Fast food spread like a plague throughout America in the mid 1900’s. It’s convenience, price, and taste drew in millions of consumers each day. Fast food has effectively influenced the way we eat, methods in which food is prepared, and society today. After reading Fast Food Nation and viewing Food Inc., one substantial consequential issue that significantly stood out to me were the conditions of the slaughterhouse for its workers, animals and the corruption of its supervisors. For the workers, it is heavy machinery, over-crowdedness and sharp knives that make meatpacking the most dangerous job in America. As for the cattle, they find themselves morbidly obese standing ankle-high in their own manure that may potentially lead to the outbreak of sickening diseases. Lastly, the supervisors in charge of these employees and cattle commonly abuse their granted power. There are limited solutions to numerous issues because the fast food industry holds so much power over our economy and food.
After reading chapter 8 in Fast Food Nation, I learned that being a meatpacker in the food industry is easily one of the most dangerous jobs in America. Big issues are brought up in chapter 8 about the conditions in which the meatpackers work in. First off, as apart of their work uniform they are permitted to wear chain mail body armor to protect them from the inevitable lacerations suffered from their razor-sharp knives. From what I have learned, a normal shift consists of workers dealing with power tools, heavy machinery and knives while repeating the same motion hundreds of times that later result in cumulative trauma disorders. The most dangerous tool is the one they use the most holding in their hand, their knife; a meatpacker’s knife is like a soldiers rifle. Moreover, due to the over-crowdedness and pace of a meatpacker’s job, missing fingers and deep lacerations are common. Considering how profits are earned directly from the speed and production of the process line and with pressure to keep up, many workers resort to the use of crystal meth because the increase in pace is the increase in profit. The entire slaughterhouse presented in chapter 8 just seems like one giant mess of danger. As Schlosser was touring a slaughterhouse somewhere in the High Plains, “The injury rate in a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory” (172). Schlosser later goes on to report, “Every year more than one-quarter of the meatpacking workers in this country – roughly forty thousand men and women – suffer an injury or a work-related illness that requires medical attention beyond first aid” (172). Schlosser is confirming that, in fact, working in the slaughterhouse is an extremely hazardous and troubling occupation for anyone.
Competing for the most dangerous job in America are the nightly cleaners that disinfect and decontaminate the slaughterhouses. These cleaners have some of the highest death rates in all of the jobs in America. As Schlosser points out in chapter 8, “Although official statistics are not kept, the death rate among slaughterhouse sanitation crews is extraordinarily high” (178). Their job faces cleaning the remains of thousands of slaughtered cattle with high powered and heated chemical hoses. The cleaning crew walks on moving conveyor belts and catwalks with limited visibility. With vision impaired due to steam and fogged up goggles, many of the cleaners end up falling off catwalks or hosing each other with almost 200 degree, chemical filled hoses. As pointed out in Fast Food Nation, a vast majority of the cleaners are untrained, illiterate and illegal immigrants. However, they are referred to as “independent contractors” and using illegal immigrants to make up your cleaning crew benefits the meatpacking industry because they only cost about one-third of what a legal documented employee would cost.
After viewing the film, Food Inc., another important issue that certainly stood out to me was the conditions of the slaughterhouse for cattle. They find themselves ankle-deep in manure and overweight due to the fact that they are wrongfully fed corn instead of their natural diet, grass. The cattle are fed corn predominantly because corn is cheap, efficient and rapidly fattens them up. However, E. coli forms in these cows that cannot digest corn properly. The E. coli comes out in their waste and the bacteria gets on there skin which later leaks into the meat. If a strain of E. coli is leaked from one cow, all the cows are susceptible to catching it; thus infecting millions of beef consumers. This is a huge issue because these industries supply majority of the meat we eat today.
Competing for the most dangerous job in America are the nightly cleaners that disinfect and decontaminate the slaughterhouses. These cleaners have some of the highest death rates in all of the jobs in America. As Schlosser points out in chapter 8, “Although official statistics are not kept, the death rate among slaughterhouse sanitation crews is extraordinarily high” (178). Their job faces cleaning the remains of thousands of slaughtered cattle with high powered and heated chemical hoses. The cleaning crew walks on moving conveyor belts and catwalks with limited visibility. With vision impaired due to steam and fogged up goggles, many of the cleaners end up falling off catwalks or hosing each other with almost 200 degree, chemical filled hoses. As pointed out in Fast Food Nation, a vast majority of the cleaners are untrained, illiterate and illegal immigrants. However, they are referred to as “independent contractors” and using illegal immigrants to make up your cleaning crew benefits the meatpacking industry because they only cost about one-third of what a legal documented employee would cost.
After viewing the film, Food Inc., another important issue that certainly stood out to me was the conditions of the slaughterhouse for cattle. They find themselves ankle-deep in manure and overweight due to the fact that they are wrongfully fed corn instead of their natural diet, grass. The cattle are fed corn predominantly because corn is cheap, efficient and rapidly fattens them up. However, E. coli forms in these cows that cannot digest corn properly. The E. coli comes out in their waste and the bacteria gets on there skin which later leaks into the meat. If a strain of E. coli is leaked from one cow, all the cows are susceptible to catching it; thus infecting millions of beef consumers. This is a huge issue because these industries supply majority of the meat we eat today.
Aside from the conditions being extremely dangerous for its workers, the employees face another issue with their supervisors. The supervisors in a slaughterhouse have been reported hiring illegal immigrants that are easily manipulated. Considering that the workers are undocumented and here illegally, the supervisors are free to hire and fire them at will. If the immigrants are not producing fast enough or reporting injuries, that is enough to punch their ticket back to Mexico. Supervisors, like dictators, have total control and frequently berate and boss their employees. They have been known to fondle and sexually abuse female employees. Many incidents go unreported in fear of losing their job.
From these big issues found in our food industry, solutions are a must. The simplest solution for me to say is to get the government to step in and regulate what is actually going on, but that has already been proposed and failed. Another problem with that is a lot of key political figures are former food industry employees. Another solution that I would like to see is educating the targeted audience of fast food, the children. This is not something we cannot fight purely on an individual basis. If we present the startling facts of the food industry, I strongly believe peoples’ reactions will be as strong as mine. I now think twice about the fast food I purchase and really take into consideration of paying an extra few bucks for healthier and more organic food. Which also may propose another solution – increase of organic farms. Start having organic producers such as the one presented in Food Inc. Another possible solution that might fix the problem is to bring back a competitive market instead of having a select few power slaughterhouses providing America’s beef. It is difficult to improvise because of how many people rely on and the power of the fast food industry each day.
The fast food industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that provides meat to millions of people on a daily basis. However, fast food (or quick service restaurant) contains a high level of fat content, which commonly leads to unhealthy diet, obesity and diabetes. Consuming fast food regularly may also lead to strokes and heart problems. Due to its availability, price and taste, fast food draws in consumers at an alarming rate. As a result of so many consumers, the fast food industry feels pressure in producing mass quantities of meat daily. Pivotal issues rise in these slaughterhouses that produce to meat we eat. As presented in Fast Food Nation and Food Incorporations, the overall conditions of our beef-producing slaughterhouses are harmful to its employees and consumers. With little-to-no solutions for the industry poses a huge threat to Americans health. Though attempted and failed solutions have happened, educating consumers and raising awareness can play a huge role in answering these issues. This may not completely solve the problem but can heavily influence the way people eat and their overall health.
