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The William Davies Company facilities in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, circa 1920. This facility was then the third largest hog-packing plant in North America.

The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally not included. This greater part of the entire meat industry is primarily focused on producing meat for human consumption, but it also yields a variety of by-products including hides, dried blood, protein meals such as meat & bone meal, and, through the process of rendering, fats (such as tallow).

In the United States and some other countries, the facility where the meat packing is done is called a slaughterhouse, packinghouse or a meat-packing plant; in New Zealand, where most of the products are exported, it is called a freezing works.^[1] An abattoir is a place where animals are slaughtered for food.

The meat-packing industry grew with the construction of railroads and methods of refrigeration for meat preservation. Railroads made possible the transport of stock to central points for processing, and the transport of products.

History

United States

Before the American Civil War, the meat industry was localized, with farmers providing beef and hogs for nearby butchers to serve the local market. Large Army contracts during the Civil War attracted entrepreneurs with a vision for building much larger markets.^[2] The 1865–1873 era provided five factors that expanded the industry to a national scale:

The rapid growth of cities provided a lucrative new market for fresh meat.
The emergence of large-scale ranching, the role of the railroads, refrigeration, and entrepreneurial skills.
Cattle ranching on a large-scale moved to the Great Plains, from Texas northward.
Overland cattle drives moved large herds to the railheads in Kansas, where cattle cars brought live animals eastward.
Abilene, Kansas, became the chief railhead, shipping 35,000 cattle a year, mostly to Kansas City, Milwaukee and Chicago.

In Milwaukee, Philip Armour, an ambitious entrepreneur from New York who made his fortune in Army contracts during the war, partnered with Jacob Plankinton to build a highly efficient stockyard that serviced the upper Midwest. Chicago built the famous Union Stockyards in 1865 on 345 swampy acres to the south of downtown. Armour opened the Chicago plant, as did Nelson Morris, another wartime contractor. Cincinnati and Buffalo, both with good water and rail service, also opened stockyards. Perhaps the most energetic entrepreneur was Gustavus Franklin Swift, the Yankee who operated out of Boston and moved to Chicago in 1875, specializing in long distance refrigerated meat shipments to eastern cities.^[2]

A practical refrigerated (ice-cooled) rail car was introduced in 1881. This made it possible to ship cattle and hog carcasses, which weighed only 40% as much as live animals; the entire national market, served by the railroads, was opened up, as well as transatlantic markets using refrigerated ships. Swift developed an integrated network of cattle procurement, slaughtering, meat-packing, and shipping meat to market. Up to that time, cattle were driven great distances to railroad shipping points, causing the cattle to lose considerable weight. Swift developed a large business, which grew in size with the entry of several competitors.^[3] The Bureau of Corporations, predecessor of the Federal Trade Commission investigated the country's meatpackers for anti-competitive practices in the first decade of the 1900s.^[4]

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was the first of a series of legislation that led to the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Another such act passed the same year was the Federal Meat Inspection Act. The new laws helped the large packers, and hurt small operations that lacked economy of scale or quality controls.^[5]

Historian William Cronon concludes:

Because of the Chicago packers, ranchers in Wyoming and feedlot farmers in Iowa regularly found a reliable market for their animals, and on average received better prices for the animals they sold there. At the same time and for the same reason, Americans of all classes found a greater variety of more and better meats on their tables, purchased on average at lower prices than ever before. Seen in this light, the Packers' "rigid system of economy" seemed a very good thing indeed.^[6]

Changing geography

The industry after 1945 closed its stockyards in big cities like Chicago and moved operations to small towns close to cattle ranches, especially in Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado. Historically, besides Cincinnati, Chicago and Omaha, the other major meat-packing cities had been South St. Paul, Minnesota; East St. Louis, Illinois; Dubuque, Iowa; Kansas City, Missouri; Austin, Minnesota; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Sioux City, Iowa.^{[citation needed]}

Rail to truck

Mid-century restructuring by the industry of the stockyards, slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants led to relocating facilities closer to cattle feedlots and swine production facilities, to more rural areas, as transportation shifted from rail to truck. It has been difficult for labor to organize in such locations. In addition, the number of jobs fell sharply due to technology and other changes. Wages fell during the latter part of the 20th century, and eventually, both Chicago (in 1971) and Omaha (in 1999) closed their stockyards. The workforce increasingly relied on recent migrants from Mexico. ^[7]

Argentina

Argentina had the natural resources and human talent to build a world-class meat-packing industry. However, its success in reaching European markets was limited by the poor quality control in the production of its meat and the general inferiority of frozen meat to the chilled meat exported by the United States and Australia. By 1900, the Argentine government encouraged investment in the industry to improve quality. The British dominated the world shipping industry and began fitting their ships for cold air containers, and built new refrigerated steamers. When the Argentine industry finally secured a large slice of the British market, Pateros and trade restrictions limited its penetration of the Continent.^[8]

China

Meat in China moved from a minor specialty commodity to a major factor in the food supply in the late 20th century thanks to the rapid emergence of a middle class with upscale tastes and plenty of money. It was a transition from a country able to provide a small ration of meat for urban citizens only to the world's largest meat producer; it was a movement from a handful of processing facilities in major cities to thousands of modern meat-packing and processing plants throughout the country, alongside the rapid growth of a middle-class with spending money.^[9]

Labor and safety issues

In the early 20th century, meatpacking companies employed new immigrants as strikebreakers during labor actions initiated by existing workers, who were often earlier immigrants themselves or the immediate descendants of immigrants. The publication of the Upton Sinclair novel The Jungle in the U.S. in 1906 shocked the public with the poor working conditions and unsanitary practices in the meat-packing plants in the United States, specifically Chicago.

Meat-packing plants, like many industries in the early 20th century, overworked their employees, failed to maintain adequate safety measures, and actively fought unionization. Meat-packing workers were exposed to dangerous chemicals and sharp machinery, and routinely suffered horrible injuries. Public pressure of the U.S. Congress led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act (both passed in 1906 on the same day) to ensure better regulations of the meat-packing industry.

In the 1920s and early 1930s, workers achieved unionization under the CIO's United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA). An interracial committee led the organizing in Chicago, where the majority of workers in the industry were black, and other major cities, such as Omaha, Nebraska, where they were an important minority in the industry. UPWA workers made important gains in wages, hours and benefits. In 1957, the stockyards and meat-packing plants employed half the workers of Omaha. The union supported a progressive agenda, including the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. While the work was still difficult, for a few decades workers achieved blue-collar, middle-class lives from it.

