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By all accounts, they made employees go back to work with inadequate safeguards. This is a some real chutzpah. Read https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/us/tyson-wate

By all accounts, they made employees go back to work with inadequate safeguards. This is a some real chutzpah. Read https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/us/tyson-waterloo-iowa-plant-employees-coronavirus/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/us/tyson-waterloo-iowa-plant-... for background (or https://www.propublica.org/article/what-happens-if-workers-cutting-up-the-nations-meat-get-sick https://www.propublica.org/article/what-happens-if-workers-c... a little further back)

karmicthreat 7y ago
All food production is a pretty terrible place to work. The only exceptions might be highly automated foods like diary and egg processing.
- strict9 7y ago
  Probably true for meat-based food production. But the Beyond Meat facility isn't the same miserable hellscape for employees: >“You can come to our facility anytime,” Brown said in an interview on Tuesday. “Don’t call me, just knock on the door. I invite you to do the same with all of Chipotle’s meat-processing facilities. They won’t let you, and if they did, you wouldn’t want to see it.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/no-beyond-burrito-chipotle%E2%80%99s-ceo-says-faux-meat-is-too-processed/ar-AAENrSA https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/no-beyond-burrito-...
jameslevy 7y ago
Are there startups working on food-specific robotics automation? I've seen things like pizza and burger preparation, but nothing I can think of beyond that.
- lancewiggs 7y ago
  Food processing automation is the standard way of doing business - think about each item on the supermarket shelf, and how it got there. Essentially nothing is hand-made and as you go up in volumes you tend towards 24/7 factory operations. And of course there are efficiencies to be gained at scale. Robots tend to be for lower-volume activities. There is always work been done - for example on delicate fruit there are a host of companies and machines that do things like sorting and even picking. https://www.compacsort.com https://www.compacsort.com is a good example. Robots tend to be for lower-volume: https://www.roboticsplus.co.nz/robotic-apple-packing https://www.roboticsplus.co.nz/robotic-apple-packing But for foods like potatoes the sorting machinery is pretty simple as spuds are easy to handle. On the farm there are lots of solutions for automating the various process they have. The larger the farm the more is automated. For example on a dairy farm you'll see milking machines that range from expensive robots (small, European farms) that allow no-touch operation, to inline or rotary milkers that allow decent volume with low/no touch etc. https://www.waikatomilking.com/products/milking-parlors/rotary-platforms/orbit/ https://www.waikatomilking.com/products/milking-parlors/rota...
legitster 7y ago
> Tyson also implemented a system several weeks ago to check the temperatures of all employees entering the Waterloo facility, using infrared technology to scan their faces as they arrive to work. > Tyson said it installed plastic or plexiglass dividers along the cafeteria tables where employees eat lunch. Two employees said the cafeteria dividers probably helped to an extent, but they stressed that the cafeteria is always very crowded. >The production line worker said the company provided bandanas at one point, but she said her colleagues who utilized them complained they were cheaply made and started fraying right away. It sounds like they were trying to do something, but it's just really hard to keep ahead of this thing. I think food work is just fundamentally less safe right now.
- milkytron 7y ago
  They were willing to do some things so long as they didn't slow production. But when their work force starts decreasing, they start losing options.

karmicthreat 7y ago

All food production is a pretty terrible place to work. The only exceptions might be highly automated foods like diary and egg processing.

strict9 7y ago
Probably true for meat-based food production. But the Beyond Meat facility isn't the same miserable hellscape for employees: >“You can come to our facility anytime,” Brown said in an interview on Tuesday. “Don’t call me, just knock on the door. I invite you to do the same with all of Chipotle’s meat-processing facilities. They won’t let you, and if they did, you wouldn’t want to see it.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/no-beyond-burrito-chipotle%E2%80%99s-ceo-says-faux-meat-is-too-processed/ar-AAENrSA https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/no-beyond-burrito-...

jameslevy 7y ago

Are there startups working on food-specific robotics automation? I've seen things like pizza and burger preparation, but nothing I can think of beyond that.

lancewiggs 7y ago
Food processing automation is the standard way of doing business - think about each item on the supermarket shelf, and how it got there. Essentially nothing is hand-made and as you go up in volumes you tend towards 24/7 factory operations. And of course there are efficiencies to be gained at scale. Robots tend to be for lower-volume activities. There is always work been done - for example on delicate fruit there are a host of companies and machines that do things like sorting and even picking. https://www.compacsort.com https://www.compacsort.com is a good example. Robots tend to be for lower-volume: https://www.roboticsplus.co.nz/robotic-apple-packing https://www.roboticsplus.co.nz/robotic-apple-packing But for foods like potatoes the sorting machinery is pretty simple as spuds are easy to handle. On the farm there are lots of solutions for automating the various process they have. The larger the farm the more is automated. For example on a dairy farm you'll see milking machines that range from expensive robots (small, European farms) that allow no-touch operation, to inline or rotary milkers that allow decent volume with low/no touch etc. https://www.waikatomilking.com/products/milking-parlors/rotary-platforms/orbit/ https://www.waikatomilking.com/products/milking-parlors/rota...

legitster 7y ago

> Tyson also implemented a system several weeks ago to check the temperatures of all employees entering the Waterloo facility, using infrared technology to scan their faces as they arrive to work. > Tyson said it installed plastic or plexiglass dividers along the cafeteria tables where employees eat lunch. Two employees said the cafeteria dividers probably helped to an extent, but they stressed that the cafeteria is always very crowded. >The production line worker said the company provided bandanas at one point, but she said her colleagues who utilized them complained they were cheaply made and started fraying right away. It sounds like they were trying to do something, but it's just really hard to keep ahead of this thing. I think food work is just fundamentally less safe right now.

milkytron 7y ago
They were willing to do some things so long as they didn't slow production. But when their work force starts decreasing, they start losing options.