Cargill “straddles the global food and agriculture-supply chains
Today’s post is by Gayl Southard, Administrative Consultant for SafeSourcing.
David MacLennan, Chief Executive of Cargill, Inc., a 155-year-old company with 155,000 employees in 70 countries, steered one of the world’s largest food suppliers through COVID 19’s world-wide spread this past spring. Cargill “straddles the global food and agriculture-supply chains, processing farmers’ crops, packing meat and distributing sugar, salt, cotton and other commodities. Its plants supply some of the world’s biggest consumer brands, supermarket chains and restaurants.”1. In the spring meatpackers fell sick by the thousands. Practices to adapt to the pandemic were implemented. Partitions between process-line work stations were installed, workers temperatures were taken routinely, masks were required, and spaced out seating in break rooms was provided. As the virus is on the rise once again, MacLennan has urged employees to follow similar guidelines in their homes.
McLennan stated he visited one of the beef facilities recently and said it was running at 98% capacity. That is a huge improvement from last spring where many meat plants had to shut down. He believes people are more informed now. Although MacLennan realizes the vaccines will be issued to the health workers, the vulnerable population, the elderly, and people with pre-exiting conditions, he is advocating that essential workers (including the supply chain workers) should be right at the top.
MacLennan stated that people are becoming more aware of the food supply chain going back to the farmers, the ranchers, and the manufactures of ingredients, Before the pandemic, most people didn’t think that way.
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References……………………………………………….
1 Jacob Bunge, WSJ, 11/25/2020