Though the meat-packing industry has made many improvements since the early 1900s, extensive changes in the industry since the late 20th century have caused new labor issues to arise. Today, the rate of injury in the meat-packing industry is three times that of the private industry overall, and meat-packing was noted by Human Rights Watch as being "the most dangerous factory job in America". The meatpacking industry continues to employ many immigrant laborers, including some who are undocumented workers. In the early 20th century the workers were immigrants from eastern and southern Europe and black migrants from the South. Today, many meatpacking workers are Hispanics hailing from Mexico, Central and South America. A notable amount of workers are from Peru, leading to the formation of a large Peruvian community in the industry. The isolated areas in which many plants are located put these workers at greater risk due to their limited ability to organize and seek redress for work-related injuries.^[10]^[11]^[12]

American slaughterhouse workers are three times more likely to suffer serious injury than the average American worker.^[13] NPR reports that pig and cattle slaughterhouse workers are nearly seven times more likely to suffer repetitive strain injuries than average.^[14] The Guardian reports that on average there are two amputations a week involving slaughterhouse workers in the United States.^[15] On average, one employee of Tyson Foods, the largest meat producer in America, is injured and amputates a finger or limb per month.^[16] The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that over a period of six years in the UK, 78 slaughter workers lost fingers, parts of fingers or limbs, more than 800 workers had serious injuries, and at least 4,500 had to take more than three days off after accidents.^[17] In a 2018 study in the Italian Journal of Food Safety, slaughterhouse workers are instructed to wear ear protectors to protect their hearing from the constant screams of animals being killed.^[18] A 2004 study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that "excess risks were observed for mortality from all causes, all cancers, and lung cancer" in workers employed in the New Zealand meat processing industry.^[19]

The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll. If you work in the stick pit [where hogs are killed] for any period of time—that lets [sic] you kill things but doesn't let you care. You may look a hog in the eye that's walking around in the blood pit with you and think, 'God, that really isn't a bad-looking animal.' You may want to pet it. Pigs down on the kill floor have come up to nuzzle me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them—beat them to death with a pipe. I can't care.
— Gail A. Eisnitz, ^[20]

The act of slaughtering animals or of raising or transporting animals for slaughter may engender psychological stress or trauma in the people involved.^[21]^[22]^[23]^[24] A 2016 study in Organization indicates, "Regression analyses of data from 10,605 Danish workers across 44 occupations suggest that slaughterhouse workers consistently experience lower physical and psychological well-being along with increased incidences of negative coping behavior".^[25] A 2009 study by criminologist Amy Fitzgerald indicates, "slaughterhouse employment increases total arrest rates, arrests for violent crimes, arrests for rape, and arrests for other sex offenses in comparison with other industries".^[26] As authors from the PTSD Journal explain, "These employees are hired to kill animals, such as pigs and cows that are largely gentle creatures. Carrying out this action requires workers to disconnect from what they are doing and from the creature standing before them. This emotional dissonance can lead to consequences such as domestic violence, social withdrawal, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, and PTSD".^[27]

Slaughterhouses in the United States commonly illegally employ and exploit underage workers and illegal immigrants.^[28]^[29] In 2010, Human Rights Watch described slaughterhouse line work in the United States as a human rights crime.^[30] In a report by Oxfam America, slaughterhouse workers were observed not being allowed breaks, were often required to wear diapers, and were paid below minimum wage.^[31]

Another problem in this context is that the pharmaceutical industry obtains basic materials for its products from the meat-packing industry; for example, tissue extracts from slaughterhouse waste. In the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, this led to the paradoxical situation that mass slaughterhouses were infection drivers due to the bad labor conditions and at the same time suppliers of important therapeutics such as heparin, which subsequently became a scarce commodity.^[32] Medical historian Benjamin Prinz has therefore pointed to the fragility of today's healthcare systems, which themselves participate in environmentally destructive and disease-causing production chains.^[33]

Contemporary concerns about the meat industry within the American context have often been colored by the COVID-19 Pandemic and the resulting supply chain issues. Beyond the consumer perspective, workers were expected to drastically increase the rate at which they process animals. For instance, workers were expected to process 175 birds per minute up from 140 birds per minute.^[34] In part this was due to shortages of workers. Workers within the industry were often in the news for large outbreaks within factories.^[35] By its nature meat processing requires close proximity to other workers and exposure to a slew of bacteria and viruses. Additionally, workers often have to yell over loud machinery which increases the amount of contaminated droplets in the air.^[36] More than 50,000 meat packing workers contracted the disease and over 200 died.^[36] Disease is not evenly distributed throughout factories and all workers in a given factory are not at equal risk for exposure and negative health outcomes despite working the same job. In particular, the overlap of immigration status and workplace exposures can result in a variety of negative health outcomes.^[37]

Meat-packing companies

"Big Four"

By 1900, the dominant meat-packers were:^[38]

Armour
- Morris (acquired in 1923)
Cudahy
Wilson
Swift

"Big Three"

In the 1990s, the dominant meat-packers were:^[39]

Today

Current significant meat-packers in the United States include:^[40]

Beef Packers:

Pork Packers:

Smithfield Foods
Seaboard Corporation
Tyson Foods
JBS USA
Cargill Meat Solutions

Broiler Chickens:

Outside the United States:

Teys Australia
JBS S.A. (Brazil)
Marfrig S.A. (Brazil)
BRF S.A. (Brazil)
Charoen Pokphand Group (Thailand)
Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company (South Africa)
Maple Leaf Foods (Canada)
Schneider Foods (Canada)
Cargill Proteins (Canada)
AFFCO Holdings (New Zealand)

