Dermot Hayes, professor, was interviewed in a July 15 FarmWeekNow.com story, "Pork industry dealing with 'unintended consequences' of court ruling."
“There’s a thing called the law of unintended consequences in economics,” Hayes told the RFD Radio Network. “I don’t think the judge understood that. It (the decision to slow line speeds) is not good for worker safety” as many now face mandatory overtime or extra shifts.
Processing capacity is critical for the pork industry as it deals with growing demand, particularly from the export market.
“Nationwide, we have an issue in the beef industry and something similar is happening here,” Hayes said. “Taking away 2.5% of (pork processing) capacity takes market power away from independent producers and gives it to packers as their resource, packing plant capacity, becomes scarce.”
This story covered in
FarmWeekNow.com, July 15