Gonzales 1

Nickolas Gonzales
English 100
Hanvey
Meet Meat
In a modern fast-paced Nation like the United States, it is extremely challenging if not
almost impossible, to avoid fast food, harshly over-processed food, genetically modified food,
and most especially meat. Only (6.7%) of the world population does not eat meat. Meaning that
the rest of the population either has no other option or simply does not care about what the meat
that they consume has gone through. A grand issue that is arising within some Meat Processing
Factories is the question of whether or not the procedures being used by them are necessarily fair
or legal. Unfortunately many workers, animals, and ultimately regular meat consumers suffer
everyday from cruel unfair treatment and unintentional negative consequences by large meat
production employers; Thus more health and sanitary regulations should be put into play for the
prevention of animal cruelty and food-borne illnesses.
Many of the procedures that are used to transport the live heards from cellar to cellar are
harmful to the health of the animals. Since the animals are raised simply to be killed, they are
treated extremely cruel, kicked around, and tortured by being placed into crowded environments.
Although some people see no need in caring for the animals because they are going to be
slaughtered regardless. Proper growth environments are actually crucial for the animals health
and can pre-determine the animals ability to produce quality meat product after death. To
supply the beef slaughter house, ConAgra operates an enormous pair of feedlots. Each of them
can hold up to 100,000 head of cattle. At times, the animals are crowded so close together that it
appears as a sea of cattle, a mooing mass brown and white fur that goes on for acres,
(Schlosser.)

Gonzales 2

It is important to treat the animals with care throughout the entire process of growth from
the moment that animals begin developing in the womb, to the day they are born, all the way up
until their meat is prepped and packed up for shipping. If slaughter houses continue to use the
careless procedures they live by then soon many more health and quality issues will arise. In an
article aimed at bringing awareness to animal cruelty, animal rights activists from AAP
Australian News Wire show graphic footage in a video which causes Government officials to
question some meatpacking factories. Showing pigs being beaten over the head with metal
poles Hawkesbury Valley Meat Processors was fined and suspended earlier this year after
footage showed livestock being killed in ways that breached food and animal cruelty Act.
Greeley, Colorado has a horrendous smell due to all of the animals, waste pools, and
slaughter houses. Life in Greeley could be described as industrialized yet rural. Much of the
town is covered by farms and factories; The population of people who live in Greeley have very
few job options to choose from so most of the labor takes place in the local slaughterhouses.
They have turned one of the nations bet-paying manufacturing jobs into one of the lowest
paying, created a migrant industrial workforce of poor immigrants, tolerated high rates, and
spawned rural ghettos in the American heartland, (Schlosser.) Animals are not the only victims
to the cruel ways of meatpacking factories, workers also suffer from negative effects.
The scary thing about employees in the meatpacking factories is that there is no real
requirements, qualifications, or experience needed to be hired. People could pretty much picture
a random homeless person in the middle of the barren town of Greeley working with raw meat,
or a criminal who is willing to do the dirty work for a few bucks. Employees such as these have
no care what so ever in the harsh work they are doing, are not educated, and are possibly even
being taken advantage of because there is no regulation of employees in some of the big meat

Gonzales 3

packing companies. The meatpacking industry is one with many flaws and it seems that these
issues are not being taken seriously. Animal rights activists and Health care specialists should
come together to create a large force of regulation against the animal cruelty and work
environment conflicts that occur every day in the remote, hidden factories that meat consumers
often do not think about when enjoying their favorite hamburger. We will never stop the
consumption of meat and few will wonder where it comes from but we can make a small
difference to keep it more sanitary and less cruel.

Gonzales 4

Works Cited
"Nsw: Slaughter Operations To Be Monitored." AAP Australian National News Wire
(n.d.): Regional Business News. Web. 29 Nov. 2014.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. 149-166.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001 Print.