Footnotes

^ Noted. "Following the call of New Zealand's abandoned freezing works". Noted. Archived from the original on 2019-05-25. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
^ ^a ^b Allan Nevins, The emergence of modern America, 1865-1878 (1927) pp 35-39.
^ Alfred D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise (1962). pp 25-28
^ Joshua Specht (2019). Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America (PDF). Princeton University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0691182315.
^ Roots, Roger (2001-01-01). "A Muckraker's Aftermath: The Jungle of Meat-packing Regulation after a Century". William Mitchell Law Review. 27 (4). ISSN 0270-272X.
^ William Cronon (2009). Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. W. W. Norton. p. 254. ISBN 9780393072457.
^ "Who are America's meat and poultry workers?". Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
^ Robert Greenhill, "Shipping and the Refrigerated Meat Trade from the River Plate, 1900–1930." International Journal of Maritime History 4.1 (1992): 65-82.
^ Guanghong Zhou, Wangang Zhang, and Xinglian Xu. "China's meat industry revolution: Challenges and opportunities for the future." Meat science 92.3 (2012): 188-196.
^ "Meat Packing Industry Criticized on Human Rights Grounds". The New York Times. 2005-01-25. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
^ "Blood, Sweat, and Fear". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
^ "Opinion | The Shame of Postville, Iowa". The New York Times. 2008-07-13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
^ "Meatpacking". Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Lowe, Peggy (11 August 2016). "Working 'The Chain,' Slaughterhouse Workers Face Lifelong Injuries". National Public Radio. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ "Two amputations a week: the cost of working in a US meat plant". The Guardian. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Lewis, Cora (18 February 2018). "America's Largest Meat Producer Averages One Amputation Per Month". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ "Revealed: Shocking safety record of UK meat plants". The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Francesca Iulietto, Maria; Sechi, Paola (3 July 2018). "Noise assessment in slaughterhouses by means of a smartphone app". Italian Journal of Food Safety. 7 (2): 7053. doi:10.4081/ijfs.2018.7053. PMC 6036995. PMID 30046554.
^ McLean, D; Cheng, S (June 2004). "Mortality and cancer incidence in New Zealand meat workers". Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 61 (6): 541–547. doi:10.1136/oem.2003.010587. PMC 1763658. PMID 15150395.
^ Eisnitz, Gail A. (1997). Slaughterhouse:: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, And Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry. Prometheus Books.
^ "PTSD in the Slaughterhouse". The Texas Observer. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
^ "Psychological Distress Among Slaughterhouse Workers Warrants Further Study - SPH - Boston University". School of Public Health. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
^ Dillard, Jennifer (September 2007). "A Slaughterhouse Nightmare: Psychological Harm Suffered by Slaughterhouse Employees and the Possibility of Redress through Legal Reform". ResearchGate.net. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
^ Nagesh, Ashitha (31 December 2017). "The harrowing psychological toll of slaughterhouse work". Metro. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Baran, B. E.; Rogelberg, S. G.; Clausen, T (2016). "Routinized killing of animals: Going beyond dirty work and prestige to understand the well-being of slaughterhouse workers". Organization. 23 (3): 351–369. doi:10.1177/1350508416629456. S2CID 148368906.
^ Fitzgerald, A. J.; Kalof, L. (2009). "Slaughterhouses and Increased Crime Rates: An Empirical Analysis of the Spillover From "The Jungle" Into the Surrounding Community". Organization & Environment. 22 (2): 158–184. doi:10.1177/1350508416629456. S2CID 148368906.
^ "The Psychological Damage of Slaughterhouse Work". PTSDJournal. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Waldman, Peter (29 December 2017). "America's Worst Graveyard Shift Is Grinding Up Workers". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Grabell, Michael (1 May 2017). "Exploitation and Abuse at the Chicken Plant". The New Yorker. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Varia, Nisha (11 December 2010). "Rights on the Line". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Grabell, Michael (23 May 2018). "Lives on the Line". Oxfam America. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
^ Rubenstein, Beth L.; Campbell, Stefanie; Meyers, Alysha R.; Crum, David A.; Mitchell, Clifford S.; Hutson, Jeré; Williams, D’Ann L.; Senesie, Schabbethai S.; Gilani, Zunera; Reynolds, Steven; Alba, Bianca; Tavitian, Stephanie; Billings, Kristian; Saintus, Lina; Martin, Stephen B. (2020-12-18). "Factors That Might Affect SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Among Foreign-Born and U.S.-Born Poultry Facility Workers — Maryland, May 2020". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 69 (50): 1906–1910. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6950a5. ISSN 0149-2195. PMC 7745955. PMID 33332291.
^ Prinz, Benjamin (2022-04-01). "How blood met plastics, plant and animal extracts: Material encounters between medicine and industry in the twentieth century". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 92: 45–55. doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.01.007. ISSN 0039-3681. PMID 35131685. S2CID 246575794.
^ Thompson, Shayla (2020-07-17). "Op-ed: Speeding Up Poultry Lines in a Pandemic Puts Workers' Lives in Danger". Civil Eats. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
^ Douglas, Leah (2022-01-14). "Nearly 90% of big US meat plants had COVID-19 cases in pandemic's first year - data". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
^ ^a ^b Whitehead, Dalton (September 1, 2022). "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Meat Supply Chain in the USA: A Review". Food Science of Animal Resources. 42 (5): 762–774. doi:10.5851/kosfa.2022.e39. PMC 9478983. PMID 36133635.
^ Flynn, Micheal (2018). "Im/migration, Work, and Health: Anthropology and the Occupational Health of Labor Im/migrants". Anthropology of Work Review. 39 (2): 116–123. doi:10.1111/awr.12151. PMC 6503519. PMID 31080311.
^ Warren, Wilson J. (November 2009). Tied to the Great Packing Machine: The Midwest and Meatpacking. University of Iowa Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-58729-774-8.
^ Pate, J'Nell L. (2005). America's Historic Stockyards: Livestock Hotels. TCU Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-87565-304-4.
^ Wise, Timothy A.; Rakocy, Betsy. "Hogging the Gains from Trade: The Real Winners from U.S. Trade and Agricultural Policies". Tufts University: Global Development And Environment Institute. Retrieved 2019-08-11.

External links

[1] Noted. "Following the call of New Zealand's abandoned freezing works". Noted. Archived from the original on 2019-05-25. Retrieved 2019-06-19.

[:1-2] Allan Nevins, The emergence of modern America, 1865-1878 (1927) pp 35-39.

[3] Alfred D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise (1962). pp 25-28

[4] Joshua Specht (2019). Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America (PDF). Princeton University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0691182315.

[5] Roots, Roger (2001-01-01). "A Muckraker's Aftermath: The Jungle of Meat-packing Regulation after a Century". William Mitchell Law Review. 27 (4). ISSN 0270-272X.

[6] William Cronon (2009). Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. W. W. Norton. p. 254. ISBN 9780393072457.

[7] "Who are America's meat and poultry workers?". Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved 2024-03-15.

[8] Robert Greenhill, "Shipping and the Refrigerated Meat Trade from the River Plate, 1900–1930." International Journal of Maritime History 4.1 (1992): 65-82.

