Poultry Representatives in Chicken Suits Protest Vilsack

More than a dozen current and former meat inspectors attended 4th Congressional District Candidate Christie Vilsack's in Tuesday to ensure that she would be against proposals to privatize the meat inspection process. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which Vilsack's husband leads, has proposed a rule that would privatize part of the poultry inspection process cutting back on the number of government inspectors in processing plants.

Members of the American Federation of Government Employees said the measure would cut 800 inspection jobs across the nation and increase mistakes.

Some donned chicken suits for a protest outside Vilsack's Ames office but no one came into the press conference wearing one. 

Billy Ruddock, a former inspector who said he drove from Southern Missouri to participate, said the plan would replace government line inspectors with plant employees and just one USDA inspector would sit at the end of each line.

Chickens move down the line at three per second.

“We are supposed to catch what they miss,” Ruddock said, “It's not going to happen.”

Members of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection are also against the rule stating that it doesn't require company employees to receive the same training as a USDA inspector and companies will be left to inspect themselves with little government oversight. The Union said in a statement that it could lead to private inspections in the hog and beef industry.

The USDA has said workers would sort carcases on their own giving inspectors more time to focus on food safety-related activities.

See a copy of the proposed rule here. And make a comment here.

During the press conference, Deborah Bunka, a member of Occupy Ames, asked Vilsack to clarify her position on allowing producers and processors to inspect their own poultry and police themselves.

“Sure let me read my statement,” Vilsack said.

Bunka then said that she didn't think that it was a very clear statement.

“I thought it was very clear,” Vilsack said and proceeded to read what follows below:

“We must ensure that our food is inspected and produced safely. In addition, we must ensure that those working in agriculture and food processing have safe working conditions. Before any changes are made to the way poultry is inspected, we need to ensure that workers aren’t being placed in danger and that the safety of our food is not compromised. In addition, we should not privatize jobs. There are inherent concerns with allowing companies to inspect themselves, especially with an increase in line speeds that could make inspection more difficult and raise safety issues. I look forward to learning more about this issue and talking with those most affected by it.”

Vilsack said she planned to visit with people working on the lines and get into the plants before speaking on it in more depth. And said that she would make her decisions independent of her husband, Tom Vilsack.

“This is something I care about and I'm going to look into it,” Vilsack said.

Trent Berhow, Midwest Council of Food Inspection Locals president, told Vilsack that he was from Kiron, Iowa Congressman Steve King's home, “You had me at I'm running against Steve King,” he said.

Berhow said he had 10 former and current poultry inspectors in the room with him.

“We can tell you all about it,” Berhow said adding that eliminating the number of inspectors would not increase food safety.