Tag: Meatpackers

Is JBS Hack a Russian Ransomeware Attack, or Something More?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 4 Comments

When the news broke yesterday that the meat giant JBS (sometimes known by its previous name Swift) had been hit with a ransomeware attack that shut down meat processing in one of the largest meat processors in the world, my first thought was that if they have financial trouble I don’t care.

For over a decade I have reported, at my other blog Refugee Resettlement Watch, how Big Meat and Big Poultry are changing America’s heartland by being one of the largest drivers of the US Refugee Resettlement Program.

The work is dirty, wages low and turnover high so they need a never-ending supply of migrant laborers of all stripes including large numbers of Somali ‘refugees.’

This is a photo I took of JBS US headquarters in Greeley, CO when I drove around the country in 2016 to see how refugee resettlement was changing the character of American towns.  President Trump shocked JBS, Cargill, Tyson Foods and others when he slowed the flow of refugees to the US.  See many posts on the topic at RRW.  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/?s=JBS+Trump

 

Think about it!  A Brazilian-owned company is changing the demographic make-up of the United States!  And, when you buy their meat, you support changing America by changing the people.

And if that isn’t bad enough, since wages are so low, you also fund the social safety net that refugee workers are permitted to tap into.

Did you know that Smithfield Foods is owned by the Chinese?

Is that meat you enjoy worth it?  If you can’t live without beef, pork and chicken, I recommend finding a local source!

 

 

Here is the superficial story about what is going on, from Yahoo News:

JBS: Cyber-attack hits world’s largest meat supplier

 

The world’s largest meat processing company has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber-attack.

Computer networks at JBS were hacked, temporarily shutting down some operations in Australia, Canada and the US, with thousands of workers affected.

The company believes the ransomware attack originated from a criminal group likely based in Russia, the White House said.

The attack could lead to shortages of meat or raise prices for consumers.

[….]

~JBS is the world’s largest meat supplier with more than 150 plants in 15 countries

~It was founded in Brazil in 1953 as a slaughtering business by rancher José Batista Sobrinho

~The company now has more than 150,000 employees worldwide

~Its customers include supermarkets and fast food outlet McDonald’s

~In the US, JBS processes nearly one quarter of the country’s beef and one-fifth of its pork

[….]

JBS’s five biggest beef plants are in the US, and the shutdowns have halted a fifth of meat production there, according to Bloomberg.

[….]

Last month, fuel delivery in the south east of the US was crippled for several days after a ransomware attack targeted the Colonial Pipeline. Investigators say that attack was also linked to a group with ties to Russia.

Colonial Pipeline has confirmed it paid a $4.4m (£3.1m) ransom to the cyber-criminal gang responsible.

So that is the story for mainstream media consumption—Russian bad boys, just being bad boys—but is something else happening?

Knowing of my interest in meatpacking and  my interest in being prepared (or attempting to being better prepared!), Leo Hohmann directed me to this discussion yesterday at Ice Age Farmer.

It was just posted yesterday and is up to 37,000 views already:

Cyberpandemic Meets Food Supply

Watch it and consider the possibilities presented.  You shouldn’t be surprised as we have just experienced the Chinese Virus ‘crisis’ and how globalists have used it to disrupt the entire globe.

Is the food supply next?

Did Montana Dodge a Bullet When China Beef Plant Deal Went Bust?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

Or, if Biden, with his cozy relationship with the Chinese Communists, is installed in the White House, will it be back on the table?

“I guess in answer to your question, the China beef deal is not dead. It’s on hold and we’re still working on it.” 

(Montana Stockgrowers Association President Fred Wacker)

In 2017 beef producers thought they would be making a killing selling beef to China. In the end Trump mucked up both Republicans’ and Dems’ plans to invite China to Montana. https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/chinese-ecommerce-giant-strikes-300-million-montana-beef-deal/article_109ddb3c-90c6-562b-8748-71743ea5d561.html

 

I covered the news of Montana beef producers’ (with Republican Senator Daines apparent instigation) plans back in 2017 at Refugee Resettlement Watch and warned that if China built (or financed a slaughterhouse in the state of Montana) it would not be a source of employment for local low skilled workers, but would be a draw for more refugee labor.