[9] Guanghong Zhou, Wangang Zhang, and Xinglian Xu. "China's meat industry revolution: Challenges and opportunities for the future." Meat science 92.3 (2012): 188-196.

[10] "Meat Packing Industry Criticized on Human Rights Grounds". The New York Times. 2005-01-25. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-11.

[11] "Blood, Sweat, and Fear". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 2019-08-11.

[12] "Opinion | The Shame of Postville, Iowa". The New York Times. 2008-07-13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-11.

[13] "Meatpacking". Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[14] Lowe, Peggy (11 August 2016). "Working 'The Chain,' Slaughterhouse Workers Face Lifelong Injuries". National Public Radio. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[15] "Two amputations a week: the cost of working in a US meat plant". The Guardian. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[16] Lewis, Cora (18 February 2018). "America's Largest Meat Producer Averages One Amputation Per Month". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[17] "Revealed: Shocking safety record of UK meat plants". The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[18] Francesca Iulietto, Maria; Sechi, Paola (3 July 2018). "Noise assessment in slaughterhouses by means of a smartphone app". Italian Journal of Food Safety. 7 (2): 7053. doi:10.4081/ijfs.2018.7053. PMC 6036995. PMID 30046554.

[19] McLean, D; Cheng, S (June 2004). "Mortality and cancer incidence in New Zealand meat workers". Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 61 (6): 541–547. doi:10.1136/oem.2003.010587. PMC 1763658. PMID 15150395.

[20] Eisnitz, Gail A. (1997). Slaughterhouse:: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, And Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry. Prometheus Books.

[21] "PTSD in the Slaughterhouse". The Texas Observer. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2019.

[22] "Psychological Distress Among Slaughterhouse Workers Warrants Further Study - SPH - Boston University". School of Public Health. Retrieved 30 January 2019.

[23] Dillard, Jennifer (September 2007). "A Slaughterhouse Nightmare: Psychological Harm Suffered by Slaughterhouse Employees and the Possibility of Redress through Legal Reform". ResearchGate.net. Retrieved 30 January 2019.

[24] Nagesh, Ashitha (31 December 2017). "The harrowing psychological toll of slaughterhouse work". Metro. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[25] Baran, B. E.; Rogelberg, S. G.; Clausen, T (2016). "Routinized killing of animals: Going beyond dirty work and prestige to understand the well-being of slaughterhouse workers". Organization. 23 (3): 351–369. doi:10.1177/1350508416629456. S2CID 148368906.

[26] Fitzgerald, A. J.; Kalof, L. (2009). "Slaughterhouses and Increased Crime Rates: An Empirical Analysis of the Spillover From "The Jungle" Into the Surrounding Community". Organization & Environment. 22 (2): 158–184. doi:10.1177/1350508416629456. S2CID 148368906.

[27] "The Psychological Damage of Slaughterhouse Work". PTSDJournal. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[28] Waldman, Peter (29 December 2017). "America's Worst Graveyard Shift Is Grinding Up Workers". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[29] Grabell, Michael (1 May 2017). "Exploitation and Abuse at the Chicken Plant". The New Yorker. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[30] Varia, Nisha (11 December 2010). "Rights on the Line". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[31] Grabell, Michael (23 May 2018). "Lives on the Line". Oxfam America. Retrieved 23 May 2019.

[32] Rubenstein, Beth L.; Campbell, Stefanie; Meyers, Alysha R.; Crum, David A.; Mitchell, Clifford S.; Hutson, Jeré; Williams, D’Ann L.; Senesie, Schabbethai S.; Gilani, Zunera; Reynolds, Steven; Alba, Bianca; Tavitian, Stephanie; Billings, Kristian; Saintus, Lina; Martin, Stephen B. (2020-12-18). "Factors That Might Affect SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Among Foreign-Born and U.S.-Born Poultry Facility Workers — Maryland, May 2020". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 69 (50): 1906–1910. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6950a5. ISSN 0149-2195. PMC 7745955. PMID 33332291.

[33] Prinz, Benjamin (2022-04-01). "How blood met plastics, plant and animal extracts: Material encounters between medicine and industry in the twentieth century". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 92: 45–55. doi:10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.01.007. ISSN 0039-3681. PMID 35131685. S2CID 246575794.

[34] Thompson, Shayla (2020-07-17). "Op-ed: Speeding Up Poultry Lines in a Pandemic Puts Workers' Lives in Danger". Civil Eats. Retrieved 2023-07-06.

[35] Douglas, Leah (2022-01-14). "Nearly 90% of big US meat plants had COVID-19 cases in pandemic's first year - data". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-07-06.

[:0-36] Whitehead, Dalton (September 1, 2022). "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Meat Supply Chain in the USA: A Review". Food Science of Animal Resources. 42 (5): 762–774. doi:10.5851/kosfa.2022.e39. PMC 9478983. PMID 36133635.

[37] Flynn, Micheal (2018). "Im/migration, Work, and Health: Anthropology and the Occupational Health of Labor Im/migrants". Anthropology of Work Review. 39 (2): 116–123. doi:10.1111/awr.12151. PMC 6503519. PMID 31080311.

[38] Warren, Wilson J. (November 2009). Tied to the Great Packing Machine: The Midwest and Meatpacking. University of Iowa Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-58729-774-8.

[39] Pate, J'Nell L. (2005). America's Historic Stockyards: Livestock Hotels. TCU Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-87565-304-4.

[40] Wise, Timothy A.; Rakocy, Betsy. "Hogging the Gains from Trade: The Real Winners from U.S. Trade and Agricultural Policies". Tufts University: Global Development And Environment Institute. Retrieved 2019-08-11.

