##PREHEADER##

JAFSCD logo

March 13, 2025

from the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development

 

JAFSCD is the world’s only community-supported journal. JAFSCD content is open access (free) thanks to the generous support of our shareholders: the JAFSCD Shareholder Consortium, Library Shareholders, a growing number of Individual Shareholders, and our six JAFSCD Partners:

Kwantlen Polytechnic University
University of Vermont
John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
Inter-institutional network for food, agriculture, and sustainability
Center for Environmental Food Systems
University of North Carolina Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
 

How the sausage is made: Swine processing line speeds and worker well-being

 

JAFSCD policy and practice brief by Kelsey Crawford & Patti Truant Anderson (Johns Hopkins Center for a Liveable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)

Photo of uncooked porter sausages.

In a new JAFSCD article, Policy and practice brief on the 2019 New Swine Inspection System, line speeds and workers, authors Kelsey Crawford and Patti Truant Anderson present findings from a literature review on the implications of unlimited line speeds on swine processing line workers’ safety and well-being. The authors provide context for the USDA’s 2019 New Swine Inspection System, which revoked maximum line speeds in swine processing plants, and the later established trials of unlimited line speeds. Crawford and Anderson note strong evidence supporting that higher line speed is associated with higher worker perceptions of injury risk, lower worker well-being, and higher risk of injuries from repetitive tasks. Additionally, the authors ground the brief with quotes from line workers who are concerned about their safety and oppose increases to line speeds.

 

SHARE ON YOUR SOCIALS

Six U.S. swine processing plants are currently operating with no maximum line speed cap. Workers are concerned about their safety and are fighting the increase. In this policy and practice brief, authors from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future present an argument for maximum line speeds caps using data on increased line speed and worker safety and well-being. They frame their discussion using 2019 New Swine Inspection System and the evolution of line speed policies that affect the meat industry and its workers. Read the @JAFSCD policy and practice brief for free at https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2025.142.003

 

Photo above: Uncooked porter sausages; image by Flickr user Pekka Nikrus and used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

SPECIAL JAFSCD SHAREHOLDER SECTION

 
Farm to Institution Summit by FINE
INFAS Virtual Summit Ad: April 28, 2025 3-5 PM EST. Click to register.
 

Agricultural Economics

Assistant Extension Specialist

in Farm Viability

Rutgers University logo

The successful candidate will develop and lead externally funded research and extension programs that support and strengthen the viability of the New Jersey agricultural sector and individual farms. Through active engagement with the agricultural community, the Specialist will identify existing and emerging opportunities and needs, conduct applied research to assess what technical assistance and policies would help farmers take advantage of these opportunities, and provide educational outreach in the agricultural community across different scales of operation, commodities, and production systems.

 

CLICK HERE  FOR MORE DETAILS OR TO APPLY

 
https://www.psu.edu/

The Department of Agricultural Economics

Rural Sociology, and Education (AESE) Extension Program Specialist

The Department of Agricultural Economics, Rural Sociology, and Education (AESE) at The Pennsylvania State University is seeking candidates for an Extension Program Specialist who will conduct Extension programs, develop enterprise budgets, and create and update publications for the Penn State “Ag Alternative” series. The role includes supporting research projects and offering expert advice on risk management. The candidate will effectively build solid connections with stakeholders and their organizations. This position requires a master’s degree plus three years of relevant experience or equivalent work experience.

 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS OR TO APPLY

 

SEEKING NEW JAFSCD PARTNERS

The cover of JAFSCD's summer 2016 issue featured staff of The Common Market.

JAFSCD Seeks Additional Partners to Maximize Its Transformative Impact

JAFSCD would appreciate your assistance in finding one or more new JAFSCD Partners to support its transformative work — emphasizing accessibility, equity, and engagement, and progressive editorial policies such as triple-rigor* and positionality or reflexivity statements.

 

Other JAFSCD efforts include our Food Policy and Practice Briefs program, Voices of the Grassroots essays, author mentorship programs, and the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Editorial Circle and its new quarterly column.

 

The additional income from additional partners (@ US$10,000 annually) would support these efforts and allow us to bring a new editor-in-chief on board. This is an advantageous time, as we are preparing to migrate JAFSCD to a new peer-review and publishing platform (Scholastica).

 

We would like additional JAFSCD Partners to join our current prominent partners:

  • Food Systems Research Center at The University of Vermont
  • Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
  • Kwantlen Polytechnic University's Institute for Sustainable Food Systems
  • The Inter-institutional Network for Food, Agriculture and Sustainability (INFAS)
  • Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) & the University of North Carolina Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (in a joint partnership)

We’d like to recruit a partner in the Midwest or West Coast of the U.S., as well as one outside of North America. Moreover, we would like to add a national or international nonprofit organization, especially one that represents the interests of less privileged voices.

 

Please contact Duncan Hilchey if you are engaged with an organization that might be interested in becoming an ongoing JAFSCD Partner. He can provide additional information to share with colleagues or you can share this info sheet.

 

JAFSCD has great potential to contribute to a better world, and having a talented editor-in-chief is a key to unleashing it. Please help us find one or two new JAFSCD Partners to make this happen.

 

* Credit for the triple-rigor concept goes to the late Christine Porter of the University of Wyoming; see her 10-minute presentation here.

 

This email is sent to you as a notification of the newest JAFSCD articles and other occasional JAFSCD news.

Were you forwarded this JAFSCD News Flash and you'd like to join the mailing list? Sign up here!

JAFSCD is an open access, community-supported journal! Your library, program, or organization can become a shareholder to help keep JAFSCD's content available to all, regardless of their resources. We welcome anyone to become an individual shareholder; donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Center for Transformative Action

JAFSCD is published by the Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems, a project of the Center for Transformative Action (an affiliate of Cornell University). CTA is a 501(c)(3) organization that accepts donations on our behalf.


Click here to unsubscribe. | Click here to forward
View this email as a web page
Message sent by JAFSCD, info@jafscdcommunity.org
JAFSCD Community | Center for Transformative Action | P.O. Box 760 | Ithaca, NY 14851