Research on Fast Food's Contribution to Beef Industry
1 Siono
Jessie Siono Golding AP English Language 6 December 2012 Epitome of a Corrupt System: Fast Food’s Effect on the Beef Industry
One can go and travel to just about anywhere and not find a single decently populated area where they don’t come across a small, brightly colored building with a drive through attached to it. Fast food has affected everything that it comes into contact with, whether its society, culture, countries, or businesses. The novel, Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser reveals how one industry in particular has had a very corrupt effect from it’s affiliation with the fast food companies that rely on it. Greeley, Colorado is the major meatpacking town of America and home to ConAgra Beef Company, leader of “the nation’s biggest meatpacking complex.” (Schlosser 149) The development of fast food has played a big role in the corruption of the meatpacking industry. This industry has put great efforts into covering up the raw and shocking manipulation of untrained workers, who have had the misfortune of being employed in a dangerous environment filled with drugs, illness, injury, sexual abuse, death and animal cruelty, all for the sake of cheap labor and maximum production. There has been such horrendous and inexcusable brutality in the conditions of these meatpacking plants. Skilled workers were of no value in this industry and would likely be a burden with their formation of unions amongst themselves against such unacceptable conditions.
2 Siono
All that was necessary were working bodies. Thoreau states “A wise man will only be useful as a man...” in reference to a working man.(129) Typical immigrants who ended up working in these plants had high hopes to “...go to America and marry, and be a rich man in the bargain.” (Shmoop Editorial Team) However, for many, the American dream and much more world be shattered by the menacing packhouses they worked in. The backbreaking labor and extreme dangers of the job were only the beginning of
Jessie Siono Golding AP English Language 6 December 2012 Epitome of a Corrupt System: Fast Food’s Effect on the Beef Industry
One can go and travel to just about anywhere and not find a single decently populated area where they don’t come across a small, brightly colored building with a drive through attached to it. Fast food has affected everything that it comes into contact with, whether its society, culture, countries, or businesses. The novel, Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser reveals how one industry in particular has had a very corrupt effect from it’s affiliation with the fast food companies that rely on it. Greeley, Colorado is the major meatpacking town of America and home to ConAgra Beef Company, leader of “the nation’s biggest meatpacking complex.” (Schlosser 149) The development of fast food has played a big role in the corruption of the meatpacking industry. This industry has put great efforts into covering up the raw and shocking manipulation of untrained workers, who have had the misfortune of being employed in a dangerous environment filled with drugs, illness, injury, sexual abuse, death and animal cruelty, all for the sake of cheap labor and maximum production. There has been such horrendous and inexcusable brutality in the conditions of these meatpacking plants. Skilled workers were of no value in this industry and would likely be a burden with their formation of unions amongst themselves against such unacceptable conditions.
2 Siono
All that was necessary were working bodies. Thoreau states “A wise man will only be useful as a man...” in reference to a working man.(129) Typical immigrants who ended up working in these plants had high hopes to “...go to America and marry, and be a rich man in the bargain.” (Shmoop Editorial Team) However, for many, the American dream and much more world be shattered by the menacing packhouses they worked in. The backbreaking labor and extreme dangers of the job were only the beginning of
Cited: Graef, Alicia. “Record Settlement Reached in Slaughterhouse Abuse Case” Care2.com, 21 Nov. 2012. n.p. Web. 28 Nov. 2012 Pollan, Michael. “What’s Eating America.” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 203-219. Print. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Mariner Books Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001.149-190 Print. Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Jungle" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov.2008. n.p. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. Thoreau, Henry David. “Civil Disobedience.” A World of Ideas. Ed. Lee A. Jacobs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s 1998. 127-139. Print.