Broadening Slaughterhouse Inspections
SHIVA M. SETHI* TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.................................................................. 624
I. FSIS INSPECTIONS OF POULTRY AND MEAT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
A. HISTORY OF MEAT INSPECTION LAWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
B. FSIS PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
C. THE PIVOT TO PATHOGENS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
II. OSHA INSPECTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
A. HISTORY OF OSHA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
B. OSHA PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
C. OSHA ENFORCEMENT OF MEAT AND POULTRY PLANTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
D. CASE STUDIES OF OSHA’S LACK OF POWER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
III. PROPOSAL................................................................ 642
A. BROADENING THE DEFINITION OF FOOD SAFETY AND IMPROVING
ENFORCEMENT AT THE INTERSECTION OF MEAT AND WORKER
SAFETY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
B. COMPENSATING FOR SLAUGHTERHOUSE POWER IMBALANCES . . . . . . . 644
IV. COUNTERARGUMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
A. SUPERVISION, AGENCY CAPTURE, AND OVERBURDENING INSPECTORS. . . . 646
B. CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE UNDER THE FIFTH AMENDMENT. . . . . . 647
CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
* Georgetown Law, J.D. 2024; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A. 2017. © 2025,
Shiva M. Sethi. This Note neither reflects the opinions of the author’s current employer, nor those of any
of his past employers. I am deeply thankful for the many people who helped make this Note possible.
Thank you to Lisa Heinzerling, Mark Gaston Pearce, Eloise Pasachoff, Brishen Rogers, Debbie
Berkowitz, and Parthapratim Basu. I am grateful to each of the Staffers and Editors who worked on this
Note, including Sydney Cherry, Josh Peck, Maria Lowe, Sara Brizio, Leah Hebron, Karen Enomoto, Ian
Lynch, Angie Lai, Taylor Torres, Tori Farrington, Zoe Ades, Zoe Berndt, Veronica Hayes, Valentina
Rodriguez, Adam Soliman, Alex Cubas, Alex Zutt, Alina Arango, Allyson Rosenblum, Amritha
Ramalingam, Austin Yanoti, Avery Engleman, Bella Edo, Devin Mendelson, Jasmine Donohue-O
¨zyar,
Garrett Mayo, Freedom Gobel, and Yasmeen Rose. Finally, thank you to my incredible fiance
´e, Marcia
Brown, for her thoughtful feedback and unfailing support.
623
INTRODUCTION
On September 3, 1991, a fire erupted inside a poultry plant in Hamlet, North
Carolina.
1
John Drescher, The Forgotten Lessons of the Hamlet Fire, THE ASSEMBLY (Sept. 1, 2021), https://
www.theassemblync.com/politics/the-forgotten-lessons-of-the-hamlet-fire/ [https://perma.cc/5HH2-
J6FD].
Workers ran for the exits, but they were trapped by doors locked from
the outside, without sprinklers or an evacuation plan.
2
Twenty-five workers died.
3
In the eleven years that the plant was in operation, a worker safety inspector had
never visited.
4
Id.; Anna Diamond, The Deadly 1991 Hamlet Fire Exposed the High Cost of “Cheap,”
SMITHSONIAN MAG. (Sept. 8, 2017), https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deadly-1991-hamlet-
fire-exposed-high-cost-cheap-180964816/ [https://perma.cc/6GHU-TGFG].
In contrast, a meat safety inspector had been there every day and
had approved locking a door, ostensibly to keep flies out.
5
Conflict between over-
lapping regulatory systems had deadly consequences in 1991, and similar con-
flicts continue to regularly occur.
Slaughterhouses contain two radically different safety regimes: one for meat,
and another for workers. This Note compares the ever-present inspections
performed by the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection
Service (FSIS) and the never-present inspections of the Department of Labor’s
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Both inspection
regimes fall short. To improve them, Congress should require FSIS meat
inspectors in slaughterhouses to identify and enforce violations of federal
workplace safety laws.
The American meat
6
industry was in crisis during the height of the COVID-19
pandemic.
7
Jodi Schwan, Smithfield to Close Sioux Falls Plant Indefinitely, SIOUXFALLS.BUS., https://www.
siouxfalls.business/smithfield-to-close-sioux-falls-plant-indefinitely/ [https://perma.cc/EQQ2-72NN]
(last visited Dec. 30, 2024).
In the second week of April 2020, Smithfield, the largest pork proces-
sor in the country, closed a plant in South Dakota because of COVID-19.
8
Seth Millstein, The Top Pork Producer in the U.S. Is Owned by China, But Harming Local
Communities, SENTIENT MEDIA (Feb. 26, 2024), https://sentientmedia.org/top-pork-producing-states/
[https://perma.cc/CK3W-H8J9]; Schwan, supra note 7.
That
plant accounted for approximately 4%–5% of U.S. pork production.
9
During the
week of April 25, 2020, production of beef, pork, and chicken declined by 13%,
compared to the same week one year prior.
10
Meat prices for producers cratered
soon after.
11
Following public outcry and pressure from elected officials, the
President issued an executive order designating the meat and poultry supply chain
1.
2. Id.
3. Id.
4.
5. Drescher, supra note 1.
6. In this Note, meat refers to both poultry (such as chicken, turkey, and duck) and the things
traditionally included in the definition of meat (such as beef, pork, and mutton).
7.
8.
9. Schwan, supra note 7.
10. JOEL L. GREENE, CONG. RSCH. SERV., IN11366, COVID-19 DISRUPTS U.S. MEAT SUPPLY;
PRODUCER PRICES TUMBLE 2–3 (2020).
11. See id. Producer prices for beef, pork, and chicken each declined by 10%, 18%, and 29%,
respectively. Id. at 2.
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