USDA Offers Pork Companies A New Inspection Plan, Despite Opposition
Under new federal rules, pork companies can hire workers to do some tasks currently reserved for federal inspectors in hog slaughterhouses. Critics say it's a move toward privatization.
For the first time in half a century, the U.S. government just revised the way that it inspects pork slaughterhouses. The change has been long in coming. It's been debated, and even tried out at pilot plants, for the past 20 years. It gives pork companies themselves a bigger role in the inspection process. Critics call it privatization.
To understand the change, it's helpful to visualize a
