Next time you think to yourself, “I’m dying for cheeseburger,” think about this: There are slaughterhouse workers actually dying so Big Meat companies can keep selling their burger meat to grocery stores and fast-food chains.

According to the Food & Environmental Reporting Network’s latest numbers, 168 slaughterhouse workers have died from COVID-19 and another 27,000 have tested positive.

Who’s responsible? Five, huge, billionaire-owned companies—and the politicians they’ve bought off so they can keep their plants running, without having to keep workers safe.

As the Union of Concerned Scientists reported, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is one of those politicians looking out for Big Meat, not workers:

“Secretary Perdue’s alignment with big corporate interests over the public interest has been clear for a while. But his knee-jerk reaction to this case, along with related pending actions at his USDA, suggests that he is willing to throw workers, farmers, rural residents, consumers, and clean air and water overboard to protect Big Pork’s bottom line.”

Meatpacking workers should be protected, no question. But the real solution is to transition those workers to better paying, safer jobs in an organic regenerative food and farming system, or some other industry.

Meanwhile, how can consumers help? 

#BoycottBigMeat. Buy 100% grass-fed and pastured meat from small producers who work within a network of smaller, more humane (for animals and workers) processing facilities.

And stay away from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and the like.

Watch ‘Behind Closed Doors . . . in America’s Meat Processing Plants’

CHECK THIS OUT: Find grass-fed and pasture-raised meat and animal products near you