A new rule in the US would eliminate food inspectors and lift limits on how quickly pigs can be killed. The impact on workers, animals and consumers would be disastrous

The Trump administration has proposed a radical change in food safety protection. They’re misleadingly calling it the “Modernization of swine slaughter inspection rule”, but what it really does is roll back progress on protecting the public from serious and sometimes fatal diseases such as salmonella.

The proposal drastically reduces the number of trained government food inspectors in pork plants, turns over food safety functions to untrained plant managers, and by allowing for an unlimited increase in slaughter line speeds, puts public health, worker safety and animal welfare at risk.

Over the past few decades, the public has increasingly relied on the government to assure that, when it comes to food safety, the meat-packing industry won’t cut corners and endanger the health of our kids, our families and our communities. But the Trump administration has a different view of how much protection we all deserve.