Week 12 Labor in meat processing

The labor of meat processing

Striffler, Steve. 2007. Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food. New Haven, Yale University Press. Ch. 5 and 7

Listen to this podcast by Michael Moss at the Commonwealth Club is about the dangers of eating hamburger. You can also read about his research here. His focus is on a woman who was paralyzed as a result of hamburger contaminated with E coli.

Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation, Food Inc) focused attention on the dangerous work of meat processing in the context of US society's demands for fast and cheap food. This was an important step toward recognizing the work necessary to bring us this food. Steve Striffler focuses on chicken production and its relationship to race and immigration politics.

Ch. 6 has a series of details about this work and a few conceptual arguments. What are they? Earlier in the semester some of you were adamant that people like these workers should eat right and exercise. This clip from Food Inc and Striffler's account of factory work show us that doing so would be really hard. Using the reading, explain why.  What does Striffler say about race? About identity? Monotony? What do you think of the boss?

Ch. 7 What are the ways meat packing towns are trying to confront racist sentiment toward Latinos?

As with the gendered labor of food procurement and the racialized labor of agricultural labor, these aspects of the food system are rarely addressed by the proponents of sustainable agriculture and food security. There are exceptions. For example, the Real Food Campaign addresses labor practices and Oxfam America has been a strong supporter of labor rights. More directly, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has successfully represented tomato pickers in a fight to get Taco Bell to pay one cent more per pound.

Why are we more concerned about pink slime and E coli rather than working conditions? 

A case study from Jill Harrison's book Pesticide Drift and Michael Moss' research demonstrate that consumption anxiety and its politics (consumer protection, local food, consumer satisfaction) obscures the relations of power in production. Read the case study and relate it to the lecture. What does she say is the current, mainstream way of addressing methyl iodide and how would the precautionary principle be deployed to further the goals of environmental justice?

Striffler due by Tuesday, Moss and Harrison by Thursday