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@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 ===  United States ===
 [[File:Pork Dressing (20107657).jpg|thumb|Postcard of pork dressing in Texas, undated]]
-cy is packing meat
-Before the Civil War, the [[meat industry]] was localized, with nearby farmers providing [[beef]] and hogs for local butchers to serve the local market. Large Army contracts during the war attracted entrepreneurs with a vision for building much larger markets. The 1865–1873 era provided five factors that nationalized the industry:
+Before the [[American Civil War]], the [[meat industry]] was localized, with farmers providing beef and hogs for nearby butchers to serve the local market. Large Army contracts during the Civil War attracted entrepreneurs with a vision for building much larger markets.<ref name=":1" /> The 1865–1873 era provided five factors that expanded the industry to a national scale:
 * The rapid growth of cities provided a lucrative new market for fresh meat.
 * The emergence of large-scale ranching, the role of the railroads, refrigeration, and entrepreneurial skills.
-* Cattle ranching on a large-scale moved to the Great Plains, from Texas northward.
+* Cattle ranching on a large-scale moved to the [[Great Plains]], from Texas northward.
-* Overland cattle drives moved large herds to the railheads in Kansas, where cattle cars brought live animals eastward.
+* [[Cattle drives in the United States|Overland cattle drives]] moved large herds to the railheads in Kansas, where cattle cars brought live animals eastward.
-* Abilene, Kansas, became the chief railhead, shipping 35,000 cattle a year, mostly to Kansas City, Milwaukee and Chicago.
+* [[Abilene, Kansas]], became the chief railhead, shipping 35,000 cattle a year, mostly to [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], [[Milwaukee]] and [[Chicago]].
-In Milwaukee, [[Philip Armour]], an ambitious entrepreneur from New York who made his fortune in Army contracts during the war, partnered with Jacob Plankinton to build a highly efficient stockyard that serviced the upper Midwest. Chicago built the famous Union Stockyards in 1865 on 345 swampy acres to the south of downtown. Armour opened the Chicago plant, as did Nelson Morris, another wartime contractor. Cincinnati and Buffalo, both with good water and rail service, also opened stockyards. Perhaps the most energetic entrepreneur was [[Gustavus Franklin Swift]], the Yankee who operated out of Boston and moved to Chicago in 1875, specializing in long distance refrigerated meat shipments to eastern cities.<ref>Allan Nevins, ''The emergence of modern America, 1865-1878'' (1927) pp 35-39.</ref>
+In Milwaukee, [[Philip Armour]], an ambitious entrepreneur from New York who made his fortune in Army contracts during the war, partnered with Jacob Plankinton to build a highly efficient stockyard that serviced the upper Midwest. Chicago built the famous Union Stockyards in 1865 on 345 swampy acres to the south of downtown. Armour opened the Chicago plant, as did [[Nelson Morris]], another wartime contractor. [[Cincinnati]] and [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], both with good water and rail service, also opened stockyards. Perhaps the most energetic entrepreneur was [[Gustavus Franklin Swift]], the [[Yankee]] who operated out of [[Boston]] and moved to Chicago in 1875, specializing in long distance refrigerated meat shipments to eastern cities.<ref name=":1">Allan Nevins, ''The emergence of modern America, 1865-1878'' (1927) pp 35-39.</ref>
-A practical refrigerated (ice-cooled) rail car was introduced in 1881. This made it possible to ship cattle and hog carcasses, which weighed only 40% as much as live animals; the entire national market, served by the railroads, was opened up, as well as transatlantic markets using refrigerated ships. Swift developed an integrated network of cattle procurement, slaughtering, meat-packing, and shipping meat to market. Up to that time, cattle were driven great distances to railroad shipping points, causing the cattle to lose considerable weight. Swift developed a large business, which grew in size with the entry of several competitors.<ref>Alfred D. Chandler, ''Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise'' (1962). pp 25-28</ref>
+A practical [[Refrigerator car|refrigerated (ice-cooled) rail car]] was introduced in 1881. This made it possible to ship cattle and hog carcasses, which weighed only 40% as much as live animals; the entire national market, served by the railroads, was opened up, as well as transatlantic markets using [[Reefer ship|refrigerated ships]]. Swift developed an integrated network of cattle procurement, slaughtering, meat-packing, and shipping meat to market. Up to that time, cattle were driven great distances to railroad shipping points, causing the cattle to lose considerable weight. Swift developed a large business, which grew in size with the entry of several competitors.<ref>Alfred D. Chandler, ''Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise'' (1962). pp 25-28</ref> The [[Bureau of Corporations]], predecessor of the [[Federal Trade Commission]] investigated the country's meatpackers for anti-competitive practices in the first decade of the 1900s.<ref>{{cite book |title=Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America |year=2019 |page=9 |url=http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/i14209.pdf |author=Joshua Specht |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0691182315 }}</ref>
 The [[Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906]] was the first of a series of legislation that led to the establishment of the [[Food and Drug Administration]] (FDA). Another such act passed the same year was the [[Federal Meat Inspection Act]]. The new laws helped the large packers, and hurt small operations that lacked economy of scale or quality controls.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Roots|first=Roger|date=2001-01-01|title=A Muckraker's Aftermath: The Jungle of Meat-packing Regulation after a Century|url=https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr/vol27/iss4/1|journal=William Mitchell Law Review|volume=27|issue=4|issn=0270-272X}}</ref>
@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 Historian [[William Cronon]] concludes:
 :Because of the Chicago packers, ranchers in Wyoming and feedlot farmers in Iowa regularly found a reliable market for their animals, and on average received better prices for the animals they sold there. At the same time and for the same reason, Americans of all classes found a greater variety of more and better meats on their tables, purchased on average at lower prices than ever before. Seen in this light, the Packers' "rigid system of economy" seemed a very good thing indeed.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Cronon|title=Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7OCQAwAAQBAJ|year=2009|publisher=W. W. Norton|page=254|isbn=9780393072457}}</ref>
-====Labor issues====
-{{See also|The Jungle#Federal response}}
-In the early part of the 20th century, they used the most recent immigrants and migrants as strikebreakers in labor actions taken by other workers, also usually immigrants or early descendants. The publication of the [[Upton Sinclair]] novel ''[[The Jungle]]'' in the U.S. in 1906, shocked the public with the poor working conditions and unsanitary practices in meat-packing plants in the United States, specifically [[Chicago]].
