Abstract
As COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths ravaged US meat-processing facilities, companies and officials supported production instead of people. Analyzing the content of newspaper articles, court records, press releases, and company websites, we argue that (1) despite their “essential” status, meat factory workers are a disposable labor force; and (2) factory worker dispensability is the result of a racialized historical process. The expendability of primarily immigrant and people of color laborers takes place in what we call a “death world economy”—a system through which corporations, together with the state, normalize the relegation of bodies to disease, injury, and death across time and space. Responding to the intensification of this violence during COVID-19, plant employees and their families advocate for their communities’ safety needs, highlight industry inaction, and demand accountability from companies and state officials.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Agamben
G
(1998 ) Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life . California : Stanford University Press . Translated by D. Heller-Roazen .
2.
Aggrawal
A
(2010 ) Necrophilia: Forensic and Medico-Legal Aspects . Baton Rouge : CRC Press .
3.
Alcadipini
R
Medeiros
CRO
(2017 ) Necrocorporations: corporate crimes and multinationals . Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings 2014 (1 ): 286 –291 .
4.
Andres Salazar
V
(2017 ) Clougherty Packing, LLC, Dba6 Farmer John. Case No. 2:16-Cv-09484-BRO-GJSx, United States District Court, Central District of California .
5.
Arendt
H
(1973 ) The Origins of Totalitarianism . Harcourt, Brace : Jovanovich .
6.
Asher
R
Stephenson
CL
Divided: Race and Ethnicity in the United States Labor Struggles, 1835-1960 . Albany : State University of New York Press .
7.
Bannerjee
B
(2006 ) Live and let die: colonial sovereignties and the death worlds of necrocapitalism . Borderlands 5 (1 ): 31 .
8.
Batchell
J
(2020 ) As COVID-19 Rages, America’s Meatpacking Workers Battle for Their Lives . People’s World . Available at: https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/as-covid-19-rages-americas-meat-packing-workers-battle-for-their-lives/(accessed 15 March 2021).
9.
Berlant
L
(2007 ) Slow death (sovereignty, obesity, lateral agency) . Critical Inquiry 33 (4 ): 754 –780 .
10.
Bormett
E
(2020 ) Photos: drive-by protest in solidarity with Smithfield workers during pandemic . Argus Leader . Available at: https://www.argusleader.com/picture-gallery/news/2020/04/10/photos-drive-protest-solidarity-smithfield-workers-during-pandemic/5128351002/(accessed 15 March 2021).
11.
Braunschweiger
A
McConnell
M
(2019 ) How the US is making meatpacking jobs even more dangerous . Human Rights Watch, September, 4 . Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/04/interview-how-us-making-meatpacking-jobs-even-more-dangerous# (accessed 15 March 2021).
12.
Cacho
LM
(2012 ) Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected . New York : New York University Press .
13.
Cazarez
M
(2020 ) Good Apple Awards: the children of Smithfeld and their journey fighting for meatpacking workers and their families . Nebraska Appleseed, October, 8 . Available at: https://neappleseed.org/blog/32587 (accessed 15 March 2021).
14.
Chadde
S
(2020 ) Tracking COVID-19’s impact on meatpacking workers and industry. Mid-West center for investigative reporting . Agribusiness, April 16 . Available at: https://investigatemidwest.org/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19s-impact-on-meatpacking-workers-and-industry/(accessed 15 March 2021).
15.
Children of Smithfield
(2020 ) Solidarity with Packing Plant Workers . https://www.facebook.com/NebraskaSolidarity/videos/995969257486401).
16.
Chou
J
(2013 ) China’s Smithfield buyer faces problems as health concerns arise . The Daily Meal, May, 31 . Available at: https://www.thedailymeal.com/chinas-smithfield-buyer-faces-problems-health-concerns-arise (accessed 15 March 2021).
17.
Corkery
M
Yaffe-Bellany
D
(2020 ) As meat plants stayed open to feed Americans, exports to China surged . New York Times, June, 17 . Available at : https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/business/meat-industry-china-pork.html (accessed 15 March 2021).
18.
Cosgrove
J
(2020 ) Coronavirus outbreak hits farmer John plant in Vernon that makes dodger dogs . Los Angeles Times, May, 24 . Available at: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-23/farmer-john-plant-in-vernon-faces-major-covid-19-outbreak (accessed 15 March 2021).
19.
