The GOP has enough votes to scrap Obamacare and DACA. Presently, the current government is on a path to scrap another law from the Obama era. Republican lawmakers, together with chicken industry lobbying agents, are aggressively calling for an end to the current industry practice of counting chicken at a fixed, regulated speed. President Obama rejected the demand during his tenure to ensure that food isn’t contaminated and to lower the number of injuries among workers.
What are the current line speeds?
The current limit is set at 140 chickens per minute.
The National Chicken Council says that the current limit is a major bottleneck to the industry. The NCC has asked the USDA for factories to be allowed to count at any speed they deem fit. During Obama’s tenure, the USDA forwarded a plan to take the counting speeds to 175 birds a minute. The current speed has lowered the number of injuries among workers and incident reports have fell over the last 10 years.
Increasing the speed may increase work-related injuries
The proposed changes have faced sharp criticism on multiple fronts. Experts are of the opinion that the speed of 140 birds per minute is itself dangerous. Any further increase would only increase the chance of injury and amputations amongst workers.
Workers, many of whom work under dangerous conditions, would face much greater risks should the counting process be sped up.
Senator Doug Collins pushes for reform
Debbi Berkowitz, from the National Employment Law Project, elaborated, "There's no data to support that this would be safe. And even at existing line speeds, it's extremely unsafe."
Doug Collins, a Senator from Georgia, is particularly interested in the law being removed and de-regulating the industry.
Senator Collins is very hopeful that scrapping old laws would immensely benefit the many poultry farms located in Georgia. Lobbyists have pushed for changes not only for chicken farms but even for the pork industry. The current demand is to increase the line speed from 1000 to 1300 hogs per minute.
Increasing line speeds or hog speeds may increase the chances of food-borne disease
Food-safety advocates are of the opinion that any such change would increase the risk of food-borne diseases. The Trump administration being pro-industry and a fan of deregulation all increase the likelihood of the proposed changes being voted into law. Only time will tell.
