Stay at home order enacted statewide
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Gov. Roy Cooper today issued a stay at home order for the entire state of North Carolina, which will go into effect on Monday, March 30, at 5 p.m. The order is in effect for 30 days.
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What does this mean for me?
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If you work for a critical industry, such as agriculture, you may leave your house while traveling to and from work.
There are multiple exemptions for our industry, as follows:
- Essential infrastructure is exempt, and includes food and beverage “production and distribution,” which shall be interpreted broadly.
- Essential operations are exempt, and include food, beverage production and agriculture operations, including: “Food and beverage manufacturing, production, processing, and cultivation, including farming, livestock, fishing, forestry, baking, and other production agriculture, including cultivation, marketing, production, and distribution of animals and goods for consumption.”
- Essential activities are exempt, and by reference to previously issued federal guidance, include food and agriculture activities.
If you must travel to get to work, it will be helpful - but not necessary - to have documentation that explains your role as a critical employee in the agriculture sector, such as a worker badge, business card or payroll stub. Now is a good time to find that documentation and make plans to have with your while traveling.
In addition, you can print out one of the following documents for presentation to law enforcement if needed. These documents are not required and have no legal authority, but provide background information to a law enforcement officer.
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Please share this information with workers who may need assistance feeding children while school is out:
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The texting service is also available in Spanish by texting COMIDA to 877-877.
Read more
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O
ther helpful resources:
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Livestock haulers exempted from hours of service rules
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FMCSA exempted livestock haulers from compliance with federal Hours of Service rules that limit drive time until at least April 12 due to the COVID-19 emergency relief effort.
In addition, the emergency exemption includes relief from all the hours-of-service regulations in in 49 CFR, part 395, including the record keeping requirements. If there is an electronic logging device (ELD) in the truck, drivers have three options, DOT explains.
1. Use the “authorized personal use” (personal conveyance) function of the ELD to record all of the time providing direct assistance under the exemption. Use of this function will result in the time being recorded as off duty and requires an annotation.
2. Use the ELD in its normal mode and annotate the ELD record to indicate they were driving under the emergency relief exemption
3. Turn off the ELD, in which case the carrier would address the unassigned miles in accordance with the current regulation.
Drivers wishing to haul under this exemption are suggested to print out and keep in their cab a copy of the
Expanded Emergency Declaration
and a copy of the
FAQ document
that clearly draws the connection between the emergency declaration and livestock hauling, advises the Livestock Market Association (LMA).
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General Permit clarifications from DEQ:
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Annual report clarification:
The NC Pork Council asked for clarification regarding whether or not the annual report would be required for 2019 since the permit was only in effect for the last three months. This is the response: "...Regarding the request for clarification for Permit Condition III.18 of the 2019 Swine Waste Management System General Permit:
The annual report should cover the enter calendar year for 2019. DEQ will be notifiying the permittees that due to the COVID-19 virus and associated disruptions, the agency will accept an annual report for 2019 under Permit Condition III.18 for a covered facility as timely if the report is received by June 1, 2020."
See official letter
Waste Analysis Sample waiver due to COVID-19:
The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services requested a temporary waiver of the monitoring and reporting requirement for permitted animal waste systems due to the threat of COVID-19 exposure to laboratory workers. DEQ granted a waiver requirement until June 1, 2020. Between now and June 1, you have 90 days instead of 60 to submit a representative waste analysis sample.
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During this time of great uncertainty, please connect with
@NCPork on our social channels and help spread the message about using pork to stretch your family food dollar!
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Share your pork pride using #NCPorkProud
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