A Chicken in Every Pot: At What Price?

Abstract

The poultry industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. “Big chicken,” however, has created big problems. Consumers and the environment, as well as people who grow, catch, slaughter, and process chicken are all impacted by the practices and policies of the poultry industry. This paper sheds some light on serious problems caused by production practices that put profits above human dignity, food safety, and the environment and proposes some needed regulations and actions.

When Jurgis had first inspected the packing-plants with Szadwilas, he had marveled while he listened to the tale of all the things that were made out of the carcasses of animals, and of all the lesser industries that were maintained there; now he found that each one of these lesser industries was a desperate little inferno, in its way as horrible as the killing-floor, the source and fountain of them all. The worker in each of them had their own peculiar diseases … the worker bore the evidence of them about on his own person—generally he had only to hold out his hand.

—Upton Sinclair, The Jungle [1]

… it is human hands that must make the same knife or scissors cut to slit open carcasses from anus to breast or the same twist of the hand to yank out viscera at a grueling pace, set by a relentless conveyor belt and reinforced by circulating foremen, while workers are standing in pools of water and grease in temperatures that range from freezing to ninety-five degrees and being pelted by flying fat globules or dripping blood…. The painful damage to tendons and nerves can permanently cripple fingers, hands, wrists, arms, and shoulders. It has required thousands of poultry workers to undergo corrective surgery and made it difficult or impossible for them to perform such simple motions or tasks as raising their arms above their heads, holding things, sweeping, washing dishes, or removing clothes from a washing machine.

—Mark Linder [2]