Strome Business Minute With Dr. Jeff Tanner

Smithfield Foods announced the closure of a pork production facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota after hundreds of the company’s workers tested positive for the coronavirus. Nearly three hundred, or about 40% of the state’s seven hundred and thirty positive cases, are workers at the plant. The plant produces about eighteen million servings of pork a day, enough to feed about six percent of the US. The company had kept the plant open as other meat producing plants closed, following a three-day closure for deep cleaning and development of distancing policies, saying it was necessary to maintain the country’s meat supply. On Sunday, though, the company bowed to pressure from the South Dakota governor and others. Other plants closed around the country include one each owned by Tysons and Cargill and two belonging to JBS. To learn more, visit odu.edu/business. This Strome Business Minute is presented by the Strome College of Business at Old Dominion University.