Mary Boucher

Ms. Randolf
Honors English
May 15th, 2017
The Truth Behind The Meat Industry
After reading two articles called The Jungle from Upton Sinclair, and The Most
Dangerous Job by Eric Schlosser, I couldn't overlook another piece of meat again. Not only do
these two articles stress the fact that employees who work in slaughterhouses are risking their
well-being, but in return receive little to no money from workers compensation. It seems these
two articles cannot fathom enough that the meat industries environment wasnt safe back in 1906
for their employees, and has only grown to become a more dangerous environment. As stated in
The Most Dangerous Job by Eric Schlosser: During the same years when the working
conditions at Americas meatpacking plants became more dangerous-when line speeds increased
and illegal immigrants replaced skilled workers-the federal government greatly reduced the
enforcement of health and safety laws.
Furthermore, we have illegal immigrants who have no clue what they are doing working in
our meat packing plants. To add more flames to the fire, a former safety director from OSHA
who acknowledged his own lack of qualification for the job, also stated in The Most Dangerous
Job by Eric Schlosser: I know very well that you know more about safety and health in the meat
industry than I do. And you know more about safety and health in the meat industry than any
single employee at OSHA. White told the executives. Moreover the meat industry has countless
injuries, mostly due to the speed of the disassembly line. The meat industry is just worried about
a faster pace because that means a higher profit. For example: IBP revolution has been directly
responsible for many of the hazards that meat packing workers now face. One of the leading
determinants of the injury rate at the slaughterhouse today is the speed of the disassembly line.
The faster it runs the more likely that the workers will get hurt. cited from: The Most
Dangerous Job by Eric Schlosser.
Similarly back in 1906, workers were treated unjust, and in a harsh work environment. For
example: There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and
so they made a practice of washing them in water that was to be ladled into the sausage. stated
from the article called The Jungle from Upton Sinclair. The meat industry was very-unsanitary
back then, not to mention the rats and poison bread thrown in the grinder along with the meat.
The work environment was so harsh people became careless. For example as stated in The
Jungle from Upton Sinclair: Such were the surroundings in which Elzbieta was placed, and
such was the work she was compelled to do. It was stupefying, brutalizing work; it left her more
time to think, no strength for anything. She was part of the machine she tended, and every faculty
that was not needed for the machine was doomed to be crushed out of existence. There was only
one mercy to the cruel grind - that it gave her the gift of insensibility.
Overall after the publication of The Jungle from Upton Sinclair, Roosevelt had his own
investigation. This resulted in the pure-food-and-drugs-bill, The Meat Inspection Act, and The
Pure Food and Drug Act on June 30th, 1906. Which secured federal supervision and control over
corporations. Meanwhile, the publication of Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, resulted in
people caring more about issues like sustainability and organic food. For example: The Coalition
of Immokalee Workers Success. Which got major fast food establishments to pay more to the
people harvesting their food. All things considered we could only hope to make a greater change
in the food industry futurewise.