Davies
T
(2017 ) Toxic space and time: slow violence, necropolitics, and petrochemical Pollution . Annals of the American Association of Geographers 108 (6 ): 1537 –1553 .
20.
Davion
C
(2020 ) COVID-19 outbreaks continue surge in meatpacking plants following forced reopenings . World Socialist Website . Available at: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/02/meat-j02.html (accessed 15 March 2021).
21.
Day
C
(2020 ) Smithfield workers protest for increased protections . ABC, May, 2 . Available at: https://www.wqad.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/smithfield-foods-workers-protest/526-d36fa3b5-f024-469f-91f1-90ff59b0a254 (accessed 20 November 2020).
22.
De La Merced
M
Barboza
B
(2013 ) Needing pork, China is to buy a U.S. supplier . New York Times . Available at: https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/smithfield-to-be-sold-to-shuanghui-group-of-china/(accessed 15 March 2020).
23.
Deese
B
Fazili
S
Ramamurti
B
(2021 ) Addressing concentration in the meat-processing industry to lower food prices for American families . The White House, September, 8 . Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/blog/2021/09/08/addressing-concentration-in-the-meat-processing-industry-to-lower-food-prices-for-american-families/(accessed 15 March 2020).
24.
Demillo
M
(2012 ) Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies . New York : Columbia University Press .
25.
Department of Labor
(2012 ) Press release, “clougherty packing Co., maker of the ‘dodger dog’ to pay almost $440,000 to settle sex discrimination case with US department of labor,” . Available at: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ofccp/ofccp20121218
26.
Dnlinger
RF
Marsh
MH
Rohde
BA
(2007 ) The Prioritization of Critical Infrastructure for a Pandemic Outreack in the United States Working Group . National Infrastructure Advisory Council . chrome-extension . https://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/niac-pandemic-outbreak-final-report-01-17-07-508.pdf
27.
Evans
L
Charnofsky
J
(2022 ) The furlongs of Vernon and of van buren place . Available at: https://westadamsheritage.org/read/401 (accessed on October 12, 2023).
28.
Fees
GA
(2005 ) United States Equal Opportunity Commission V . Clougherty Packing Company dba Farmer John . Case No. CV 04-8051 GAF (PLAx) .
29.
Foucault
M
(1980 ) Power and Knowledge . Pantheon .
30.
Fremstad
S
Rho
HJ
Brown
H
(2020 ) Meatpacking Workers Are a Diverse Group Who Need Better Protections . Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) . Available at: https://cepr.net/meatpacking-workers-are-a-diverse-group-who-need-better-protections/(accessed 20 November 2020).
31.
Frieshtat
S
(2020 ) Family of woman who died of COVID-19 sues North Aurora meat packing plant over working conditions . Chicago Tribune, August, 14 . Available at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/ct-abn-north-aurora-meat-plant-covid-lawsuit-st-20200813-mhzbbbufzjcr5kdkzsqeibpwea-story.html (accessed 31 December 2021).
32.
Fukushima
AI
(2019 a) ‘Has someone taken your passport?’ Everyday surveillance of the migrant laborer as trafficked subject . Biography 42 (3 ): 561 –585 . https://muse.jhu.edu/article/742992
33.
Fukushima
AI
(2019 b) Migrant Crossings: Witnessing Human Trafficking in the US . Stanford University Press .
34.
Fukushima
AI
(2020 ) Food matters: trafficked transnational migrant experiences and the matrix of food (In)Security . Journal of Human Rights Practice 12 (2 ): 364 –386 . DOI: 10.1093/jhuman/huaa024 .
35.
Gangitano
A
(2020 ) Meat and poultry industry groups applaud Trump for keeping processing plants open . The Hill, April, 28 . Available at: https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/495180-meat-and-poultry-industry-groups-applaud-trump-for-keeping-processing (accessed 20 November 2020).
36.
Gilmore
R
(2007 ) Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California . Berkeley : University of California Press .
37.
Golash-Boza
T
(2015 ) Immigration Nation: Raids, Detentions, and Deportations in Post-9/11 America . New York : Routledge .
38.
Grabell
M
Perlman
C
Yeung
B
(2020 ) Health agencies over COVID-19 outbreaks in their plants . Daily Yonder, June, 16 . Available at: https://dailyyonder.com/emails-reveal-chaos-as-meatpacking-companies-fought-health-agencies-over-covid-19-outbreaks-in-their-plants/2020/06/16/(accessed 20 November 2020).
39.
