Celia Duncan The Meat and Poultry Industry Its the largest sector of US agriculture The 4 biggest corporations 9549 billion in annual sales 2012 258009 employees The price of meat ID: 504214
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Human Rights in the US Meat Industry" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Human Rights in the US Meat Industry
Celia DuncanSlide2
The Meat and Poultry Industry
It’s the largest sector of US agriculture
The 4
biggest corporations:
$95.49 billion in annual sales (2012)
258,009 employeesSlide3
The price of meat
“It has a lot to do with efficiencies—doing what we do better and more efficiently; squeezing costs out of the process”
-Patrick Boyle, CEO, American Meat Institute (pbs.org)Slide4
The Workers
Many meat industry workers are workers are immigrants, often undocumented.
Their immigration status makes them vulnerable to exploitation.
Fear of deportation and language
barriers get in the way of pursuing their rights.Slide5
Physical Safety Hazards
Common Injuries and Illness:
-musculoskeletal injuries from fast, repetitive motion, working at close quarters with sharp tools
-dermatological and respiratory illnesses from inhaling airborne pathogens and fecal matterSlide6
Psychological Damage
Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress:
psychological consequences of killing
“A lot of the slaughterhouse hog killers
have problems
with alcohol. They have to drink,
they have no other way of dealing with killing live, kicking animals all day long
. If you stop and think about it, you’re killing several thousand beings a day.”Slide7
“Doubling” in
slaughterhouse workers
:
“The worker’s natural self identifies with the pig and recognizes it as an animal worthy of affection and care, but the worker’s other self—the self developed to work in the slaughterhouse—kills the pig, literally unable to care about the animal”Slide8
More psychological issues
Substance abuse, anxiety, panic, depression,
paranoia, increased
domestic violence and crime
“after a while … you become emotionally dead… and you get just as sadistic as the company itself.” Slide9
Keeping the problem invisible
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.”
-Paul McCartneySlide10
What is being done?
Growing support for human
rights
Oxfam America, Midwest Coalition for
H
uman RightsSlide11
Small-scale farming:
small-scale slaughterhousesSlide12
A shift in thinking
“Animals
do not 'give' their
lives
to us, as the sugar-coated lie would have it. They struggle and fight to the last breath, just as we would
do if we were in their place.” –John Robbins
“Everything you do is a political act.”
-Buy small: far more likely to be humane for humans and animals alike. Research ethical meat providers