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Employees at a Smithfield pork processing plant in South Dakota where a coronavirus outbreak infected more than 800 people were greeted at work May 20 with thank you signs, cheers and waves from about a dozen area residents.

Meat-processing disruptions in America are set to strip billions of pounds of production, snapping a yearslong run of growth in the industry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

China is stepping up purchases of soybeans from the U.S. as Brazilian sales start to wane and the Asian nation seeks to meet its pledges under the trade deal with Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said he expects U.S. meatpacking plants to fully resume operations within a week to 10 days, during a meeting with President Donald Trump and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

A South Dakota pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening May 4 after being shuttered for more than two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak that infected more than 800 employees.

Big meatpacking companies that have struggled to keep plants running during the coronavirus crisis said April 29 that they welcomed President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring them to stay open, but unions, some employees and Democrats questioned whether workers could be kept safe.

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order April 28 meant to stave off a shortage of chicken, pork and other meat on American supermarket shelves because of the coronavirus.

The mass culling of America’s hog herd is starting as a wave of shutdowns at processing plants creates livestock gluts that farmers can no longer sustain.

Meat isn’t going to disappear from supermarkets because of outbreaks of the coronavirus among workers at U.S. slaughterhouses. But as the meat plants struggle to remain open, consumers could face less selection and slightly higher prices.

It’s no longer just the U.S. that’s facing a meat scare. Top exporter Brazil is seeing its first plant shutdown, meaning the coronavirus is now snarling supplies from arguably the world’s most critical producer.