Officials in Iowa recently approved incentives for Tyson Foods to assist the company with renovations on the kill floor of its pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa.
The Iowa Economic Development Authority approved $540,000 in renovations for the plant’s killing floor, the Des Moines Register reports. The company is planning to update the kill floor with controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) instead of the electrical stunning it currently uses.
Tyson said they will spend about $15 million to make the renovation, rearranging parts of the plant and buying some new machines. Additionally, 10 new people will be hired to handle the new procedure, the Des Moines Register reports.
Liz Croston, company spokesperson, says controlled atmosphere stunning is used in most of Tyson’s pork operations.
“We’ve done extensive research into the use of CAS and found it to be an acceptable alternative to electrical stunning. Our Louisa County plant is the final pork plant to implement this process, and the positions associated with the tax credits are related to implementing the CAS process at the facility,” Croston says.
During the same meeting where the incentives were approved for the Columbus Junction project, funds were canceled that were originally promised in 2018 to upgrade the chilling system at the processor’s pork plant in Perry, Iowa. Meatingplace reports that the incentive agreement was for $674,000, but because Tyson didn’t meet the hiring requirements for the funds, they were never dispersed.
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