Groves
S
Tareen
S
(2020 ) US meatpacking industry relies on immigrant workers. But a labor shortage looms . Los Angeles Times, May, 26 . Available at: https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2020-05-26/meatpacking-industry-immigrant-undocumented-workers (accessed 20 November 2020).
40.
Hals
T
Polansek
T
(2020 ) Meatpackers deny workers benefits for Covid-19 deaths, illnesses . Reuters, September, 29 . Available at https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-jbs-colorado/meatpackers-deny-workers-benefits-for-covid-19-deaths-illnesses-idUSKBN26K334 (accessed 20 November 2020).
41.
Harper
AB
(2011 ) Connections: speciesism, racism, and whiteness as the norm . In:
Kemmerer
L
(ed), Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice . Illinois : University of Illinois Press , pp. 72 –77 .
42.
Holland
SP
(2000 ) Raising the Dead: Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivity . Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press , 2000 .
43.
Honig
E
Andrei
MA
(2020 ) The children of SmithfieldLatino . USA, August, 11 . Available at: https://www.latinousa.org/2020/08/11/smithfield/(accessed 20 November 2020).
44.
Howard
M
(2021 ) The necropolice economy: mapping biopolitical priorities and human expendability in the time of covid-19 . Societies 12 (1 ): 2 .
45.
Human Rights Watch
(2004 ) Blood, sweat, and fear: workers’ rights in U.S. Meat and poultry plants . Available at https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/usa0105.pdf (accessed 20 November 2020).
46.
Inda
JX
(2020 ) Fatal prescriptions: immigration detention, mismedication, and the necropolitics of uncare . Death Studies 44 (11 ): 699 –708 .
47.
Johsnton
JE
Franklin
M
Roh
H
, et al. (2019 ) Lead and arsenic in sed deciduous teeth of children living near a lead-acid battery smelter . Environmental Science Technology 53 (10 ): 6000 –6006 .
48.
Jordan
M
(2000 ) Blacks vs. Latinos at work . In:
Rothenberg
PS
(ed), Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study . 7th edition . New York : Worth Publishers , pp. 277 –279 .
49.
Joy
M
(2012 ) Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, Wear Cows . San Francisco, CA : Red Wheel .
50.
Ken
I
León
KS
(2022 ) Necropolitical governance and state-corporate harms: COVID-19 and the U.S. Pork packing industry . Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime 3 (2 ): 76 –89 .
51.
Kindy
K
(2020 ) More than 200 meat plant workers in the U.S. have died of Covid-19. Federal regulators just issued two modest fines . The Washington Post, September, 13 . available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/osha-covid-meat-plant-fines/2020/09/13/1dca3e14-f395-11ea-bc45-e5d48ab44b9f_story.html (accessed 15 November 2020).
52.
Krupar
S
Sadural
A
(2022 ) COVID ‘death pits’: US nursing, racial capitalism, and the urgency of antiracist eldercare . Environmental and Planning C: Politics and Space 40 : 5 . DOI: 10.11177/23996544211057677 .
53.
Lakhani
N
(2020 ) US coronavirus hotspots linked to meat processing plants . Guardian, May, 15 . Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/15/us-coronavirus-meat-packing-plants-food (accessed 15 November 2020).
54.
Latino USA
(2020 ) The children of Smithfield . Latino USA, August, 11 . Available at https://www.latinorebels.com/2020/08/11/smithfield/(accessed 15 November 2020).
55.
Longazel
J
(2016 ) Undocumented Fears: Immigration and the Politics of Divide and Conquer in Hazleton, Pennsylvania . Philadelphia, PA : Temple University Press .
56.
Lopez
PJ
Gillespie
KA
(eds), (2015 ) Economies of Death: Economic Logics of Killable Life and Grievable Death . London : Routledge .
57.
Los Angeles Daily Times
(1915 ) Vernon—The Coming Industrial and Manufacturing Center of Los Angeles county, 1 January , p. 176 .
58.
Los Angeles Times
(1908 ) No Sunday and No Holiday for Los Angeles gamblers. 31 May , p. 14 .
59.
Los Angeles Times
(1910 a) Liquor Joint Radiates Sin. 23 January , p. 20 .
60.
Los Angeles Times
(1910 b) Vernon Wants Industries. 9 October , p. 28 .
61.
Lugones
M
(1987 ) Playfulness, “world”-travelling, and loving perception . Hypatia 2 (2 ): 3 –19 .
