https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/21/life-inside-america-food-processing-plants-cheap-meat
This article is about the working conditions in meat factories. It starts by telling a story of a one worker who severed her finger because she had trouble keeping up with the speed of the line and notes in the story that the line did not stop, even though the station had to be cleaned of her blood. The article then contrasts this, the workers and the speed of the meat factories, with the food movements that call for “local, natural, free-range, humanely raised, sustainable and ethically harvested food.” It then explains the working conditions, including a fifty percent chance of having a serious injury and having an autoimmune disease due to inhalation of pork cells, are caused by multiple factors including the reduction of unionized workers, the use of illegal immigrants, since they do not complain and will just work harder instead of complaining or asking for a raise, and the recent recession, which encouraged the meat factories to produce more and cheaper meat by increasing the speed of the line and not hire a proportional amount of workers. The article then explains that this has caused food outbreaks due to the fact that meat that should have been rejected was never caught due to the speed of the line. It also states that these factories will not go away due to international markets, such as China, and people that cannot afford high-quality meat. The article also suggests that the government regulate the speed of the conveyor belt and ensure that the workers have good conditions and a good wage to correct these problems.
That is just dreadful! We really need to start focusing on how we are producing our meat not how much we can produce it. They're so many consequences that can occur due to the conditions our foods are being produced. I hope our voices are being heard and that we start to improve our ways of producing foods.
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