The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a bright light on industrial slaughterhouses in the United States and their impacts on the vulnerable beings—both human and animal—they exploit. But the severity of these impacts is the result of a long ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Slaughterhouses are incredibly dangerous places to work, populated by some of the most exploited and disempowered members of society. Data from the US Census Bureau documents that the meat- and poultry-processing workforce is “overwhelmingly made up of people of color, with a large percentage of immigrants and refugees,” the vast majority of whom are noncitizens, and an unknown percentage of whom are undocumented workers.
7 “Immigrants are particularly overrepresented in frontline meatpacking occupations.”
8 They work elbow to elbow, engaged in fast, repetitive movements with sharp tools and exposed to dangerous chemicals and high noise levels. Because of their vulnerable status, these workers often do not report their injuries.
9 Nevertheless, reports of amputations and hospitalizations are high. As the National Employment Law Project recently noted, according to self-reported industry data—which is recognized to be an undercount—“meat and poultry workers are injured at rates on average 50% higher than all other workers in the private sector, with injury rates in red meat plants running almost twice as high.”
10 Injuries are not only more prevalent—they are also more severe, even when compared to other dangerous industries.
11 Slaughterhouse workers also suffer psychological harms that have been documented and connected to “increased rates of domestic violence, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder.”
12
Both my cardiologist and my GI doctor advised me not to eat ground beef in the US. Why? It is the meat of hundreds of cows processed too fast. Every once in awhile there is a news article about E.Coli in ground beef. It is from the cow's intestines. Think about it.