Pros And Cons Of Meatpacking

We do not take in consideration on where our meat comes from and how they treat the animals. People do not know how the process is from slaughtering a cow to the meat that you buy in your neighborhood market. In the book Foodopoly, Wenonah Hauter argues that there is a misrepresentation on what truly happens in the meatpacking industry, hog industry, the impact on small farmers, and how the working conditions are for the meat packing industry workers.

Most Slaughterhouse Plants supervisors weren't the most sympathetic beings. All they care for is the production of meat and how much can be accomplished in a day. The mindset in American meat industries changes it's all about quantity, not quality. Illegal and illiterate immigrants come to the United States and establish themselves to working at slaughterhouses plants. Many of these industries did not provide any medical benefit and poor wages.

In “The Way of All Flesh” the author Ted Conover describes his experience working as an undercover USDA inspector in a meat packing plant. He shows how extremely grotesque the industry really is by providing numerous examples on the health and treatment of animals, the conditions of the meat, and the health and treatment of the employees. Conover shows the reader what it is really like in the slaughterhouse by using descriptive language. Throughout the article Conover brings up the treatment and the conditions the animals are put in. Conover supports his arguments by appealing to the reader’s emotions, by making the readers feel sympathetic for both the animals and workers.

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.

“I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we 've got to do it right. We 've got to give those animals a decent life and we 've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” ― Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin brings up a brilliant point, it’s okay to eat meat but it’s not okay to treat these animals throughout their life as just something that you will be killing. They have the right to live healthily and in a property environment. Throughout the novel The Chain by Ted Genoways it brings a light to all the dangerous conditions animals and workers go through and what actually goes into the meat you buy in stores. Although low prices on farm produced meat sound enticing, the abused caused to animals and the dangerous working conditions for workers cause dangerously poor sanitation, and can affect many Americans health.

During the 1930’s low supply and high cost of pork and beef made horse meat rise in popularity. Again during World War II, people were again in the same predicament. Inflation during the early 1970’s raised the cost of traditional meats; Time Magazine reported from Carlson’s, a butcher shop in Westbrook, CT, that they were selling over 6,000 pounds of horse meat a day. (Weil) In 2006, the House of Representatives voted to end horse slaughter; the bill passed to make the killing and selling American horses for human consumption an illegal practice in the United States.

Today, the food industry has not just altered the American diet, but it has also had a negative effect within the labor sector as well as the animals meant for consumption and the lack of government oversight. Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, and Jonathan Foer in Eating Animals, illustrate the mistreatment of labor workers as well as the animal abuse that goes unseen within the food industry. Foer gives such examples of employees who work in slaughterhouses giving accounts of what goes on in the kill floors, and stories of employees who have witnessed thousands and thousands of cows going through the slaughter process alive (231). Eating meat does not have to be so inhumane for example, Foer quotes Frank Reese, who does not permit inhumane practices on his ranch that are cruel, and Reese believes that there are other ways of having a sustainable humane animal agriculture instead of the methods of the large corporate meat industry (238). Namit Arora in the article “On Eating Animals”, as well as Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, address some of the issues that animals face once they hit the kill floor. The food industry has transformed not only what people eat, but how the government has neglected the issues of the wellbeing of labor workers and the animals that are processed for consumption.

