Smithfield pork plant latest to close amid coronavirus, raising more concerns about U.S. food supply

Smithfield Foods has closed a pork-processing plant in South Dakota, after hundreds of employees tested positive for the coronavirus, raising concerns about the county’s food supply.

The Virginia-based company made the announcement Sunday about its Sioux Falls plant – after the mayor and GOP Gov. Kristi Noem urged Smithfield to close the plant for 14 days, according to the Associated Press. 

The Sioux Falls plant is one of the largest pork processing plants in the country. The Agriculture Department says it has yet to find evidence that the virus can be transmitted through food. But the closure of the Smithfield plant and other similar ones – including a Tyson Foods facility in Iowa – is raising concerns about the U.S. food supply as workers continue to test positive for the virus.

“The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,” Smithfield president and CEO Kenneth Sullivan said in a statement, according to the wire service. “It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running. These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers.”