The Issue Of Exploitation And Inhumanity Within The United States

1. “Hundreds of millions of people buy fast food every day without giving it much thought, unaware of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases. They rarely consider where this food came from, how it was made, what it is doing to the community around them. They just grab their tray off the counter, find a table, take a seat, unwrap the paper, and dig in” (Schlosser 10).

The effects of factory farming is not worth the damage that is done to the health of the environment, animals, and people. The idea of a factory farm is to produce meat at a faster pace, but the way these companies accomplish this task makes life a living hell for the animals. For example, “They’re often given so little space that they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably. Egg-laying hens are kept in small cages, chickens and pigs are kept in jam-packed sheds, and cows are kept on crowded, filthy feedlots”(Factory). The animals on these farms have to experience constant fear and agony, especially since most factory farmed animals will be genetically manipulated to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than they naturally would, and suffer severe pain throughout their entire life(Factory). Animals, especially cows, are being abused not only physically, but mentally as well.. For example, “just within hours of birth, calves are taken away from

The dependence on meat and meat products in the United States is at an all-time high. Despite the great need for healthy and ethical meat, the procedures in meatpacking facilities have not been improved much in the past century. In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser outlines some of the most important facts and realities facing slaughterhouse workers today. The problems with the food can be fixed with chemicals and the like, but the value of human life cannot be improved without the influence of government actions. There are still such injustices to the workers as sexual harassment, injuries that go unnoticed, and horrific treatment of sanitation workers.

When the British first settled America there was a high need for labor to work the Tabaco fields. With the help of the International Slave Trade the United States, Caribbean and South America had ample amount of workers waiting to be bought. After time the International Slave Trade was disbanded and farmers now had a self-sustaining Slave Trade with in the United States. After Abraham Lincoln made America a “free” nation all seemed to be looking up for minorities in the United States. Unfortunately this is not the case. In the post apocalyptic book Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler set in mid 2020’s touches upon a world where there is still slavery, with the same evil but with a different face. Through this essay we will be looking at the comparisons of the Hispanic farmworkers rights movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s and the world Octavia Butler has produced through her book expanding on the idea that that modern day slavery has not disappeared.

Migrant farm workers in America go through struggles that middle class and privileged people of any race couldn’t even begin to comprehend without deep research. The types of pain that migrant farm workers endure on a day to day basis is incredible. As the consumers in a modern capitalist society, middle-class Americans are the reason that migrant farm workers have to raise their kids preparing them to work in servitude. The migrants don't want to work in the harsh conditions but they have to in order to have a “steady” income. Migrant farm workers in America are some of the most vulnerable of the oppressed groups because they work hard for endless hours at a time to provide to

Food, Inc., a documentary film produced by Robert Kenner, is designed to inform the American people of the food industry’s darker side. The film shows the food industry in a more realistic light than the advertised and perceived image of a Farming America. Food, Inc. not only uses images, such as hundreds of baby chickens being raised in spaces no larger than a cabinet drawer, but also includes the stories and testimonies of farmers, businessmen, government officials, and victims of the food industry. As the film is being played, the audience sees the immorality of the food industry, feels disgust towards the unethical greed for wealth over the health of the customers, as well as feeling the helpless of the oppressed farmers, workers, and

Up through the eighth grade I had only ever been good at Tae Kwon Do and school. And to be honest, that does not impress the ladies as much as I think it should. I had spent an entire summer of my life devoted to playing baseball, and perfecting every single aspect of my game. It worked wonders. I hit a league-best .730 batting average(For reference that means I got a hit 7.3 times out of ten, which is about 4.8 hits per ten plate appearances better than the average), and played every inning in all but one game. I actually had coaches approaching me after games to tell me how much they disliked my playstyle and to say how bad of a kid I was for playing so aggressively. This is about the time I realized I should stop trying to change what other

For quite some time now, food has been at the forefront of people’s lives throughout the world. Eating has become a tradition, as food keeps us alive, healthy, and well. The importance of agriculture and farming is something that should not go unnoticed. Even just sharing a meal with somebody is intimacy, it has brought us closer together than ever before. Marcie Cohen Ferris, author of “The Edible South: The Power of Food and the Making of an American Religion”, takes a closer look at how food has brought a sense of togetherness but also the separation and tension that is running rampant through society today. She examines ideas of segregation and civil rights, and how food was able to play a pivotal role in some of America’s most historic moments.

