The Workers And The Beef Industry Essay

The world continues to face a wide-scale food crisis. The effects of this crisis reach from the farmers who grow and raise the food to the very system of laws that are in place to govern the system itself. Food giants are reaching deep into their pockets for lobbying in order to take advantage of both the producers and the consumer all in the name of profit. Moreover, farmers are being driven to suicide, and the ecosystem’s livelihood is treading a fine line. Both Michael Pollan and Raj Patel bring to light these problems and offer suggestions to help lessen their severity. Though there are many philosophies on which they both agree, they both have their own ideas to fight back. Pollan seeks to challenge the consumer as an individual while

United Farm Workers: The United Farm workers are a labor union that was created solely for the farmworkers in the United States. The origins of this labor union came about from two different existing organizations known as the “Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee led by Larry Itliong and the National Farm Workers Association led by Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta. These two organizations decided to work together to fight stronger together for their rights. This term relates to our reading because they are known for the “grape strike” that took place in 1965 in Delano, California. The labor union wanted to fight for their rights against the social injustices between the owners, and the farmers. In our text’s we have seen this constant mistreatment of owners, and their workers, through poor pay, rights, and belittlement because of their cultural ethnicity.

Do you really know what is in your meat? What about what happens to the meat after it is slaughtered? Fortunately, the conditions have gotten much better throughout the years. But many years ago, in the early 1900s meat consumers bought spoiled and rat infested hams that were produced by the meat industries. Nowadays, the meat industry has improved to a certain extent. Today, about 80% of all U.S. feedlots are injected with hormones (Lerner). Americans should know what they are eating. This is important in the meat industry because they are the producers of all the meat that we eat. The meat industry has improved and is much better than the 1900s, but still not at as ideal as everyone thinks it really is.

Industrialization has revolutionized America’s economy. Mass production allows products in demand to be easily available for purchase. But at what point does this system cross the line? It is one thing to mass produce electronics and clothing, for example, but applying mass production to the meat industry is entirely different. In order to generate the most profit, livestock are killed systematically at a massive scale on an assembly line. These animals are treated as nothing more than objects that can be processed, packaged, and sold to a consumer. For this business to take place with both time and cost efficiency, the welfare of the livestock is placed as one of the last priorities. Factory farming has gotten out of hand, and America is

Profit margins for slaughterhouses are very low. The faster the workers perform, the more profit comes in. If a person gets injured, the production line slows down with huge losses of profit. “The annual bonuses of plant foreman and supervisors are often based in part of the injury rate of their workers. Instead of creating a safer workplace, bonus schemes encourage

There is a lack of sympathy and anger toward the working conditions of people working in agriculture and aquaculture. In the film Business of Hunger we saw the displacement of people for agricultural goods such as, peanuts which are water and land intensive. In this film we saw how people in nations such as Brazil and Africa are not even acknowledged by the western nations who consume the food they export. Not only in agriculture are the workers exploited but my recent discovery of the shrimp industry has exposed the truth of slavery and child labor with the capturing of shrimp. Asking where your food comes is just one simply way of being a better consumer. When you go into a store and look for organic or certified food we argued in class that constitutes being good consumers, but what do those labels really mean? When more than half of the shrimp consumed in the United States comes from Thailand which has the most exploitative conditions, it would be hard to even believe the label. Before this course I had no clue shrimp was coming from exploitative condition and during the shrimp case study, I mentioned to my friend she should not eat shrimp due to the overexploitation of the workers and the environmental degradation of the land. She told me her mom worked in a shrimp farm while in Vietnam, I was surprised and asked her how she was okay with eating the shrimp after her mom told her of the harsh conditions and she responded to me “It’s Vietnam, what do you expect.” These

“The Jungle”portrays the harsh conditions of the Chicago meatpacking industry in the early 1900’s. Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite recently emigrated from Lithuania to Chicago in search of a better life. The conditions were the cause of Jurgis’s injury to his ankle, which led to his frustrating unemployment. Jurgis and Ona, a couple who planned on getting married, struggled throughout their time Chicago due the treatment of immigrants. Jurgis always prevailed and assured his wife that things would soon be better as he had believed in the American dream.

