Fast food nation hw 7c

Chapter 7

Précis: In Greenely, Colorado the meat packing industry is not benefiting the community. The air smells of rotting slaughterhouse waste, and the low paying jobs result in violent, drugged up neighborhoods. ConAgra, the company who runs the largest meat packing complex in the nation takes as many short cuts as needed to create large amounts of hefty cattle as quick as possible. The company is completely unconscious of how their get rich quick system is effecting the environment around them. In 1906 The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was published, in his book the made accusations that meat processing plants housed many unsafe and unsanitary conditions for the workers, this raised public awareness. In 1960 the Iowa Beef Packers opened they used the same speedy principle as McDonalds. Throughout the slaughter house there were assembly lines, they only had to teach each person one skill, therefore saving time and money. The next “improvement” to the industry was to move the slaughterhouses in rural areas closer to the feedlots, and further away from any labor unions that would question the methods of employment. Following the change in location, meat grinders were introduced to the slaughter houses this drove small processors and wholesalers out of the business, transforming the meat industry. Over the past two decades ConAgra has not kept their hands clean, they have paid millions of dollars in fines for attempting to cheat ranchers out of profits. More and more meat packers are immigrants from regions such as Mexico and Central America; this increases the employee turnover rate and decreases the amount of pay the company gives to each employee. The placement of meat packing factories greatly affects the future outcome of the neighborhood in which they are placed. And the company has no idea.

Gems/thoughts: The idea that the meatpacking companies were wise enough to move the slaughterhouses to more beneficial locations. “In addition to creating a mass production system that employed a de-skilled workforce, IBP put its new slaughterhouses in rural areas close to the feedlots—and far away from the urban strongholds of the nation’s labor unions” (154) I think this is an important concept and the same idea can be applied to fast food restaurants. I am sure that fast food companies are moving their franchises closer to school, and in neighborhoods of lesser income, as well as many other strategic areas.

Chapter 8

Précis: In the large chilly room there is nothing that would seem unusually to the typical American, but as the tour continues down the assembly line (which very much resembles the potato factory) there is a change in mood. There is meat hanging from hooks and young Latino women cutting slabs off at the meat comes towards them. The kill floor quite different here its hot and humid and the workers are holding saws and are cutting cattle in half and there are cows hung by there hooves swinging around in the air. There are men pulling the insides out of cows, and the blood on the floor is ankle deep. At the start of the assembly line cows are getting stunted, then the necks get cut and gallons of blood fall all over the cutter. The amount of blood on the floor makes it very easy for a worker to slip and fall onto the concrete floor resting beneath the blood. Every year approximately 40,000 workers suffer an injury or illness that requires more then just first aid. Meat packing is now the most dangerous job in the United States. Pressure is put on floor managers and workers to slaughter and process as much cattle as they can in a given day, so many injuries are not reported. Even during after hours in the slaughter house there are numerous injuries amongst the clean crew workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administrations role in the meat packing industry has been declining since the 1980’s, the number of injuries that have been reported has decreased but that’s no reason to think that the number of injuries have decreased.

Gems: There is a lot of corruption in the meat packing industry. And there is a lot about the hamburger process that most Americans don’t know about.

Thoughts: I don’t know if the meat packing industry was further exposed that people would collectively take action and boycott meats from specific places or if they would choose to ignore it further. I am also curious how much extra money it costs to humanly raise and slaughter cattle, as well as how much extra resources would have to go into the meat packing industry to make sure that the employees are safer and healthier.