Horse slaughter is not humane euthanasia, while, euthanasia is defined as a gentle, painless death provided in order to prevent suffering, slaughter is a brutal and terrifying end for horses (“Horse Slaughter is not Euthanasia”). It is very shocking to hear all the awful things that horses go through in the slaughter process. When the horses are herded through the plant to slaughter, many workers use fiberglass rods to poke and beat their faces, necks, backs and legs as the animals are shoved through the facility into the kill pen (Horse Slaughter “). The USDA recently released photos of horses with broken bones protruding from their bodies, eyeballs hanging by a thread of skin, and open wounds, all taken at former U.S horse slaughter plants. This does not sound like animals that people love and have used as companion pets for many generations ( “The Horse Fund”). Former inspector has stated that horses are only stunned for 30 seconds, long enough to be hung up by a hind leg (“Jeras”) .The horse is still fully conscious at the start of the slaughter process, during which he or she is hung by a hind leg, his or her throat slit and body butchered. Death is the final step, is excruciating (“Horse Slaughter”).How does it sound okay to butcher an animal before it is even killed? Horse slaughter is a threat to human health because horses are given hundreds of drugs during their lives that have not been approved by the FDA for use in animals intended for human consumption (“ASPCA”). Horses are given medications , prescribed by vets that allows them to enter the human food chain, but yet people still consume it (“The Horse Fund”) . The slaughter process is also inherently cruel, as horses are difficult to stun properly and may be repeatedly injured or stabbed during the procedure(“How to Help a Horse”). Each year more than 100,000 American horses - working, racing and companion horses and even children’s ponies - are

Every year, an average American will consume approximately one hundred-twenty six pounds of meat. This meat can be traced back to factory farms where the animals are kept to be tortured to turn into a product for the appetite of humans. The terrible treatment these animals are forced to endure is the outcome of the greed and want for a faster production of their product. The industry of factory farming works to maximize the output of the meat while maintaining low costs,but will sadly always comes at the animals’ expense.

One case of animal abuse in the U.S. food industry is the Central Valley Meat Co, located in Hanford, California. Employees at the Hanford Slaughterhouse were caught on video killing cows violently and inhumanely, neglecting to render cows unconscious before slaughter, and other forms of abuse. Many of the cows appeared to be sick and unable to walk as well. Under federal rules, sick animals can’t be slaughtered for human consumption. (Nidever)

Schlosser describes the environment of the meat packing plants serving fast food companies in a startling straightforward narrative of his visit through a meat packing plant. He describes a brutal, and sometimes unsanitary environment. The rights of animals are a very broad and complex subject, but Schlosser touches on this as he describes the slaughterhouse floor. He describes animals in various states of disembowelment. Sometimes the animals were dead or stunned; sometimes they were thrashing about wildly in the last throws of death. The slaughter room floor was described as being covered with blood and feces. Employees worked at a furious pace to meet the day's quota. What bothered me most was the fact that this meat is not only prepared for fast food companies but also contracted out to serve our children's schools.

“Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic- and pesticide- laden corpse of a tortured animal.” says Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) PETA and animal activist. Factory farming should be banned or demolished thoroughly due to more harm than good that is being presented worldwide. Animal brutality, which can be found constantly and excessively throughout factory farms, is a deleterious act involving the animals and a diabolic act regarding human morals. The antic actions that proceed have an effect on both humans and the environment, as well as the unethical, inhumane treatment and the atrocious sufferings of animals. Besides factory farms offering a copious amount of cheaper food, factory farming is a detrimental agricultural practice to both humans and the environment. The way we receive our food is inhumane and unhealthy to humans and the environment, thus factory farms should be banned.

The conditions for animals in modern slaughterhouses are unsanitary and violent. The lack of rules and regulations cause animals to be treated poorly because this industry is focused on mass production and profit rather than finding a more humane alternative to run the meat packing business. The most effective method to stop this cruelty is to learn about where meat comes from, start supporting the organic and family farms which will ultimately lead to the reducing the amount of animals that have to suffer.

If animals are provided with better accommodation at slaughter houses and provided a merciful, humane death, I would the ethical theory of Utilitarianism to justify my views. Utilitarianism refers to the morally right action that produces the most favorable balance of good over evil, everyone considered” (Pg. 69). As I mentioned above, I can’t change people’s way of life or their dietary habits so in this case best would be to make changes in slaughterhouse practices and looking for the best option for both

What goes on inside a slaughterhouse is something the meat industry does not want you to find out about. They like to portray happy farm animals, but we both know thats not true. In the U.S alone over 500,000 animals are killed merciless every hour for their meat. “Over 56 billion farmed animals are killed every year by humans. More than