Opinions about industrial food may vary if the one opining is a pessimist or optimist, independent observer or corporate spokesperson. Media onslaughts about industrial foods might invite apathy—for some peace of mind—if only until the next barrage of bad news.
All kinds of foods have been the subject of alarming news reports concerning Big Agra and unhealthy food production. Not all problems with industrial food production are limited to instances of inhumane treatment of animals or presence of disease causing microbes on meats and vegetables processed in factories.
One thing is certain: There’s no shortage of unsavory news concerning Big Agra and food production. Nothing against chickens, but consider poultry processing as one category that makes the news regularly with reports concerning contamination, health, safety and sometimes product recalls.
The news media most recently focused on the working conditions inside the factories of four leading poultry processing brands: Perdue, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms and Tyson. All of which, along with the National Chicken Council and U.S. Poultry & Egg Association denied or downplayed (alleged) abuse of employees.
Numerous media outlets publicized a report released in May by the human rights advocacy group Oxfam America, detailing (alleged) abuses of employees who wear diapers to work, because they’re routinely denied bathroom breaks.
Let’s hope the most recent bad news about industrial food production isn’t business as usual. A predictable pattern follows with negative publicity, which necessarily includes denials of any problems or public relations promises to investigate and resolve problems—if any are acknowledged—without admitting any guilt. Then the latest story about industrial food production drops off the radar—again.
The poultry industry has been barraged by bad news in recent years concerning salmonella and other disease causing contaminants found on chicken from large factories. These included major stories by Consumer Reports and the New Yorker magazines, PBS Frontline and others.
Let’s not pick on chickens. What’s clear is that nothing too usual happens in the poultry industry, because the stories keep coming, but about all kinds of foods. Cantaloupes, ice cream, peanuts, Serrano peppers, spinach, you name it, all have been the subject of recent negative publicity about contamination and illness caused by it.
In some instances, problems with other foods have been linked to farm workers not having access to bathroom facilities and other problems involved contamination of industrial food processing equipment. The stories seem to come and go with regularity.
Industrial food production or labor problems periodically get reported in the news, but they’re not really new. Author Upton Sinclair wrote about conditions for workers in the meat industry being notoriously poor in his 1906 novel, “The Jungle.”
We all need to eat, but sometimes it seems industrial food production and profit motives and food quality collide. It’s an old story. Big Agra mostly calls the shots; small farms are more myth than reality. Quantities produced increase, but not necessary the quality.
Ever try to find a tasty tomato? That can be a chore, not impossible, but that’s a whole other story.
