A new NPR exposé highlights the dangers of working in the meat industry and how big corporations continue to value profits over human lives.
It was 110 years ago that Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle changed the way Americans felt about the meat industry. Sinclair exposed the harsh conditions and exploited lives of meat industry workers. While new laws have been passed to protect these individuals, it seems that the mentality of the corporate machines behind this abusive industry has not.
For the hundreds of thousands of people who process beef, pork, and poultry in this country, the workplace is hazardous. While meat processing plants are safer than they were a decade ago, many workers still pay a steep price — sometimes with their own lives — to produce our nation’s meat.
According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, 151 meat and poultry workers suffered fatal injuries from 2004 to 2013. Additionally, meat industry workers consistently report higher injury rates than manufacturing industry workers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, beef and pork workers sustain a higher number of injuries and illnesses than poultry workers.
Earlier this year, Buzzfeed News reported that Tyson Foods, America’s largest meat producer, averages one human amputee per month.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the government agency with the sole responsibility of overseeing worker safety, has failed the people it’s supposed to protect. The organization has done little more than give companies a slap on the wrist when an employee is injured or killed on the job.
Ed Horner, a maintenance employee at a beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, lost his life when his shirt got caught in a conveyer belt and he suffocated. His employer, JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, was fined a mere $38,500 for Horner’s death.
Debbie Berkowitz, a fellow with the National Employment Law Project and a former senior OSHA official, said, “Yes, it’s embarrassingly low. And because of that it’s unclear what kind of deterrent effect it really has.”
The conditions at factory farms and slaughterhouses are not only dangerous for humans but also brutal for animals. As all MFA undercover investigations have shown, hundreds of thousands of animals, many beaten and otherwise abused, are living in deplorable conditions.
The best way to help fight these cruel companies that prioritize profit over human and animal lives is to switch to a compassionate vegan diet. Click here to order your FREE Vegetarian Starter Guide.