The USDA Wants to Increase Slaughterhouse Line Speeds, Despite the Risks

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has long set slaughterhouse line speeds, which are the speeds at which slaughterhouses are allowed to move animals through stunning, killing, butchering, and inspection. It’s important to have these safety standards in place for industry because higher line speeds harm animal welfare, food safety, public health, worker safety, and the environment. In short, higher line speeds mean higher risk for us all.

Big Ag industry groups like the Meat Institute have lobbied for years to increase or eliminate line speeds because higher speeds allow for higher production, which in turn facilitates higher profits. As a result, the USDA is now once again proposing rules that would allow for an even faster and more dangerous slaughtering process.

• Turkey slaughterhouses would be able to accelerate from 55 birds per minute to 60.

• Chicken slaughterhouses would be able to increase speeds from 140 birds per minute to 175.

• Pig slaughterhouses would be able to increase from a maximum line speed limit of 1,106 pigs per hour to removing all restrictions on how fast they are killed.

Organizations like the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) are fighting the government’s proposed rules that would further deregulate line speeds. This advocacy seeks to hold USDA accountable to its legal obligations to ensure food safety, worker safety, and animal welfare. It’s in everyone’s best interest – people and animals alike – to push back against these attempts to increase line speeds that clearly defy common sense.

Line speed increases can have a very real impact on people’s health. Does anyone think it’s a good idea to make factory farm meat even less safe? It could contain fecal matter and/or bacteria, which could cause food poisoning and other illnesses. Food safety inspectors could miss signs of disease, and the meat could be contaminated with foreign objects, like glass, plastic, or rubber. The USDA is sacrificing public health for industry profit, and we should all stand against these actions.

On top of that, chickens, pigs, and turkeys shouldn’t have to suffer more than they already do. But higher line speeds mean more animal suffering. Line speeds are already so fast that it is impossible for workers to keep up and meet humane handling legal requirements. Even faster line speeds will make matters worse. Likewise, line speeds are already too fast for effective stunning. Even faster line speeds will increase the risk that animals are alive and conscious when they are slaughtered – a horror that is hard for anyone to grapple with. We can and should do better by farmed animals.

Faster line speeds also mean slaughterhouse workers are at greater risk of severe cuts – even amputations. And constant, rapid, repetitive motions increase the likelihood of musculoskeletal strains and disorders. The animal agriculture industry discourages slaughterhouse workers, who tend to be members of economically and socially marginalized communities, from reporting injuries or seeking medical treatment. This leads to workers going without treatment for injuries sustained on the job. All workers are entitled to safe workplaces.

The environment and communities surrounding factory farms are heavily impacted by line speed increases. Higher line speeds would inevitably lead to the expansion of factory farming to produce even more meat to fill the pockets of Big Ag. The waste runoff from factory farms contaminates drinking water resources as well as neighboring lakes, streams, and rivers. The air pollution is noxious and dangerous to surrounding communities and fuels the climate crisis. More meat production also means more pollution from packaging, transporting, and distribution across the supply chain.

It’s clear that faster line speeds are bad for people, animals, and our planet as a whole. ALDF will continue to fight faster line speeds and hold the USDA accountable.