Issues Surrounding the Nation’s Slaughterhouses

“Issues Surrounding the Nation’s Slaughterhouses”

In the book, Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser discusses the problems that the nation is facing with fast food restaurants. Schlosser wrote this book because he was concerned with where the fast food industry was taking America. He voices his concern about the children and their health regarding meat bacteria, and the fat content of the food. He also mentions how potato farmers, cattle ranchers, and chicken raisers are suffering from the industry controlling prices too low. Another worry Schlosser has is how the meat packing factories for these restaurants treat their workers and ultimately how careful they are with the meat. There are many horrifying stories about the harsh injuries and severe chronic problems these immigrant workers experience everyday or suffer with for the rest of their lives from working under such dangerous conditions. Schlosser also informs his readers of how the meat is processed, from the killing of the cattle to the boxing of the meat and some of the unknown, surprising facts that are involved in the whole process. Another issue presented in this book is how cities are affected by the rapid growth of these fast food restaurants. Also, Schlosser interviews teenagers working at these restaurants and tells their stories of frequent robberies, occasional shootings and poor work conditions. Ultimately this book is geared to help the people of America realize that there is a serious problem with fast food restaurants and we need to start demanding better food. Schlosser makes a convincing argument that the conditions in the meat processing factories need to be changed.

In this book, Schlosser takes a chapter to specifically look at how the meat is processed and what goes on in these meatpacking plants. One topic he spends some time on is the injuries and the danger of the jobs that these factory workers face. Schlosser claims that, “Meatpacking is now the most dangerous job in the United States” (172). The workers are often cut with knives either by themselves or by someone else not paying attention. Sometimes cumulative disorders such as tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and “trigger finger,” are developed from putting too much stress on the hands repeatedly by using dull knives to try and cut tough meat. Over long periods of time, some workers also suffer from back and shoulder problems also due to cutting meat with unsharpened knives. Along with these somewhat minor injuries, also come major accidents and sometimes even deaths. Schlosser writes that, “The men and women who clean the nation’s slaughterhouses may arguably have the worst job in the United States” (177). One of the most dangerous jobs in the meatpacking factories are done by the sanitation crew. They come in late at night and use a combination of water and chlorine heated to 180 degrees to pressure wash all parts of the plant. Often, the staff accidentally sprays each other because of all the fog that is created from the cleaning solution. Not only are they frequently sprayed with the burning hot chemical water, but the fumes are so potent that they are many times sickened from them. There have been two accounts of people trying to clean the insides of massive tanks who have passed out from the fumes and end up dying because there is no way out. While these people are cleaning, the machines and conveyor belts are still running, so there have been incidents where people lost fingers and arms in a machine. There have even been cases where people have had their heads crushed by heavy machinery or “are literally ground up and reduced to nothing” (Schlosser 178).

Another problem that Schlosser points out is how the workers are treated by their supervisors and the infrequency and inaccuracy of factory inspections. Instead of these managers looking out for their workers, they try to hide the injuries, and will give injured employees easier jobs until they are healed, if they agree to not visit the doctor. They feel the need to hide minor injuries because “a supervisor must meet production goals, keep the number of recorded injuries low, and most importantly, keep the meat flowing down the line without interruption” (Schlosser 175). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for inspecting meatpacking plants and making sure they are operating and functioning properly. The old OSHA policy was that, there were 1,300 inspectors and over 5 million workplaces to be looked at. The employers would expect an inspection about every 80 years (Schlosser 179). Now, for an inspection to even be done, the factories injury rate must be higher than the national average. There is a slim chance of that