I also said that I would expect the Chinese to send in many of their own workers as well.

Daines won reelection on November 3rd, but in the lead up to the contest, the Democrats blamed Daines (and Trump) for ruining the deal (so far at least!).

Montanans must be watchful because apparently snuggling up to do business with China is a joint venture of both political parties.

Here is the news from the Billings Gazette from October explaining where that deal stands now (emphasis below is mine):

Democrats brand beef deal a Daines blunder

 

The Montana Democratic Party says a trade-war-plagued sales agreement between the Montana Stockgrowers Association and online China grocer JD.com has all but fallen apart, for which Democrats blame U.S. Sen. Steve Daines.

In a press conference this week, Democrats said the agreement between the state’s largest cattle association and JD.com had produced nothing after three years. Three Montanans who currently own cattle or have owned cattle in the past shared their disappointment.

Trade disputes with China have stifled the sale. The Montana Stockgrowers Association said their agreement is still alive, despite a tough two years of trade disputes between the United States and China.

“This would have been a very big deal to us. We would have been able to sell 80,000 to 90,000 cattle through this deal to China,” said Ben Peterson, a Judith Gap-area rancher. “We should be able to count on our elected officials to keep their word, but Daines seems to not think so.”

The big deal Peterson referred to is a November 2017 agreement between the Montana Stockgrowers Association and JD.com, the world’s third-largest internet retailer behind Amazon and Google. The agreement stemmed from a meeting that September between Montana Stockgrowers Association President Fred Wacker and the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai.

A picture worth a thousand words. https://www.kulr8.com/news/montana-beef-to-china-takes-another-step-forward/article_b5e1156d-1a5d-544b-94bf-da7bf69da954.html

 

The meeting took place in Maudlow, northwest of Bozeman, and was arranged by Daines, who had presented a small cooler of Fred Wacker’s steaks to China Premier Li Keqiang during a trip to Beijing.

Rancher Fred Wacker

Wacker told Cui and members of the China Chamber of Commerce that the Stockgrowers wanted a sales agreement for Montana-branded beef. Those talks resulted in a memorandum of understanding between the Stockgrowers and JD.com for $200 million in cattle sales from January 2018 through the end of 2020.

Additionally, a $100 million investment in a Montana packing plant was part of the trade.

[….]

Several things have complicated the Stockgrowers’ beef agreement, President Trump being the first.

[….]

Further complicating the beef agreement was a shake-up of the JD.com hierarchy. The company’s president, Richard Liu, was accused of rape and arrested in Minnesota in August 2018. Liu was never charged, but a civil lawsuit followed. Liu resigned in late 2019.

[….]

Democrats didn’t mention JD.com’s scandal in their press conference. They focused on Daines supporting trade with China early, but more recently siding with Trump on the trade war. The senator’s support for China has been a part of the Democrats’ campaign messaging against Daines, as they promote the Senate candidacy of their own Steve, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

Democrats have branded Daines the “China Cheerleader,” at a time when U.S. sentiment toward China is low, particularly for Republicans. A Pew Research Center study in April found that 72% of Republicans had a negative view of China, as did 62% of Democrats.

[….]

Tyson was a potential processor for the first carcasses the Stockgrowers produced, a plan A, while the partners worked out the details of a meatpacking plant located in Montana. The packing plant plans got as far as siting potential locations.

[….]

“I guess in answer to your question, the China beef deal is not dead. It’s on hold and we’re still working on it,” Wacker said.

[….]

Former Montana U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat, worked for 11 years to get China’s ban [they had banned US beef—ed] dropped. Baucus left office to become U.S. ambassador to China in 2014. Daines took up the ban after winning the seat Baucus vacated. That continuity is crucial to Montana agriculture, Wacker said.

There is more here.  Read it all.

Watch for it! 

A China-loving Biden/Harris White House could easily make Montana the new home of a Chinese slaughterhouse!  Montana will get all the environmental problems along with the invasion of a socially and culturally disruptive migrant labor force!