62.
Márquez
J
(2013 ) Black-Brown Solidarity: Racial Politics in the New Gulf South . Austin : University of Texas Press .
63.
Martin
H
(2000 ) Sharpening vision of pig paradise . Los Angeles Times, July 5 . Available at: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jul-05-me-47938-story.html (accessed 17 April 2023).
64.
Mbembé
A
(2003 ) Necropolitics . Public Culture 15 (1 ): 11 –40 .
65.
Mbembé
A
(2016 ) Necropolitics . Durham, London : Duke University Press .
66.
McGowan
WP
(1995 ) Industrializing the land of Lono: sugar plantation managers and workers in Hawaii, 1900-1920 . Agricultural History 69 (2 ): 177 –200 .
67.
McKittrick
K
Plantation futures . Small Axe 17 (3 ): 1 –15 .
68.
Molteni
M
(2020 ) Covid-19 makes the cae for more meatpacking robots . Wired . Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/covid-19-makes-the-case-for-more-meatpacking-robots/(accessed 12 October 2023).
69.
National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC)
(2007 ) The Prioritization of Critical Infrastructure for a Pandemic Outbreak in the United States Working Group, Final Report and Recommendations by the Council, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency , Available at https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/niac-pandemic-outbreak-final-report-01-17-07-508.pdf (accessed 18 October 2023) .
70.
Nixon
R
(2011 ) Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor . Harvard University Press .
71.
Nordin
R
(2017 ) The Iron Fist: The Immigrant Journey of J.B. Leonis to Riches and Power in Southern California . Xlibirs .
72.
Pain
R
Cahill
C
(2022 ) Critical political geographies of slow violence and resistance . Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 40 (2 ): 359 –372 . DOI: 10.1177/23996544221085753 .
73.
Paret
M
(2014 ) Legality and exploitation: immigration enforcement and the US migrant labor system . Latino Studie 12 : 503 –526 .
74.
Penados
F
Gahman
L
Smith
S
(2022 ) Land, race and (slow) violence: indigenous resistance to racial capitalism and the coloniality of development in the Caribbean . Geoforum 145 : 103602 . DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.07.004 .
75.
Philpott
T
(2020 ) Workers churning out America’s favorite meat fear for their safety . Mother Jones, April, 14 . Available at: https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/04/sanderson-farms-tyson-poultry-chicken-processing-coronavirus/(accessed 15 November 2020).
76.
Pirtle
WL
(2020 ) Racial capitalism: a fundamental cause of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic inequities in the United States . Health Education & Behavior 47 (4 ): 504 –508 .
77.
Pulido
L
(2017 ) Geographies of race and ethnicity II: environmental racism, racial capitalism, and state-sanctioned violence . Progress in Human Geography 41 : 524 –533 .
78.
Reyes-Velarde
A
Rector
K
(2020 ) Vernon has about as many coronavirus cases as residents. That worries its neighbors . Los Angeles Times, June, 14 . Available at: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-14/vernon-coronavirus-cases-residents-farmer-john (accessed 15 November 2020).
79.
Ribas
V
(2015 ) On the Line: Slaughterhouse Lives and the Making of the New South . Berkeley : University of California Press .
80.
Rivera
I
(2023 ) Undoing settler imaginaries: (Re)imagining digital knowledge politics . Progress in Human Geography 47 (2 ): 298 –316 . DOI: 10.1177/03091325231154873 .
81.
Robinson
C
(1983 ) Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition . Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press .
82.
Robinson
C
(2019 ) In:
Quan
HLT
(ed), On Racial Capitalism, Black Internationalism, and Cultures of Resistance . London : Pluto Press .
83.
Rocco
R
(2016 ) Disposable subjects: the racial normativity of neoliberalism and Latino immigrants . Latino Studies 14 : 99 –117 . DOI: 10.1057/lst.2015.51 .
84.
Rodriguez
R
(2020 ) Workers at Hanford meat packing plant infected with coronavirus . Fresno Bee, April 26 . Available at: https://www.fresnobee.com/news/coronavirus/article242305656.html (accessed 15 November 2020).
85.
Rosas
G
(2019 ) Necro-subjection: on borders, asylum, and making dead to let live . Theory & Event 22 (2 ): 303 –324 .
86.
Ryan
H
(2020 ) Farmer John meatpackers demand closing of Vernon plant struck by COVID-19 outbreak . Los Angeles Times, May 25 . Available at: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-25/farmer-john-meatpackers-demand-closing-vernon-plant-coronavirus (accessed 20 November 2020).