-Meat-packing plants, like many industries in the early 20th century, were known to overwork their employees, failed to maintain adequate safety measures, and actively fought unionization. Public pressure to [[U.S. Congress]] led to the passage of the [[Meat Inspection Act]] and [[Pure Food and Drug Act]], both passed in 1906 on the same day to ensure better regulations of the meat-packing industry. Before the [[Meat Inspection Act]] and the [[Pure Food and Drug Act]], workers were exposed to dangerous chemicals, sharp machinery, and horrible injuries.
-In the 1920s and early 1930s, workers achieved unionization under the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations|CIO]]'s [[United Packinghouse Workers of America]] (UPWA). An interracial committee led the organizing in [[Chicago]], where the majority of workers in the industry were black, and other major cities, such as [[Omaha, Nebraska]], where they were an important minority in the industry. UPWA workers made important gains in wages, hours and benefits. In 1957, the stockyards and meat-packing plants employed half the workers of Omaha. The union supported a progressive agenda, including the [[Civil Rights Movement]] of the 1960s. While the work was still difficult, for a few decades workers achieved [[blue-collar]], middle-class lives from it.
-Though the meat-packing industry has made many improvements since the early 1900s, extensive changes in the industry since the late 20th century have caused new labor issues to arise. Today, the rate of injury in the meat-packing industry is three times that of the private industry overall, and meat-packing was noted by [[Human Rights Watch]] as being "the most dangerous factory job in America". The meatpacking industry continues to employ many immigrant laborers, including some who are [[undocumented worker]]s. In the early 20th century the workers were immigrants from eastern and southern Europe and black migrants from the South. Today many are Hispanic, from Mexico, Central and South America. Many are from Peru, leading to the formation of a large Peruvian community. The more isolated areas in which the plants are located put workers at greater risk due to their limited ability to organize and seek redress for work-related injuries.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/business/meat-packing-industry-criticized-on-human-rights-grounds.html|title=Meat Packing Industry Criticized on Human Rights Grounds|date=2005-01-25|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-08-11|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/usa0105/1.htm|title=Blood, Sweat, and Fear|website=Human Rights Watch|access-date=2019-08-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13sun2.html|title=Opinion {{!}} The Shame of Postville, Iowa|date=2008-07-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-08-11|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
 ====Changing geography====
@@ Line 44: / Line 34: @@
 ====Rail to truck====
-Mid-century restructuring by the industry of the stockyards, slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants led to relocating facilities closer to cattle feedlots and swine production facilities, to more rural areas, as transportation shifted from rail to truck. It has been difficult for labor to organize in such locations. In addition, the number of jobs fell sharply due to technology and other changes. Wages fell during the latter part of the 20th century, and eventually, both Chicago (in 1971) and Omaha (in 1999) closed their stockyards. The workforce increasingly relied on recent migrants from Mexico. {{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}
+Mid-century restructuring by the industry of the stockyards, slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants led to relocating facilities closer to cattle feedlots and swine production facilities, to more rural areas, as transportation shifted from rail to truck. It has been difficult for labor to organize in such locations. In addition, the number of jobs fell sharply due to technology and other changes. Wages fell during the latter part of the 20th century, and eventually, both Chicago (in 1971) and Omaha (in 1999) closed their stockyards. The workforce increasingly relied on recent migrants from Mexico. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Who are America's meat and poultry workers? |url=https://www.epi.org/blog/meat-and-poultry-worker-demographics/ |access-date=2024-03-15 |website=Economic Policy Institute |language=en-US}}</ref>
-===Argentina===
+====Argentina====
 Argentina had the natural resources and human talent to build a world-class meat-packing industry. However, its success in reaching European markets was limited by the poor quality control in the production of its meat and the general inferiority of frozen meat to the chilled meat exported by the United States and Australia. By 1900, the Argentine government encouraged investment in the industry to improve quality. The British dominated the world shipping industry and began fitting their ships for cold air containers, and built new refrigerated steamers. When the Argentine industry finally secured a large slice of the British market, [[Foot-and-mouth disease|Pateros]] and trade restrictions limited its penetration of the Continent.<ref>Robert Greenhill, "Shipping and the Refrigerated Meat Trade from the River Plate, 1900–1930." ''International Journal of Maritime History'' 4.1 (1992): 65-82.</ref>
-===China===
+====China====
 Meat in China moved from a minor specialty commodity to a major factor in the food supply in the late 20th century thanks to the rapid emergence of a middle class with upscale tastes and plenty of money. It was a transition from a country able to provide a small ration of meat for urban citizens only to the world's largest meat producer; it was a movement from a handful of processing facilities in major cities to thousands of modern meat-packing and processing plants throughout the country, alongside the rapid growth of a middle-class with spending money.<ref>Guanghong Zhou,  Wangang Zhang, and Xinglian Xu. "China's meat industry revolution: Challenges and opportunities for the future." ''Meat science'' 92.3 (2012): 188-196.</ref>
+==Labor and safety issues==
-== Negative effects on meat-packers ==
+In the early 20th century, meatpacking companies employed new immigrants as strikebreakers during labor actions initiated by existing workers, who were often earlier immigrants themselves or the immediate descendants of immigrants. The publication of the [[Upton Sinclair]] novel ''[[The Jungle]]'' in the U.S. in 1906 [[The Jungle#Federal response|shocked the public]] with the poor working conditions and unsanitary practices in the meat-packing plants in the United States, specifically [[Chicago]].
-{{Further|Labor rights in American meatpacking industry}}
+Meat-packing plants, like many industries in the early 20th century, overworked their employees, failed to maintain adequate safety measures, and actively fought unionization. Meat-packing workers were exposed to dangerous chemicals and sharp machinery, and routinely suffered horrible injuries. Public pressure of the [[U.S. Congress]] led to the passage of the [[Meat Inspection Act]] and [[Pure Food and Drug Act]] (both passed in 1906 on the same day) to ensure better regulations of the meat-packing industry.
+In the 1920s and early 1930s, workers achieved unionization under the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations|CIO]]'s [[United Packinghouse Workers of America]] (UPWA). An interracial committee led the organizing in [[Chicago]], where the majority of workers in the industry were black, and other major cities, such as [[Omaha, Nebraska]], where they were an important minority in the industry. UPWA workers made important gains in wages, hours and benefits. In 1957, the stockyards and meat-packing plants employed half the workers of Omaha. The union supported a progressive agenda, including the [[Civil Rights Movement]] of the 1960s. While the work was still difficult, for a few decades workers achieved [[blue-collar]], middle-class lives from it.
