interacting with meat in a factory, how long would a person send interacting with a kilo of meat in a lab?

Not looking at the time a time a farmer spends with cattle as that is mostly one person in the out doors. Just looking at the amount of time people spend with meat in close contact?

expectationlost

some workers operating in a large-scale Cork meat factory did not have enough Irish PRSI contributions in their names to avail of the illness benefit during the pandemic because their tax contributions had been paid in Poland.

https://www.farmersjournal.ie/meat-factory-recruiter-told-to-pay-irish-tax-contributions-561189

maestroamado

expectationlost wrote: »

https://www.farmersjournal.ie/meat-factory-recruiter-told-to-pay-irish-tax-contributions-561189

Ryanair wewe doing something simaliar as their staff were on Irish contracts and living thourought Europe.

I could not access article so past a bit if you can.

whisky_galore

The_Brood wrote: »

Ireland now has fantastic meat-free substitutes/options, you can get delicious and fully nutritional meat-free food everywhere from stores to restaurants. Better for your health, for the environment, for animals, and would eliminate the need for these horrible condition meat factories.

Now is the time to go meat-free if you haven't already.

No.
It's yummy.

whisky_galore

mloc123 wrote: »

I'll never buy it again anyway

Keelings made profits recently, despite all these people who swore never to buy it again...

Oranage2

expectationlost wrote: »

https://www.farmersjournal.ie/meat-factory-recruiter-told-to-pay-irish-tax-contributions-561189

Someone with a polish contract could come here from anywhere in the world and work in these factories and be just politly asked to restrict movement. Joke how there's no border controls

Wanderer78

maestroamado wrote:

Ryanair wewe doing something simaliar as their staff were on Irish contracts and living thourought Europe.

Wouldn't surprise me if Ryanair bring the government to court for compensation(bailout!)!

maestroamado

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Wouldn't surprise me if Ryanair bring the government to court for compensation(bailout!)!

Wanderer, we better not wander off topic.
There is a court case already about lockdown.
Back to OP...

WoollyRedHat

StackSteevens wrote: »

That information is already published annually by SIPO. So there's absolutely no need to (ab)use the FoI process - which doesn't cover the Irish political parties or individual Oireachtas members in any case!

I wasn't aware thank you. There surely are vested interests with certain parrties and Goodman though, would SIPO list these? Interestingly, Larry Goodman also owns two of biggest.private hospitals, The Hermitage and BlackRock Clinic.

JP Liz V1

maestroamado wrote: »

so we all stop eating meat?

if we didn't die of hunger it be great.
good for envionrment too they say.

I just had beef stir fry yummy...

There is other foods to eat than meat

Muahahaha

The workers are not even paying tax here and the meat plant owners dont pay any employers PRSI either

An Irish Farmers Journal investigation has revealed a complex legal web of worker recruitment methods by meat factories. It includes subcontractors and agencies, and results in foreign workers in Irish meat factories paying tax in Poland instead of Ireland.

The Journal claims to have seen documents that reveal a scheme in which foreign workers in Irish meat factories were registered as sole traders in Poland — and paid their tax in that country instead of Ireland. This meant the firm did not have to pay tax and PRSI contributions for those workers in this country. It also meant the workers were not entitled to any of the social security supports, such as illness benefit payments from the Irish government.

To find out more, Ocean FM reporter John Lynch spoke to Hannah Quinn Mulligan, news correspondent with the Irish Farmers Journal.

https://www.oceanfm.ie/2020/07/30/questions-over-how-meat-factories-recruit-and-employ-foreign-workers/

Unbelievable that they are working on Irish soil and we dont see a penny of tax out of it.

MadYaker

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

There is other foods to eat than meat

We consume 90% more beef than we export and its the same (though not as high %) with pork and lamb. The factories could be shut for 2 weeks without causing an issue surely. We don't really know if the problem is in the factories or where the workers live do we?

jlm29

the purple tin wrote: »

Farmers markets ftw. Support the small farmer directly. Guaranteed Irish, locally produced. Cut out the greedy corporations, and you get a far superior product too.

I don’t know any farmers that can butcher their own meat though? There’s not even that many butchers who are slaughtering and butchering their own now, most are buying it directly from the factories

wrangler

MadYaker wrote: »

We consume 90% more beef than we export and its the same (though not as high %) with pork and lamb. The factories could be shut for 2 weeks without causing an issue surely. We don't really know if the problem is in the factories or where the workers live do we?

75% of our beef is exported, I don't really understand your figure,
Factory workers are able to put the virus over them simply, they don't seem to be worried whether they spread it or not,
However factories closing now and wages being stopped might concentrate their minds.

MadYaker

A meat plant in Denmark has been shut after 142 staff tested positive

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0808/1158099-covid-world-update/

Water John

Because of the problem in US meat factories the price of beef in the US has risen 20%.
The bigger outbreaks need a short shutdown to get the outbreak under control. You could go the, herd immunity route with the factory staff, but it's the risk of, community spread in the wider pop is the issue.

YFlyer

jlm29 wrote: »

I don’t know any farmers that can butcher their own meat though?

They do for their own consumption. May not tell the IFA the total number of lambs or calves it have.