87.
Samaha
A
Baker
K
(2020 ) Smithfield Foods is blaming “living circumstances in certain cultures” for one of America’s largest COVID-19 clusters . Buzzfeed, April, 20 . Available at: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/albertsamaha/smithfield-foods-coronavirus-outbreak (accessed 20 November 2020).
88.
Select Subcommittee
(2021 ) Despite hundreds of outbreaks, Trump Administration issued just eight citations, with fines as low $11 per infected worker . Coronavirus.house.gov, February, 1 . Available at https://coronavirus.house.gov/news/press-releases/select-subcommittee-launches-investigation-widespread-coronavirus-infections-and (accessed 31 December 2021).
89.
Smithfield Foods
(2020 ) Smithfield Foods Addresses Misinformation amid COVID-19 Crisis . Natinal Hog Farmer, April, 25 . Available at: https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/business/smithfield-foods-addresses-misinformation-amid-covid-19-crisis (accessed 20 November 2020).
90.
Stanescu
J
(2013 ) Beyond biopolitics: animal studies, factory farms, and the advent of deading life . Phaenex: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture 8 (2 ): 135 –160 .
91.
Stella
C
(2020 a) Immigrant meatpackers say they’re being blamed for the spread of Covid-19 . NPR, August 10 . https://www.npr.org/2020/08/10/900766712/immigrant-meatpackers-say-theyre-being-blamed-for-spread-of-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR0oHcxsxUYwmZ1lrHf_3xERspvR_tMW-QXQlYqyv70Q0LLtHFosLoZ5674 (accessed 15 November 2020).
92.
Stella
C
(2020 b) While meatpacking workers fear speaking out on COVID-19 their children organize for them . Nebraska Public Media, December, 29 . Available at: https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/while-meatpacking-workers-fear-speaking-out-on-covid-19-their-children-organize-for-them/(accessed 31 December 2020).
93.
Stull
D
(2020 ) Making meat in the time of COVID-19 . Anthropology Now 12 (2 ): 5 –17 .
94.
Takaki
R
(1983 ) Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii, 1835-1920 . Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press .
95.
Tappe
A
(2020 ) Trump has the worst job losses on record heading into the election . CNN, October, 6 . Available at: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/02/economy/september-2020-jobs-report-election/index.html (accessed 2021 March 15).
96.
Thomas
D
Roumeliotis
G
(2013 ) China’s Shuanghui to buy Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion . Reuters, May, 29 . Available at: https://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKBRE94S0UK20130529 (accessed 15 November 2020).
97.
Trujillo
T
(2020 ) Smithfield Foods line workers protest for safer working conditions . ABC, Nebraska News, April, 25 . Available at: https://www.klkntv.com/smithfield-foods-line-workers-protest-for-safer-working-conditions/(accessed 15 November 2020).
98.
Tyner
J
(2019 ) Dead Labor: Toward a Political Economy of Premature Death . Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press .
99.
Tyson
J
(2020 ) A delicate balance: feeding the nation and keeping our employees healthy . Washington Post, April, 26 . Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/tyson-ad/86b9290d-115b-4628-ad80-0e679dcd2669/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2
100.
Waltenburg
MA
Rose
CE
Victoroff
T
CDC COVID-19 Emergency Response Team
, et al. (2021 ) Coronavirus disease among workers in food processing, food manufacturing, and agriculture workplaces . Emerging Infectious Diseases 27 (1 ): 243 –249 .
101.
Warren
E
(2020 ) Elizabeth Warren and Ro Khanna unveil essential workers bill of rights . Press release. April, 13 . Available at: https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/elizabeth-warren-and-ro-khanna-unveil-essential-workers-bill-of-rights (accessed 31 December 2021).
102.
Wasley
A
Cook
C
Jones
N
(2018 ) Two amputations a week: the cost of working in a US meat plant . Guardian, July, 5 . Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/05/amputations-serious-injuries-us-meat-industry-plant (accessed 15 November 2020).
103.
Weheliye
A
(2008 ) After man . American Literary History 20 (1–2 ): 321 –336 .
104.
World Health Organization
(2023 ) The true death toll of COVID-19 estimating global excess mortality . Available at: https://www.who.int/data/stories/the-true-death-toll-of-covid-19-estimating-global-excess-mortality (accessed 11 October 2023).