The Meatpacking and Disease

Have you ever thought about the safety of our food? How many people recognize where did our come from? And if you are the loyalty of fast food, do you know where does the hamburger come from? The answers of all these questions are really important for everyone because the food is the most important thing for people to survive. Most people never think about where the meat we eat comes from, how they are dealt with during the process, and does the quality of these food can be guaranteed by the slaughters? The drastic expansion of industrial animal production in the U.S. has been accompanied by the rapid consolidation of the meat industry. This industry is now dominated by a handful of huge corporations that process most of the country’s meat at enormous facilities, and consolidation continues to increase. As a result of this concentration, the food safety is becoming a big problem.

Since the widespread outbreak of E. coli, people began to notice the quality of our food because most E. coli illness are the result of eating contaminated food or undercooked ground beef. When animals are slaughtered and processed, several dangerous elements come into play. The first is the presence of fecal matter from slaughtered animals, which can contaminate meat with high levels of bacteria such as E. coli. For many consumers, the most worrisome aspect of our food will be the findings pertaining to food safety. One cause of particularly virulent cases of food poisoning is the E. coli 0157:H7 bacterium, which can cause “kidney failure, strokes, destruction of vital organs, and death.”(“About E. coli”) In fact, consumption of any food or beverage that becomes contaminated by animal manure can result in contracting the disease, especially cattle. The most common cause of food-borne outbreaks has been the consumption of undercooked ground beef. “But E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks have also been caused by contaminated bean sprouts, salad greens, cantaloupe, salami, raw milk, and un-pasteurized apple cider.” (Schlosser, 200) All of those foods most likely had come in contact with cattle manure. According to Schlosser’s book, the wide dispersal of E. coli 0157:H7 in the nation’s meat supply can be traced to "the rise of huge feedlots, slaughterhouses, and hamburger grinders."(Schlosser, 217) Most cases of E. coli O157:H7 are sporadic cases. They are not part of a big outbreak that can be easily linked to one source. As a matter of fact, most cases of food poisoning are never linked back to their source. So the meatpacking industry has the advantage of accountability being really difficult to prove. In terms of what proportion of the illnesses are caused by ground beef, what proportion are caused by fruits and vegetables that have not been cooked, and all these food are very important for people to survive, so we have to look for the reason why these bacteria are widespread in our food system.

The unacceptable contamination of food are caused by the filthy conditions in which conventional food animals are raised, as well as the high speed at which meat is processed. The slaughterhouses that have are pretty unique in terms of the speed of production, and it’s that speed of production that can lead to food-safety problems. In order to maximize profits, meat processors have continually increased the speed of their production lines. Everyday workers of slaughter need to process millions of pounds meat, that meats they will “process 300-400 cattle per hour,” so they have to work really fast.(“Interview Eric Schlosser”) When workers are working very quickly, they may make mistakes, so the quality of meat cannot be guaranteed. And if a little bit of meat gets contaminated, when it's ground up, it can contaminate a lot of meat, so during that whole production system, there are many opportunities for the meat to be contaminated. In order to assure the safety of the meat supply, processors must take efforts to keep feces from spreading from the animals’ intestines or hides onto the tables and tools for butchering, along with the meat itself. But because the production lines are forced to move so quickly, it is exceedingly difficult to butcher the carcasses with the care necessary to prevent this kind of contamination. The result is meat contaminated with bacteria that cause food-borne illness. Therefore, the food processing could play a greater role in the spread of E. coli bacteria.

In fact, all the food-safety problems are basically caused by the centralized food system. Meat production in the US is controlled for a large part by just a handful of companies. Since the centralization of meat process has developed rapidly, the meat-safety becomes a big problem in the U.S. “Because of the mass-production process, scientists estimate that a single tainted cow can contaminate up to eight tons of ground beef.”(Jack Thompson: “From Farm to Fork”) Big may not always be better, the centralized meatpacking system is a significant example. According to Schlosser‘s book, he states that “American meat production, has never before been so centralized: thirteen large packinghouses now slaughter most of the beef consumed in the United States. The meat-packing system that arose to supply the nation’s fast food chains...to provide massive amounts of uniform ground beef so that all of McDonald’s hamburgers would taste the same has proved to be an extremely efficient system for spreading disease."(217) Today, because of the centralization of food processing, contaminated food poisons people throughout the nation, and even beyond our borders. Our highly centralized food economy is a dangerously precarious and vulnerable system.