YFlyer

wrangler wrote: »

75% of our beef is exported, I don't really understand your figure,
Factory workers are able to put the virus over them simply, they don't seem to be worried whether they spread it or not,
However factories closing now and wages being stopped might concentrate their minds.

Who is they?

jlm29

YFlyer wrote: »

They do for their own consumption. May not tell the IFA the total number of lambs or calves it have.

I doubt the IFA would care. The farmers don’t kill and butcher the meat themselves either. My point is that the ordinary joe soap wouldn’t be able to get any meat if they decided they Weren’t going to eat meat that was slaughtered/packaged in meat factories.

YFlyer

jlm29 wrote: »

I doubt the IFA would care. The farmers don’t kill and butcher the meat themselves either. My point is that the ordinary joe soap wouldn’t be able to get any meat if they decided they Weren’t going to eat meat that was slaughtered/packaged in meat factories.

They can't slaughter the beast themselves if they want to sell it at a market.

jlm29

YFlyer wrote: »

They can't slaughter the beast themselves if they want to sell it at a market.

Obviously.

whisky_galore

jlm29 wrote: »

I doubt the IFA would care. The farmers don’t kill and butcher the meat themselves either. My point is that the ordinary joe soap wouldn’t be able to get any meat if they decided they Weren’t going to eat meat that was slaughtered/packaged in meat factories.

The IFA may not, the Dept of Ag certainly would care, very much.

maestroamado

jlm29 wrote: »

I don’t know any farmers that can butcher their own meat though? There’s not even that many butchers who are slaughtering and butchering their own now, most are buying it directly from the factories

I think this is one of the reasons for the demise of the family butcher.
Regulations for slaughtering are very strict so not really viable for butchers.
I stopped buying from family butchers because of this as buying from original source from supermarkets. Supervalu seem to be the best meat suppliers in Ireland at the moment.
I think 90% of our beef is exported...

jlm29

whisky_galore wrote: »

The IFA may not, the Dept of Ag certainly would care, very much.

I know. And I really don’t think it’s a widespread practice. I don’t know anyone doing it. Someone else suggested that people should buy local from small farmers, and I was simply making the point that this isn’t possible for the vast majority of people. Most butchers are buying meat from factories. Supermarket beef comes from factories. Any beef farmers I know buy their meat from the butcher or the supermarket same as everyone else. It’s a bit easier to source lamb directly from the farmer, but even this wouldn’t be the case for everyone.

maestroamado

jlm29 wrote: »

I know. And I really don’t think it’s a widespread practice. I don’t know anyone doing it. Someone else suggested that people should buy local from small farmers, and I was simply making the point that this isn’t possible for the vast majority of people. Most butchers are buying meat from factories. Supermarket beef comes from factories. Any beef farmers I know buy their meat from the butcher or the supermarket same as everyone else. It’s a bit easier to source lamb directly from the farmer, but even this wouldn’t be the case for everyone.

I have being saying for years that the farmers and butchers should have got together ans sell direct to public and compete, they say it would not work, they are also saying that what is happening now is not working.
I would much prefer buy meat from local butcher but they cannot compete with the big guns. Its called progress...

antseanoifig

Seems to be a lot of misinformation and lack of understanding around the environment in this type of factory. I am speaking from experience within a meat processing/packaging facility that supplies large chains across Ireland, the UK and the EU. Broad brushstrokes are being applied at will here.

Firstly - the company I work for employs everyone directly. We do not contract work out. We pay employers PRSI etc. Rates of pay are similar to entry level roles in the hospitality sector and retail sector which have recently reopened. However, all of our employees work 40 hours per week.

Now to the working envrionment.

Unfortunately it is by design and necessity to maintain the quality of meats that we work in an environment that facilitates the spread of any virus.

Strong cooling and ventilation is required to prevent contamination. e.g. E-Coli. Air speed in a factory is approx 10 times greater than a non chilled environment.

That's the next point - chilled. We are required by Bord Bia to keep the factory below a certain temperature to ensure production of safe meat to consume. Viruses tend to survive longer outside the body at colder temperatures. Conditions needed to keep meat safe are unfortunately the same conditions that Covid-19 thrives in.

It's physical work. Greater physical demands equals more exhalation and exertion. Again there is risk here. We made masks and visors mandatory mid March. We placed physical barriers/screens between employees on production lines. Staggered shifts, stagged breaks, rolled out a multi lingual campaign detailing measures to reduce risks of Covid-19 at work and at home. These are just some of the actions we have taken. There are 81 actions we have impletmented in total since mid-March 2020.

One of our biggest challenges has been trying to eductate and control what people do outside the factory grounds.

We have already had an audit in relation to Covid-19 protocols from DAFM and HSA, both of which went well.

Much of the risk is unavoidable. However it is possible to reduce the risk when transmission of the virus elsewhere in the community is low in the same way risk to nursing homes reduces in the same manner. Wider societal doubling down of efforts in relation to distancing, and washing and hygiene is needed. Not having a virus to introduce or at least having a very low 14 day incidence in the first place is our only hope.

The idea that if factories just close or take action X,Y and Z is too simplistic and not backed by evidence.

In fact here is some evidential reading from the outbreaks in Germany: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3654517