Articles by Tom Polansek

Derecho Storm Leveled Soybean and Corn Fields, Storage Tanks Across Midwest

A storm packing hurricane-force winds last Monday impacted 37.7 million acres of farmland across the Midwest, including 14 million in Iowa, the Iowa Soybean Association said on Friday, citing estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The toll from the …

Claiming Plaintiff Farmer Not Ruined, Bayer Says Herbicide Verdict Should Be Tossed

Bayer AG contended in court papers that a jury verdict in favor of a Missouri peach farmer was based on a false premise because a private investigator it hired found the farmer was still in business. A jury in U.S. …

Absenteeism at Meatpacking Plants Tied to Workplace Safety Concerns

Smithfield Foods Inc. is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to work after a severe coronavirus outbreak, according to the workers’ union. Tyson Foods Inc. …

Court Rebuffs EPA, Blocks U.S. Sale of Dicamba-Based Herbicide by Bayer, Rivals

A U.S. appeals court has blocked Bayer AG from selling an agricultural weed killer in the United States, the latest setback for a business already fighting an expensive legal battle over another product. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. …

Tyson Foods to Close Iowa Meat Plant as More Workers Catch COVID-19

Tyson Foods Inc. said on Thursday it will temporarily close an Iowa pork plant due to the coronavirus pandemic, a month after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered slaughterhouses to stay open to protect the country’s food supply. Meat processors like …

Coronavirus Cases Surge in Reopened Colorado Beef Plant, Worker Dies

COVID-19 cases at a JBS meatpacking plant in Colorado have more than doubled “in a number of days” and a sixth employee died of the virus, a union official said on Thursday, underscoring the risks of U.S. meat plants reopening. …

Unions Push Back on Trump Plan to Order Meat Processing Plants to Stay Open

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered meat-processing plants to stay open to protect the food supply in the United States, despite concerns about coronavirus outbreaks, drawing a backlash from unions that said at-risk workers required more protection. With concerns about …

5,000 Meat, Food Plant Workers Exposed to Coronavirus, Union Says

More than 5,000 U.S. meat and food-processing workers have been infected with or exposed to the new coronavirus, and 13 have died, the country’s largest meatpacking union said on Thursday. The statistics reflect how the contagious respiratory illness has spread …

Meat Plant Closures, Absenteeism Rise With Workers’ Fear of Coronavirus, Lack of Safety

CHICAGO/WINNIPEG, Manitoba — At a Wayne Farms chicken processing plant in Alabama, workers recently had to pay the company 10 cents a day to buy masks to protect themselves from the new coronavirus, according to a meat inspector. In Colorado, …

EPA Again Declares Weedkiller Glyphosate Is Not Carcinogenic

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it finished a regulatory review that found glyphosate, the most widely used weed killer in the United States, is not a carcinogen. The conclusion reaffirms the agency’s stance on glyphosate, the key …