Truth About Meat Packing Plants

Many people fail to consider where their meat comes from. Often, the mental image is of a farm animal and then of the prepared meat on the dinner plate. However, before meat makes it to the store to be purchased the animal is sent off to be slaughtered and processed at a meat packing plant (sometimes called slaughterhouses).

History

• In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt signed into place the Pure Food and Drug Act, designed to protect consumers and encourage meat packing plants to maintain desirable levels of sanitation and food safety procedures.

Time Frame

• In the 1970's the meat packing industry underwent changes. Meat packing plants moved from cities to rural America. Many plants consolidated and began paying lower wages. Many illegal immigrants were recruited to work at meat packing plants because they would work long hours for very low pay.

Misconceptions

• The vision of the grocery store butcher comes to mind when many people think of meat. However, the meat packing plants work at much faster pace. In fact workers often process as many as 300 cattle an hour. Put another way, five cattle each minute.

Effects

• The effects of this brutal pace leads to a high rate of repetitive stress and other injuries among workers. This is especially true of illegal immigrant employees who often have no health insurance, and who may not be aware of their right to see a doctor.

Effects

• Another effect of the fast pace at which animals are processed is food contamination. In their rush to process an animal workers may slice the intestines, spilling their contents, and releasing E.coli bacteria into the meat.

Warning: Improper Testing

• According to the New York Times, a 2007 USDA survey (inspection) of 2000 meat packing facilities found that half of them did not test meat properly for E.coli contamination. In 2008 the USDA issued a memorandum, which urged, but did not mandate more thorough testing of meat products.