The Meat Packing Industry in Fast Food Nation Essay

Fast Food Nation: Cogs in the Great Machine

After reading, the meatpacking industry astonishes me in several ways. Iowa Beef Packers (IBP) is one of the biggest meatpacking industries in the United States and in my opinion, cruel to their animals. Meatpacking industries are competitive and personally believe that the industries are mostly concerned with the money. The old Chicago slaughterhouses were usually brick buildings, four or five stories high. Cattle were herded up wooden ramps to the top floor, where they were struck on the head with a sledgehammer, slaughtered, and then disassembled by skilled workers. Not only are animals being mistreated, but also the workers. The working conditions in these meatpacking plants were brutal. Upton Sinclair described a litany of horrors: severe back and shoulder injuries, lacerations, amputations, exposure to dangerous chemicals and memorably, a workplace accident in which a man fell into a vat and got turned into lard (Eric Schlosser, 152).

Furthermore, meatpacking industries shocked me by how many workers wanted fair treatment. One example, when the workers at the IBP plant in Dakota City went on strike in 1969, Holman hired scabs to replace them. The striking workers responded by firing a bullet through Holmans office window, killing a suspected company spy and bombing the home of IBPs general counsel (Eric Schlosser, 154). Another example, in November of 1979 the workers in Greeley went on strike. Monfort refused to meet their demands, and the dispute became ugly. The company began to hire scabs. Ken Monfort received death threats (Eric Schlosser, 157).

In addition, executives in the meatpacking industries participate in unlawful situations, Monfort at the Greeley slaughterhouse, began to employ immigrants, many of them illegals. In the 1980s large numbers of young men and women from Mexico, Central America, and Southeast Asia started traveling to rural Colorado. Meatpacking jobs that had once provided a middle-class American life now offered little more than poverty wages. Today, roughly two-thirds of the works at the beef plant in Greeley cannot speak English (Eric Schlosser, 160).

After reading about the meatpacking industry and everything that takes place inside of them, makes me feel disgusted. I hope that everyone that reads fast food nation will feel a similar impact as I did.