One final note:  I say this all the time at RRW, if you want to eat beef, buy from a reputable local grower.  I traveled the West and Midwest a few years ago primarily to have a look at meat packing towns and the impact on the towns of refugee labor.  Do not support the BIG BEEF globalist meatpackers—a driving force for importing migrant labor.

Pro-Immigration Church Awarded $1 million from Tyson Foods

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

Grants are “given to organizations that are advancing the cause of lasting change for our society.”

(Tyson press release, September 1, 2020)

If you have followed Refugee Resettlement Watch for the last decade you know that Tyson Foods is one of a handful of BIG MEAT companies with global reach that depends heavily on low-skilled migrant workers for a constantly overturning workforce.

And, while we are all focused on the election, the Chinese Virus and burning cities (as we should be!), pro-immigrant churches (the religious Left) and other non-profits are continuing their quiet work of changing America by changing the people.

For more than you ever wanted to know about Tyson Foods, go here at RRW.

Earlier this year the Tyson Foods plant in Logansport, Indiana was closed due to a huge percentage of the workforce testing positive for the Chinese Virus. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nearly-900-workers-tyson-foods-plant-indiana-test-positive-coronavirus-n1197776

 

Now this, from the Wesleyan Church:

Immigrant Connection receives $1 million corporate donation

 

Tyson Foods announced on September 1 that Immigrant Connection (IC), a nonprofit affiliated with The Wesleyan Church, was one of five organizations “advancing the cause of lasting change for our society” awarded $1 million. The Equal Justice Initiative, The Executive Leadership Council, The National Urban League and The Smithsonian were the other four. IC was the only organization voted a recipient by Tyson Food team members.

Wow! Zach Szmara has a direct pipeline to God

“Apart from God, this is utterly unimaginable,” said Immigrant Connection Director Rev. Zach Szmara. “To even be in the same conversation as organizations like The National Urban League, The Executive Leadership Council, The Smithsonian and The Equal Justice Initiative is a witness to two profound truths I have learned — God has favorites, and immigrants are one of his ‘favorite four’ (the poor, the widow, the orphan and the foreigner living among us).

God absolutely loves seeing the marginalized lifted up in counter-cultural ways so he receives all the glory that he is due.”

An employee at Tyson Foods, which has a plant in Logansport, Indiana, where Szmara also pastors The Bridge Church [see photo above about the plant closure there—ed], relayed to Szmara that he has “never encountered anything like Immigrant Connection” — that IC is doing important work that is needed and is making a difference.

Twenty-one IC sites have been launched in Wesleyan churches within the U.S. since its inception in 2014. Two new locations are pending approval as IC sites with the U.S. Department of Justice.***

More than 8,000 immigrants from over 125 countries have been assisted through IC which has become the largest Protestant church-based immigrant legal aid organization in the United States.

More here.

***I did not know what this was about: “approval” from the DOJ?  So I looked around and found that the US Department of Justice has an entire branch that helps immigrants connect with legal services, see here.  I suspect there is federal grant money involved as well.

Surprise! Tyson Foods Lied about Extent of Chinese Virus Infections at Iowa Meat Plants

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

If you have been a follower of my other blog, Refugee Resettlement Watch, for the last dozen years you know that BIG MEAT is a big topic there as the global meat giants including Cargill, JBS Swift, Smithfield Foods, and Tyson Foods among others have a voracious appetite for cheap immigrant labor.

You also know that US Refugee Resettlement agencies are all too eager to help them continue to receive a steady flow of refugees (before Trump that is!).

Trump and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds can play kissy-face, but its Republican politicians like her who turn a blind eye to the meatpackers that in my opinion are nearly as bad as the Leftwingers!

So this story does not surprise me, but figured I would post it here at ‘Frauds and Crooks’ in case some of you don’t already know about BIG MEAT and refugees. And, because ‘Frauds and Crooks’ is the appropriate place to post this news!

Of course Leftwing media reports like this one are meant to skewer the Republican governor and the President, but after years of watching the global meat and poultry industry destroy American towns, I personally am not going to gloss over the fact that Republicans like this are destroying our culture and economy by sucking up to global companies.

