Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 3/8/21

The Agriculture Department’s internal watchdog is probing whether officials took adequate steps to protect food safety inspectors during the pandemic, after hundreds of federal employees were sickened and several died, our Liz Crampton reports.

How we got here: Early in the pandemic, when the coronavirus was tearing through major meatpacking plants, the White House ordered slaughterhouses to keep operating — purportedly to stave off potential meat shortages. But federal plant inspectors warned that USDA wasn’t doing enough to protect their health while they conducted food safety checks at those facilities.

Now, USDA’s Inspector General is investigating what actions the Food Safety and Inspection Service took to keep employees from getting sick on the job, as well as other questions raised by Senate Agriculture member Michael Bennet. The Colorado Democrat cited concerns about “federal actions that may have contributed to the spread of the virus in these facilities.”