     In the early twentieth century, at the height of the progressive movement, “Muckrakers” had uncovered many scandals and wrong doings in America, but none as big the scandals of Americas meatpacking industry. Rights and responsibilities were blatantly ignored by the industry in an attempt to turn out as much profit as possible. The meat packers did not care if poor working conditions led to sickness and death. They also did not care if the spoiled meat they sold was killing people. The following paper will discuss the many ways that rights and responsibilities were not being fulfilled by the meat packing industry.

The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was an attempt to regulate the meatpacking industry and to assure consumers that the meat they were eating was safe. In brief, this act made compulsory the careful inspection of meat before its consummation, established sanitary standards for slaughterhouses and processing plants, and required continuous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection of meat processing and packaging. Yet, the most important objectives set by the law are the prevention of adulterated or misbranded livestock and products from being commercialized and sold as food, and the making sure that meat and all its products are processed and prepared in the adequate sanitary and hygienic conditions (Reeves 35). Imported meat and its various

The meat industry today is not what it was nearly a century ago. While improvements are thought to have been made, an ever changing society has brought upon new problems that have been piled on to the previously existing ones. While these problems are not like those found in The Jungle, they do parallel how by exposing what is going on in the meat industry; new regulations would be the answer to the noted problems. The increased demand for meat has made it a rushed mutated production instead of a means to raise livestock for consumers. Taking into consideration the demand for cheap meat that will be used for in quick and high demanded products such as frozen and fast food, this demand of meat has greatly skyrocketed. Animals whose sole

Nations are judged and measured by their production and selling of goods and services. Not only has increased consumerism resulted in ecological imbalance, it is also depleting earth’s natural resources, which in turn is creating an environmental crisis. One of the biggest products being consumed is food. Rapidly growing world’s population requires increased food production. Author Anna Lappe does an excellent job expounding on the impact that food production and distribution has on the environment. Lappe (2015) argues that modern practices of food production directly contribute to air pollution and increases carbon dioxide emissions (par. 11). Crop production uses an absurd amount of land, artificial fertilizer, and harmful pesticides that seriously pollutes the environment and threatens young children and wildlife species. Author Sandra Steingraber (2015) also argues that increased consumerism has led to a high usage of harmful chemicals to produce products for consumers (par.

Watching the documentary Food Inc, there were a few points that stood out most to me. I think one of the most important concerns that were brought up is the consumers not knowing the truth behind the food. Whether there is actual harm in our food or not, we still need to know what is going into our food. The harm that may actually be inside our food can be caused by how easy it is to produce crap food now days. Making mass produced food is a lot easier than it has been in the past because genetics have changed animals into growing faster and fatter. This causes harm to the environment by creating factories for these foods to be made, which causes pollution by emitting many CO2 gasses. However this isn’t a concern for the producer. The producer is mainly focused on money they receive even if it causes harm to the environment or the consumers. The use of pesticides and other substances are used in foods, whether it’s in the production of corn growing or in the food in general to help keep germs out. This also causes harm to the consumer and environment that we should be aware of.

The cattle industry produces vast amounts of strain in the environment. It is energy inefficient, pollutes water, occupies many acres of land, and deteriorates the health of the people who abuse its consumption. The government subsidizes this industry. Therefore, the price paid for meat doesn’t reflect the environmental hazards involved in the process. In order to protect our health and the health of the environment we should pay close attention to our food choices and make sure we don’t support industries that degrade it.

Meat has been in our diet since the start of mankind. We eat meat everyday mindlessly. It is hard to avoid meat since it is everywhere we go. Meat is the majority of today’s food. There are very few vegetarian or vegan options in the food industry. Although, it has been growing more and more popular since it has become a lifestyle. The reason is to be the horrifying truth of today’s meat industry. For those who cannot bear the truth, pick up the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

One is for the hogs and the other is for the large cattle. Three operational ponds are present in the slaughterhouse, the aerobic pond, anaerobic pond, and the facultative pond. And sludge drying bed.