USDA Proposes Raising Maximum Poultry Slaughter Line Speed to 175 Birds per Minute

U.S. Department of Agriculture released proposed rules in February that would allow poultry slaughtering facilities to kill 175 chickens per minute, up from the 140 currently allowed. Hog slaughtering facilities currently permitted to slaughter 1,106 pigs an hour would face no limit at all under the changes.

Some high-speed hog-slaughtering facilities have already been allowed to kill about 1,300 animals an hour. 4 billion pounds of poultry within five to 10 years of the rule’s enactment. The agency also projects an additional 500 million pounds of hogs slaughtered.

Patti Truant Anderson calculated that the extra poultry volume will require an additional 114 billion liters of water each year, equivalent to the volume of 45,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools. She determined the added poultry production will generate an additional 2 billion kilograms of CO2 emissions, equivalent to the annual emissions of 467,000 gasoline-powered vehicles.

Jill Mauer, who spent more than 30 years as a government meat inspector, submitted comments last month to the USDA warning that the proposals will endanger workers. “I am one of many meat inspectors who have raised concerns about the USDA’s efforts to increase line speeds through high-speed, reduced-inspection models and pilots.

Many inspectors feel they cannot speak openly about what they have seen,” Mauer wrote. U.S. slaughterhouse workers suffer an amputation, loss of an eye or other injury serious enough to require hospitalization every day according to data from the 29 states that report to OSHA.

Mauer wrote that at higher speeds there is less time to observe, less time to react, and less margin for error. “Inspectors may see issues—dressing defects, contamination, or signs of disease—but not have the time or support to fully address them before the next carcass arrives,” she stated. “As a mother of two, I see food safety as a matter of life and death.

Based on my direct experience, I believe these high speed models lead to lower-quality meat products and increase the likelihood that unsafe food reaches the public,” Mauer wrote. U.S. representatives submitted a letter on April 30 to the USDA calling for the agency to halt the proposal.

According to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, roughly 22,000 comments opposed the poultry line speed increase and 20,000 comments opposed the hog rule. Comments filed on behalf of more than 70 animal, environmental and farm advocacy groups stated that increased capacity at slaughterhouses will drive up pollution from the factory farms that supply them with pigs.

U.S. every year. “The faster you’re moving, the more likely it is an animal is not going to get stunned before their throat is slit, and sometimes they’re still going to be alive when they go into the scald tank,” Winders said.

Undercover investigations have exposed appalling conditions in a high-speed hog slaughter facility where pigs were pushed and dragged to their deaths. Amanda Hitt stated that rising temperatures are affecting slaughterhouses because misters used to cool animals are often turned off due to water shortages.

Hitt stated that extreme temperatures cause malfunctions in carbon dioxide machines used to stun pigs.

A worker at a plant told Hitt that all the pigs were coming out still conscious and workers had to shoot them with a pneumatic gun. In March, workers at a JBS-owned slaughtering plant in Greeley, Colorado, walked out on strike to protest working conditions. The walk-out at the JBS Greeley plant was the first at a meat processor in 45 years.

The UFCW represents 3,800 workers at the Greeley plant. Kim Cordova stated that among the concerns was JBS’s insistence that workers slaughter more animals at higher speeds. Cordova confirmed that the Greeley plant is running 420 or 430 head per hour, exceeding its regulated limit of 390 head per hour.

Workers at the Greeley plant struck a deal with JBS in April that included an initial 70-cent per hour pay raise. In 2019, the USDA granted waivers to processing plants that allowed them to speed up their slaughter lines. The USDA has approved waivers at certain beef slaughter establishments to evaluate a new beef slaughter inspection system.

The USDA stopped considering beef slaughter waiver applications in January 2026. ” The Food Safety and Inspection Service is categorically excluded from requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act. JBS subsidiary Pilgrim’s Pride was the single-biggest donor to President Donald Trump’s campaign.