Just a reminder, it was then Senator Jeff Sessions who publicly fingered meatpackers as major drivers of amnesty and more immigration to the heartland.

From the Associated Press:

Outbreak at Iowa pork plant was larger than state reported

 

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The first confirmed coronavirus outbreak at an Iowa meatpacking plant was far more severe than previously known, with more than twice as many workers becoming infected than the state Department of Public Health told the public, newly released records show.

The department announced at a May 5 news conference that 221 employees at the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Columbus Junction had tested positive for COVID-19.

But days earlier, Tyson officials told Iowa workplace safety regulators during an inspection that 522 plant employees had been infected to their knowledge, documents obtained through the open records law show.

A dozen of the plant’s roughly 1,300 workers were believed to have been hospitalized by then, and two died after contracting the virus, Tyson officials told the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The discrepancy adds to mounting questions that the state health department faces about its handling of public information during the pandemic. The department last week forced out its longtime spokeswoman, who said she was ousted for pushing hard to fulfill media requests and that the agency’s delays and scripted talking points were embarrassing.

The agency has also faced criticism for seeking to charge thousands of dollars for open records requests and for not routinely announcing outbreaks in workplaces, among other things. The department said it has “gone above and beyond to provide up-to-date and comprehensive information” to the public.

The early April outbreak in Columbus Junction was the first of several at meatpacking plants across the state as the virus spread through crowded workplaces.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds took a pro-industry approach to managing those outbreaks in Iowa, the top pork-producing state. She worked with executives to continue production even as thousands of workers became infected and some died, and she applauded President Donald Trump’s order to keep such plants open throughout the country.

More here.

Changing America by changing the people ….

See Reynolds says she wants more refugees in Iowa, here.

And see here that she received campaign donations from Tyson Foods lobbyist.

As I have said repeatedly, find a local source of meat and poultry and stop buying products from global corporations changing America for the almighty buck!

Made in America? No Better Time than Now to Investigate!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 11 Comments

There are some good things that will come from the Chinese virus crisis and one of those just could be a resurgence in the ‘Made in the USA Movement.’

Frankly, I wasn’t paying much attention to where my purchases were being produced, whether it was a new mattress or the food I’ve been putting in the freezer.

LOL! Our microwave quit a few months ago and my husband insisted we find one made in America. No luck after hours of research on the net and a phone call to our local appliance store. So now we get by the old fashioned way—without one!

However, the Smithfield Foods fiasco and the near complete dominance of China in many aspects of our consumer lives that has been revealed in recent weeks has me paying more attention.

Many of you may have seen a facebook post circulating which makes a couple of claims including these:

FOOD FROM CHINA… Smithfield Farms, the largest pork producing farm in the USA, was sold in September to China with the unanimous support of its stockholders! The hogs will still be raised here, but slaughtered and packaged for sale there before being sent back here.

[….]

Chickens

The same applies to many chickens. They can now be shipped there, but when they come back all that needs to be labeled is that they ‘WERE RAISED IN THE USA’. Not that they were processed in China!!!

This morning I wanted to see where the information was coming from and what was being said about it.

I don’t believe anything that the biased Snopes says, so I didn’t go there.  And, I am not saying that USA Today’s ” fact checkers” are any more reliable, but they did provide some information especially about the ownership of Smithfield Foods that appears legit.

LOL! But USA Today glossed over some of the other issues raised in the post.

By the way, it makes no sense to raise hogs here and ship them live to China for processing as the facebook post claims is happening.  Indeed that is why China bought at least one BIG MEAT company here—much easier to ship pork to China and elsewhere once it is packaged!

For readers of Refugee Resettlement Watch you might recall that China was looking to build and own a beef plant in Montana a couple of years ago.  It only makes sense to go where the cattle are still on the hoof and slaughter there!

I searched around and found an organization called “The Made in America Movement.”  I’m way out of my comfort zone on this topic so I can’t vouch for them, or others like them, but it is worth having a look!

So, now I am headed to the freezer to read some labels!