+Though the meat-packing industry has made many improvements since the early 1900s, extensive changes in the industry since the late 20th century have caused new labor issues to arise. Today, the rate of injury in the meat-packing industry is three times that of the private industry overall, and meat-packing was noted by [[Human Rights Watch]] as being "the most dangerous factory job in America". The meatpacking industry continues to employ many immigrant laborers, including some who are [[undocumented worker]]s. In the early 20th century the workers were immigrants from eastern and southern Europe and black migrants from the South. Today, many meatpacking workers are Hispanics hailing from Mexico, Central and South America. A notable amount of workers are from Peru, leading to the formation of a large Peruvian community in the industry. The isolated areas in which many plants are located put these workers at greater risk due to their limited ability to organize and seek redress for work-related injuries.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/business/meat-packing-industry-criticized-on-human-rights-grounds.html|title=Meat Packing Industry Criticized on Human Rights Grounds|date=2005-01-25|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-08-11|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/usa0105/1.htm|title=Blood, Sweat, and Fear|website=Human Rights Watch|access-date=2019-08-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13sun2.html|title=Opinion {{!}} The Shame of Postville, Iowa|date=2008-07-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-08-11|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
 American slaughterhouse workers are three times more likely to suffer serious injury than the average American worker.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/meatpacking/index.html |title=Meatpacking |website=Occupational Safety and Health Administration |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref> [[NPR]] reports that pig and cattle slaughterhouse workers are nearly seven times more likely to suffer repetitive strain injuries than average.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/11/489468205/working-the-chain-slaughterhouse-workers-face-lifelong-injuries |title=Working 'The Chain,' Slaughterhouse Workers Face Lifelong Injuries |last=Lowe  |first=Peggy |date=11 August 2016 |website=National Public Radio |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref> [[The Guardian]] reports that on average there are two amputations a week involving slaughterhouse workers in the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/05/amputations-serious-injuries-us-meat-industry-plant |title=Two amputations a week: the cost of working in a US meat plant  |date=5 July 2018 |website=The Guardian |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref> On average, one employee of [[Tyson Foods]], the largest meat producer in America, is injured and amputates a finger or limb per month.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/coralewis/americas-largest-meat-producer-one-amputation-per-month#.pxxm3zY5Z |title=America's Largest Meat Producer Averages One Amputation Per Month |last=Lewis  |first=Cora |date=18 February 2018 |website=Buzzfeed News |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref> The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that over a period of six years in the [[UK]], 78 slaughter workers lost fingers, parts of fingers or limbs, more than 800 workers had serious injuries, and at least 4,500 had to take more than three days off after accidents.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-07-29/uk-meat-plant-injuries |title=Revealed: Shocking safety record of UK meat plants |date=29 July 2018 |website=The Bureau of Investigative Journalism  |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref> In a 2018 study in the Italian Journal of Food Safety, slaughterhouse workers are instructed to wear ear protectors to protect their hearing from the constant screams of animals being killed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Francesca Iulietto |first1=Maria |last2=Sechi |first2=Paola |date=3 July 2018 |title=Noise assessment in slaughterhouses by means of a smartphone app |journal=Italian Journal of Food Safety |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=7053 |doi=10.4081/ijfs.2018.7053 |pmid=30046554 |pmc=6036995 }}</ref> A 2004 study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that "excess risks were observed for mortality from all causes, all cancers, and lung cancer" in workers employed in the New Zealand meat processing industry.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McLean |first1=D |last2=Cheng |first2=S |date=June 2004 |title=Mortality and cancer incidence in New Zealand meat workers |journal=Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine |volume=61 |issue=6 |pages=541–547 |doi=10.1136/oem.2003.010587 |pmid=15150395 |pmc=1763658 }}</ref>
@@ Line 62: / Line 59: @@
 Slaughterhouses in the United States commonly illegally employ and exploit underage workers and illegal immigrants.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-29/america-s-worst-graveyard-shift-is-grinding-up-workers |title=America's Worst Graveyard Shift Is Grinding Up Workers |last=Waldman  |first=Peter |date=29 December 2017 |website=Bloomberg Businessweek |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/08/exploitation-and-abuse-at-the-chicken-plant |title=Exploitation and Abuse at the Chicken Plant |last=Grabell  |first=Michael |date=1 May 2017 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref> In 2010, [[Human Rights Watch]] described slaughterhouse line work in the United States as a human rights crime.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/12/11/rights-line/human-rights-watch-work-abuses-against-migrants-2010 |title=Rights on the Line |journal=Human Rights Watch |date=11 December 2010 |access-date=23 May 2019|last1=Varia |first1=Nisha }}</ref> In a report by [[Oxfam America]], slaughterhouse workers were observed not being allowed breaks, were often required to wear diapers, and were paid below minimum wage.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oxfamamerica.org/livesontheline/ |title=Lives on the Line |last=Grabell  |first=Michael |website=Oxfam America |date=23 May 2018 |access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref>
-Another problem in this context is that the pharmaceutical industry obtains basic materials for its products from the meat-packing industry; for example, tissue extracts from slaughterhouse waste. In the [[COVID-19 pandemic|Covid-19 pandemic]] in 2020, this led to the paradoxical situation that mass slaughterhouses were infection drivers due to the bad labor conditions and at the same time suppliers of important therapeutics such as [[heparin]], which subsequently became a scarce commodity. Medical historian Benjamin Prinz has therefore pointed to the fragility of today's healthcare systems, which themselves participate in environmentally destructive and disease-causing production chains.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Prinz |first=Benjamin |date=2022-04-01 |title=How blood met plastics, plant and animal extracts: Material encounters between medicine and industry in the twentieth century |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0039368122000073 |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science |language=en |volume=92 |pages=45–55 |doi=10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.01.007 |pmid=35131685 |s2cid=246575794 |issn=0039-3681}}</ref>
