{"id":1754,"date":"2020-01-22T18:39:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T00:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2020-01-24T12:54:29","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T18:54:29","slug":"back-to-the-jungle-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1754","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Jungle II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the last issue of the Prairie Progressive,<\/strong> Back to the jungle<\/em> (Fall \u2013 2019 p.4), and in a previous Fawkes-Lee & Rya<\/strong>n post, Back to the Jungle<\/a>, I wrote about the effect of increased line speeds on slaughterhouse workers. This is the sequel. Briefly, prior to October, 2019, a pork slaughterhouse employee had a little over 18 hogs per minute pass by.\u00a0 There was a federal rule that prevented packinghouses from running a line faster than 1106 hogs per hour.\u00a0 That\u2019s about one hog ever 3.2 minutes.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t think that\u2019s very much, try doing the same task every 3.5 minutes for an hour.\u00a0 You\u2019ll get the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now,\nbecause of a federal regulation change, The New Swine Inspection System (NSIS),\nthe sky\u2019s the limit.  Hogs can go past an\nemployee at the rate of . . . well, pigs are now going so fast it appears as\nthough they are flying.  Moreover, you\ncan\u2019t just squeeze another employee into that line; they\u2019re pretty much too\nclose to each other as it is \u2013 and they work with knives \u2013 sharp knives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nlet\u2019s look into the consumption end of the controversial rule.  You may not eat pork liver, lung, heart, and\nother internal organs and parts, but a visual inspection by a trained and qualified\nmeat inspector can lead to a decision that something might be wrong with the\ncarcass (ham, bacon, pork chop) by closely examining the offal.  When an internal organ shows a defect,\nforeign material, or an abnormality, the corresponding carcass is likely to\nhave a related problem.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new\nfederal rule removes up to 40% of meat inspectors at a slaughterhouse.  Those are good union jobs where meat inspectors\ncheck every single liver, heart, stomach, and carcass, ensuring that the pork\nwe eat is safe and clean.  The\ngovernment, with a nod from the packers, believes that employees of the company\ncan do those jobs while meat inspectors focus on sanitary conditions.  Does it seem as though having a loyal\nemployee doing the work rather than an independent government employee result\nin any sort of a conflict of interest? \nThat work includes looking for signs of enteric pathogens, defined as \u201cgram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (better known as\nE-coli), Salmonella, and Campylobacter jejuni,\u201d the latter found more often in\npoultry.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare three major companies in the United States that slaughter and process 57%\nof the nation\u2019s hogs (compared to 32% in 1985). \nYou\u2019ve heard of Big Oil and Big Pharma; now there is Big Pork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smithfield\nFoods, which owns the Farmland Foods label as well as John Morrell, is owned by\nWH Group out of Hong Kong and slaughters 30 million hogs per year; JBS USA\n(formerly Swift) is a wholly owned subsidiary of JBS, a Brazilian company that\nalso owns Pilgrim\u2019s Pride chicken; and the third Big Pork is Tyson Foods, an\nAmerican company known mostly for chicken, but slaughters hogs at their IBP\nlocations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\nthree of these companies are vertical integration food companies, meaning they\nown the operation from piglet to sow, and in some cases, own the entire farm,\nthe packing and processing facilities, as well as the trucking and marketing\ncompanies to transport and sell their products. \nOften, these Big Pork companies contract with farmers to produce pigs,\nselling the pigs solely to the packer.  Those\nfarrowing houses you smell in the countryside are most likely owned by the multinational\ncompanies who employ their own personnel to manage them, and pay the farmer who\nowns the land rent each year or month for use of the land containing the hog\nraising facilities and waste lagoons.  A\nfarmer may also benefit from the manure produced by these operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JBS,\nwith a plant in Worthington, MN, has been the recipient of $62 million in\nbailout money intended to supplement farmers hurt by the trade war.  JBS owners Joesley and Wesley Batista, Brazilian\nowners of JBS, have admitted \u201cto bribing hundreds of top officials in [Brazil]\nand have spent time in jail over the corruption scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National\nPork Producers Council (NPPC) President David Herring, a pork producer from\nLillington, N.C. said: \u201cWe applaud the USDA for introducing a new inspection\nsystem that incentivizes investment in new technologies while ensuring a safe\nsupply of wholesome American pork,\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safe?  Not for slaughterhouse workers.  Not for the child who eats a hot dog that was\ntainted with meat that got past the company employee.  Not for the employee assigned to recognize an\nenteric pathogen and who stops the line to ensure that \u201cgram-negative\nbacteria, such as E-coli and Salmonella\u201d do not get into the food\nsupply.  Too many stops and that\nemployee\u2019s job will be like skating on thin ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am\ngoing to continue to eat what little pork I have in the past.  I like my bacon and my barbequed back\nribs.  I also like to support those union\nfamilies who rely upon those packinghouse jobs. \nHowever, the next time you sit down to enjoy your favorite breakfast\nmeat (sausage, ham, bacon), or dine on an Iowa Chop, or build a large lunch\nmeat sandwich, or go after the year\u2019s best pork tenderloin sandwich in Iowa, be\nsure to say grace.  It may be your last\nprayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last issue of the Prairie Progressive, Back to the jungle (Fall \u2013 2019 p.4), and in a previous Fawkes-Lee & Ryan post, Back to the Jungle, I wrote about the effect of increased line speeds on slaughterhouse workers. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[690,695,689,694,688,687,691,693,692],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-pork","tag-david-herring","tag-e-coli","tag-national-pork-producers","tag-new-swine-inspection-system","tag-prairie-progressive","tag-smithfield-foods","tag-tyson-foods","tag-wh-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1754"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1762,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions\/1762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}