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| Animal welfare is a whole other topic but housing such as this greatly reduces the overall carbon footprint of chicken production in the United States. |
The chicken industry has examples of many different themes
we have talked about in class rolled into one system. To begin with, most
chickens are raised on one farm from birth to maturity, and if not, they are
only moved once after they hatch. Consistency matters in chicken production and
farmers who own the chickens through the entire process are better able to
raise their chickens most consistently year in and year out. From the farm they
go to slaughter then to supermarkets or restaurants. It’s a simple system,
really, given the fact that few companies own the majority of the production.
The University of Missouri did a study of the concentration of agricultural
markets and came up with what are known as Concentration Ratios (CR4). The 4
refers to the four largest firms in a market. If the 4 largest firms represent
over 40% of the entire market share, it is considered to be a concentrated market.
The broiler industry had a CR4 of 58.5% in 2007, meaning the four largest
companies—Pilgrim’s Pride, Tyson, Perdue, and Sanderson Farms—control 58.5% of
the broiler production in the United States. It should also be noted that the
two largest firms control 47% of the market alone. The CR4 statistics are a
perfect way to look at bottleneck corporations, and the fact that two companies
control nearly half the entire production is the root of some of the major
issues in the rest of the system.
The pie chart at the right visually paints the picture and has data from 2008. I don't know what figures the University of Missouri used, but the data in the pie chart is based off of "ready to cook production" and shows 10 companies control 75% and 3 roughly 50%.
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Those companies contract production with actual farmers who
are already producing in the system, and in some cases, they virtually own the
farmers. Some farmers are indebted to the corporations hundreds of thousands of
dollars, but because the corporations need the chickens, they allow the farmers
to stay in operation. Recently, one processing company got bought out by an
international company who discontinued the processing of chickens. Over 200
farmers lost their livelihoods because they were in such deep debt to the
original company that when they sold out and the processing and ownership in
the chicken industry went away, they could no longer produce. Luckily for
current chicken producers, there is legislation right now that would require
any such firm to pay or cover 80% of debt owed by the farmers. Discussion about
whether or not this law will pass or not is very uncertain.
Now this concentration in the chicken industry is not just
at the production level. These companies are fully integrated into the system
from owning the chickens at the farm and the feed, to owning the slaughtering
facilities, packaging, distributing, and in some cases even the direct sale of
the meat. This only compounds the issue of being a bottleneck corporation and
allows them to exert greater pressures up—to whatever extent they can—and down
the production chain, making choice even more of an illusion.
After they are of a mature weight, the chickens are sent to
slaughter. It is here that people assume injustices and working conditions are
poor for people. Let me begin to address that issue by saying that in order for
a company to sell meat in a case—ie. Safeway’s meat case in the back, fresh or
frozen—the slaughter and processing facility must be federally inspected by the USDA. And this is not an
inspector who makes his or her rounds around the nation and is only at each
plant briefly; no, there are USDA inspectors at the plants every single day
that the plants are operating. Also, in the 90’s there was a push and
legislation passed that enforced and improved ergonomics for workers, which
includes walkways being slip-free, standing areas with rubber mats, as well as
machinery guidelines for guards and protective devices for the operators. The graph at the left shows how the rate of MSD's have decreased since the early 90's and remain on the decline. The
working conditions may not be what everyone would consider perfect, but there
are extensive rules and guidelines that meat processors must follow to protect
and ensure the safety of their workers. The regulations regarding ergonomics
also regulated how long workers can stand without breaks and how long their
breaks must be per day.  |
| It is products like this that demand has increased for |
Meat cutting is a skill-requiring job and training is
extremely important in this part of agriculture. Even in the poultry industry
there has been an increased demand for precut and “fast” food, meaning the
skill required for cutting meat is only increasing. Processors and operators of
these facilities know that having a quality product to meet these demands helps
their profit margins, so they are increasing their training with their
employees, which increases worker safety as well.
I understand that the blog prompt asked me to discuss
injustices in the system of chicken (or rice or banana) production, but through
the class, we have, in a way, been talking about the “untold stories” of things
in America, past and present. To me, the untold story is not the potential
injustices of people working in processing facilities, it is the truth of the situation
inside a slaughter plant that is the real untold story that often gets told in
a very negative and condescending light. While many other blogs may address
some of those issues if they also chose chicken, I felt that I needed to
discuss other issues that counter injustices or mistreatments that may have
previously been a part of meat processing in America.
You just schooled me on some things I knew nothing about, for instance the Concentration Ratios used in the industry. That really puts things into perspective, and shows a glimpse of how large a company like Tyson is. I see more ads for Foster Farms than I do for Tyson, yet Tyson towers over most of the competition. Looking at the picture of all those chickens, I was reminded of a massive egg recall a few summers ago that were narrowed down to one or two massive farms out in Iowa that was/were producing millions of eggs. There is a clear lack of quality control in a place like that and I wonder, is bigger really better? I like how you took a positive angle and talked about what is working, more or less, well in the industry. Not every industry is filled with unjust working conditions, and there are not exploited workers hiding in the shadows of every company warehouse.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about half of the stuff you put in your blog, great work! I found it interesting when you mention that inspectors don't just come often they are required to inspect each facility everyday. Another interesting fact that you brought up was that some farmers go into debt because of these corporations. I enjoyed that you presented a different look at the injustices made in the chicken industry.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I too wrote about chickens. I just read "Chicken: Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food" and it highlights many of the points you brought up, such as the danger and expense of being a chicken grower. You described it in great detail. They can go into debt just trying to raise chickens. However, the working conditions of the processing plant workers is repetitive, monotonous and dangerous. The author of "Chicken" worked in a plant over two summers and experienced first-hand what it was like. He is a white man that was hired in what he describes as majority undocumented Hispanic work force. They have no rights and are abused at their job. Striffler wrote this book in 2005, maybe things have changed since then.
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