Speculation has risen all over social media about whether or not U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was arrested--- but the USDA has confirmed with Farm Journal that the story is not true.

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Online sites claimed that Vilsack was detained with allegations against him for the “demolition of agribusiness processing plants across the United States”.

People took to social media as the story began to spread about the former Iowa Governor’s whereabouts.

Snopes took a look at the article published by Real Raw News and says that the article played on a conspiracy theory that the uptick in fires at food processing plants in the U.S. was part of a “deliberate effort to create a food shortage”.

"I can confirm he was not," a USDA spokesperson confirmed to Farm Journal Monday morning. "This appears to be disinformation."

There have been more than a dozen fires at food-related facilities. According to a WCNC article, 11 of the fires have been ruled accidental and there are six currently under investigation.

** While the tweet does say 18, only 12 happened in the 6-month span and one was in Canada.

The latest of these fires was over the weekend at a Perdue Farms grain processing facility in Virginia.

Snopes says that the number of fires is not unusual, the causes were not suspicious, and the damage by the fire was minimal. According to the USDA, there are currently no nationwide shortages of food. However, in some cases, inventory may be low as stores restock.

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