+Another problem in this context is that the pharmaceutical industry obtains basic materials for its products from the meat-packing industry; for example, tissue extracts from slaughterhouse waste. In the [[COVID-19 pandemic|Covid-19 pandemic]] in 2020, this led to the paradoxical situation that mass slaughterhouses were infection drivers due to the bad labor conditions and at the same time suppliers of important therapeutics such as [[heparin]], which subsequently became a scarce commodity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Beth L. |last2=Campbell |first2=Stefanie |last3=Meyers |first3=Alysha R. |last4=Crum |first4=David A. |last5=Mitchell |first5=Clifford S. |last6=Hutson |first6=Jeré |last7=Williams |first7=D’Ann L. |last8=Senesie |first8=Schabbethai S. |last9=Gilani |first9=Zunera |last10=Reynolds |first10=Steven |last11=Alba |first11=Bianca |last12=Tavitian |first12=Stephanie |last13=Billings |first13=Kristian |last14=Saintus |first14=Lina |last15=Martin |first15=Stephen B. |date=2020-12-18 |title=Factors That Might Affect SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Among Foreign-Born and U.S.-Born Poultry Facility Workers — Maryland, May 2020 |journal=Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report |volume=69 |issue=50 |pages=1906–1910 |doi=10.15585/mmwr.mm6950a5 |issn=0149-2195 |pmc=7745955 |pmid=33332291}}</ref> Medical historian Benjamin Prinz has therefore pointed to the fragility of today's healthcare systems, which themselves participate in environmentally destructive and disease-causing production chains.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Prinz |first=Benjamin |date=2022-04-01 |title=How blood met plastics, plant and animal extracts: Material encounters between medicine and industry in the twentieth century |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0039368122000073 |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science |language=en |volume=92 |pages=45–55 |doi=10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.01.007 |pmid=35131685 |s2cid=246575794 |issn=0039-3681}}</ref>
 Contemporary concerns about the meat industry within the American context have often been colored by the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United States| COVID-19 Pandemic]] and the resulting supply chain issues. Beyond the consumer perspective, workers were expected to drastically increase the rate at which they process animals. For instance, workers were expected to process 175 birds per minute up from 140 birds per minute.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thompson |first=Shayla |date=2020-07-17 |title=Op-ed: Speeding Up Poultry Lines in a Pandemic Puts Workers' Lives in Danger |url=https://civileats.com/2020/07/17/speeding-up-poultry-lines-in-a-pandemic-puts-workers-lives-in-danger/ |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=Civil Eats |language=en}}</ref> In part this was due to shortages of workers. Workers within the industry were often in the news for large outbreaks within factories.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Douglas |first1=Leah |date=2022-01-14 |title=Nearly 90% of big US meat plants had COVID-19 cases in pandemic's first year - data |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/business/nearly-90-big-us-meat-plants-had-covid-19-cases-pandemics-first-year-data-2022-01-14/ |access-date=2023-07-06}}</ref> By its nature meat processing requires close proximity to other workers and exposure to a slew of bacteria and viruses. Additionally, workers often have to yell over loud machinery which increases the amount of contaminated droplets in the air.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Whitehead |first=Dalton |date=September 1, 2022 |title=The Impact of COVID-19 on the Meat Supply Chain in the USA: A Review |journal=Food Science of Animal Resources |volume=42 |issue=5 |pages=762–774 |doi=10.5851/kosfa.2022.e39 |pmid=36133635 |pmc=9478983 }}</ref> More than 50,000 meat packing workers contracted the disease and over 200 died.<ref name=":0" /> Disease is not evenly distributed throughout factories and all workers in a given factory are not at equal risk for exposure and negative health outcomes despite working the same job. In particular, the overlap of immigration status and workplace exposures can result in a variety of negative health outcomes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Flynn |first=Micheal |date=2018 |title=Im/migration, Work, and Health: Anthropology and the Occupational Health of Labor Im/migrants |journal=Anthropology of Work Review |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=116–123 |doi=10.1111/awr.12151 |pmid=31080311 |pmc=6503519 }}</ref>
+{{Further|Labor rights in American meatpacking industry}}
+==Meat-packing companies==
-==Meatpackers==
-=== Big Four ===
+=== "Big Four" ===
-By 1900, the dominating meat packers were:<ref>{{cite book|last=Warren|first=Wilson J.|title=Tied to the Great Packing Machine: The Midwest and Meatpacking|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f-CAclXhhCYC&pg=PA15|date=November 2009|publisher=University of Iowa Press|isbn=978-1-58729-774-8|page=15}}</ref>
+By 1900, the dominant meat-packers were:<ref>{{cite book|last=Warren|first=Wilson J.|title=Tied to the Great Packing Machine: The Midwest and Meatpacking|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f-CAclXhhCYC&pg=PA15|date=November 2009|publisher=University of Iowa Press|isbn=978-1-58729-774-8|page=15}}</ref>
 * [[Armour and Company|Armour]]
 ** [[Morris & Company|Morris]] (acquired in 1923)
@@ Line 76: / Line 74: @@
 * [[Swift Packing|Swift]]
-=== Big Three ===
+=== "Big Three" ===
-In the 1990s, the Big Three were:<ref>{{cite book|last=Pate|first=J'Nell L.|title=America's Historic Stockyards: Livestock Hotels|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ho8Te_Qf4NEC&pg=PA49|year=2005|publisher=TCU Press|isbn=978-0-87565-304-4|page=49}}</ref>
+In the 1990s, the dominant meat-packers were:<ref>{{cite book|last=Pate|first=J'Nell L.|title=America's Historic Stockyards: Livestock Hotels|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ho8Te_Qf4NEC&pg=PA49|year=2005|publisher=TCU Press|isbn=978-0-87565-304-4|page=49}}</ref>
 * [[Iowa Beef Processors|IBP]]
 * [[ConAgra Foods]]
@@ Line 83: / Line 81: @@
 === Today ===
-Current significant meat packers in the [[United States]] include:<ref>{{cite web | last1=Wise | first1=Timothy A. | last2=Rakocy | first2=Betsy | title=Hogging the Gains from Trade: The Real Winners from U.S. Trade and Agricultural Policies | website=Tufts University: Global Development And Environment Institute | url=http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/PB10-01HoggingGainsJan10.html | access-date=2019-08-11}}</ref>
+Current significant meat-packers in the [[United States]] include:<ref>{{cite web | last1=Wise | first1=Timothy A. | last2=Rakocy | first2=Betsy | title=Hogging the Gains from Trade: The Real Winners from U.S. Trade and Agricultural Policies | website=Tufts University: Global Development And Environment Institute | url=http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/PB10-01HoggingGainsJan10.html | access-date=2019-08-11}}</ref>
 Beef Packers:
@@ Line 99: / Line 97: @@
 [[Broiler industry|Broiler]] Chickens:
-* [[Pilgrim's Pride]]
+* [[JBS USA]] (''Pilgrim's Pride'')
 * [[Tyson Foods]]
 * [[Perdue Farms]]
@@ Line 108: / Line 106: @@
 * [[Teys Australia]]
 * [[JBS S.A.]] (Brazil)
+* [[Marfrig|Marfrig S.A.]] (Brazil)
 * [[BRF S.A.]] (Brazil)
 * [[Charoen Pokphand Group]] (Thailand)
@@ Line 125: / Line 124: @@
 * [[Slaughterhouse]]
 * [[Union Stock Yards]], Chicago
+* [[Green Bay Packers]], Named after industry
 ==Footnotes==