Saru Jayaraman is an attorney, professor, activist, and author. She focuses her activism on food workers in the Bay Area. Saru has taught at various colleges in the New York area, including courses on sociology, immigrant rights, law, and political science. She has served as the leader of the Food and Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley since 2012 (Gelles 2016). It’s the first academic institution to study the relationship between food and labor. Saru co-founded the ROC United organization and has received a lot of awards and recognition for her activism and desire to make a change. Her expertise on this subject allows her to not only write about these injustices happening to food workers, but also use her power and authority to fight and win battles for stolen wages and tips against high-profile restaurant companies.

The African Americans citizens were not treated, as a human actually, as property. You have done, an awesome job capturing the key points in the struggles of the black people. I had never heard of a race of, people treated in horrific ways, however, laws developed to assist with the inhuman treatment. All because of how the European, wanted to keep a race of people enslaved. Today some politics still remain the same. We are told daily how this world is revolving. Why we do not have laws changed to assist with healthcare, jobs, elderly, disabled, and military vets.

The United States of America is a country known around the world as a great melting pot. A place where a person of any race and background can come and work hard to achieve their hopes and dreams. When people think about the founding of the United States, they typically think of a rebellion and revolution that colonists had to do to resist against the cruel tyranny of the British colonial rule. The American Revolution is celebrated as the start of a country and looked at with pride and patriotism by Americans; So much in fact that there is even a national holiday in America that celebrates the founding of the country on July 4th. What typically isn’t mentioned when talking about the history of America is the exploitation and oppression of certain groups of people that was used as a foundation that this country was built upon. Although the founding of the United States opened the doors of opportunity for millions of people, it also resulted in the abuse and entrapment of a huge population. The oppressed groups had little to no rights and experienced political, social, and economic inequality.

This examination of poor housing areas also focusses on contemporary racial exploitation. Examples that can be seen in today’s era is the relationship between black customers and insurance and/or mortgage loans. (Lipsitz, 8). Regardless of who they are, data shows that they already pay more for insurance or mortgage than white people. (Lipsitz, 10 - 11). They have little insurance coverage for communities of larger black communities than compared to predominantly white communities. (Lipsitz 10). Although the black community of the present appears to have much more rights (such as being “possible” to obtain services that whites have access to) than compared to the slavery era of blacks, the constant witnessing of unfairness in economics can still be witnessed. With such obstacles, it increases the chance of foreclosure for black families and thus

After watching the movie, Food Chains, and the video, Food + Justice, I found that the two were very similar in the ideas that they expressed regarding food politics and justice. Both sources included information that could be applied to the international scope. For example, both addressed the history of farm workers and their exploitation through history. It was, at first, the exploitation of natives and of slaves, and then it became the exploitation of modern day slaves, which are mostly immigrant workers. The examples used in both were of African American slaves and then of workers that had come from their home countries to work elsewhere (usually in hopes of a better life for them and their children). In addition, both addressed economic justice and fair wages for these predominantly immigrant workers on food systems, as they are paid very low wages for work in difficult conditions and are not always given a consistent pay (as it depends on the season,

However, A close study of “The Most Dangerous Jobs in America” by Eric Schlosser he makes it clear that slaughterhouse are disadvantageous and harmful, when Schlosser states, “They are workers employers are not afraid to lose: illegal, illiterate, impoverished, untrained.” (Schlosser) When he stated this quote, he makes it clear that most of the worker at slaughterhouse don’t know how to read or write, illegal immigrants, poor, and unskilled and they don’t care if they lose them because they can find another illegal, illiterate, impoverished, and untrained worker. All in all, When Schlosser writes, "Every year more than one-quarter of the meatpacking workers in America-roughly forty thousand men and women-suffer from a knife injury or other illness that requires medical attention beyond first aid” (Schlosser) this demonstrates that the rate of injuries and illness is very high and the injuries are bigger to the point where they can lead to illness or death. Overall, the author proves that slaughterhouse are more disadvantages to worker’s lives than sweatshops because

I chose to write about how food and how it relates to social rights movement. I believe that this is an important topic to talk about mostly because there is not much talk about how race affects how people get their food. I claim that social justice movements and food activism are connected because a healthy diet is a necessity and it should be accessible to everyone and specifically every race. The purpose is to show that food is a necessity and it is a human right, which means everyone should have the same access as other people no matter what the color of your skin is. Moreover, I am arguing that there are “food deserts” all around the country which affects certain areas. “Food desert” are areas where they do not have access to grocery