I would like to take the opportunity to respond to Rep. Doug Collins’s (R-Ga.) Op-Ed on Sept. 27, “Liberals shun science, defy Obama in poultry production.”
I led House Democrats in a letter to Sonny Perdue, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, demanding that the agency not propose a rule that would increase line speeds to the industry-preferred 175 birds per minute (bpm), or roughly 3 birds per second. I did not do so to “demonize economics” as Rep. Collins so creatively put it. Rather, I spoke up to raise my deep worker safety and food safety concerns.