Items Tagged with 'Defense Production Act'

The Food and Drug Administration and USDA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding designed to help prevent interruptions at FDA-regulated food facilities, including fruit and vegetable processing, the agencies announced Tuesday.

In this opinion piece, Mike Espy, former secretary of agriculture and former Congressman from Mississippi, discusses that in order to have the “safest food supply in the world" we must remember that America’s bottom line is measured in the health and wellbeing of all of its people.

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says plants that have slowed operations or shut their doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic need to develop a plan to bring their facilities back online.

President Donald Trump defended his actions to end a “bottleneck” in the food supply, but legal experts differed over whether an executive order aimed at ensuring meatpackers keep operating amid the coronavirus pandemic could override state and local objections or make companies immune from lawsuits.

An executive order expected to be signed Tuesday at the White House would call on meatpacking plants to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic, but critics say it is forcing workers back into a dangerous environment.