Because of the increasing power of meat producing companies, the government is weaker to control the meat production. The government is overly influenced by the meatpacking industry. Not only in today, the meatpacking industry and the government working very closely together for almost a hundred years. “The USDA is enormously influenced by the meatpacking industry since its inception. And food safety has never been a top priority of the meatpacking industry when it comes to federal legislation.” (“Interview Eric Schlosser”) The USDA (US Department of Agriculture) regulates all meat production and sale in the US, and meat is the only consumer product in the US that comes with a government seal of approval on the package. All meat for commercial sale is produced with government employees present to protect the interests of consumers. But despite its mandate to act in the interests of consumer safety, the USDA has failed to effectively assure the safety of the US meat supply due to weak regulations and lack of control over meat companies. Upon discovery of contaminated meat, USDA cannot demand that a company recall its products and only has the power to consult with a company about how they should handle the situation. This slows down the recall process, and allows for unsuspecting consumers to buy and eat contaminated products even though authorities are aware of the contamination.

Large producers that operate filthy, inhumane operations should be regulated more harshly. Animal overcrowding and co-mingling fosters an environment that encourages the spread of disease and such conditions should no longer be allowed. According to Schlosser’s book, he lists as the primary causes of meat contamination: "the feed being given to cattle, the overcrowding at feedlots, the poor sanitation at slaughterhouses, excessive line speeds, poorly trained workers, and the lack of stringent government oversight." The reality of meatpacking is that almost all of the E. coli problems are with ground beef, and the ground beef emerging from pants is typically as anonymous and scattered in its origins as corn of soybeans. However, the widespread E. coli O157:H7 outbreak is even more dangerous and demands the government’s full attention. The spread E. coli has contaminated beef across the country to its various suppliers; not only from the meat, E coli illnesses even from fresh produce -- spinach, lettuce, and sprouts. If this situation is allowed to further deteriorate, the public harm is going to be immeasurable, both in terms of our lives damaged and businesses lost. Therefore, in meatpacking and processing plants, new ways are needed to control the spread of E. coli in beef, especially ground beef.

The solution to stopping outbreaks of E. coli and other kinds of bacteria is to clean up the industrial meat processing system. Industrial meat producers should no longer be permitted to force their animals from birth to slaughter as quickly as possible by using artificial hormones and antibiotics. These drugs are responsible for creating the digestive conditions that encourage E. coli to grow and thrive. On the other hand, increasing consumer awareness about the filthy industrial meat system and educating the public about how such a system increases the likelihood of contamination would also help to steer consumer preference towards smaller, cleaner, more localized sources of food that are healthier and generally free from contamination. Also, “increase legal consequences for causing food-borne illness and death, we should impose serious consequences for companies who don’t do enough to keep their products safe, especially if they are repeat-offenders.” (Marler Clark) All these methods are in order to improve the safety of our food because food is the most important thing for people to survive.

In conclusion, people should think about what we put in our mouth, where the food comes from and why we feel compelled to put it there. In order to make sure the safety of our food, we should promote research to develop better technologies to make food safe, and for testing foods for contamination. Also, the government should provide economic incentives, like tax breaks, that push food safety to companies, and invest in research and training. But the most important thing is to improve consumer understanding of the risks of food-borne illness and the knowledge of food safety, in order to avoid getting sick with the contaminated food.

Work Cited Pages:

Marler Clark,“E. coli,” of “About E. coli,” Web.

Eric Schlosser, “What is In the Meat” of “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal." Houghton Mifflin Company. Web.

“Interview Eric Schlosser,” Modern Meat, Frontline. Web.

Jake Thompson, “From Farm to Fork: Ideas to solve problem plentiful, but cooperation scarce,” Omaha World -- Herald, January 21, 1998. Web.

Marler Clark, “William Marler Calls on Congress to Act to Protect Nation’s Food Supply,” Business Wire, July 28, 2008. Web.