Case Study Postville

Small Midwestern towns like Postville have become reliant on the income they receive from the meat packing factories that come because of large amounts of land, cheap workforce, and the fact they are closer livestock(Maggie Jones). Because America’s shift to industrialization and the high demand for inexpensive meat, small family farms were no longer viable, and many farmers lost their land (Nanda and wars 117). With the loss of these farms, rural poverty increased, and there are fewer other jobs for young, would-be farmers, so they have to take dangerous low paying jobs (Nanda and Warms 117). So in come the meat packing factories because they are reliant on cheap wages, to take advantage of the fact that many of these small towns are living in poverty, thus need any jobs they can get (Nanda and Warms 118) This also led to increase in immigrants coming to this small towns because many of these factories were also eager …show more content…
all come to their town to work in the factory(Maggie Jones).With the increase in immigrant population's resentment of immigrants increased, this then led to poverty and loss of population in many rural communities initially(Nanda and Warms 118). But towns like Postville adjusted to the immigrant population, and in reality were reliant on this population for the growth of their town. In the article after I.C.E raided Postville and had arrested many of the immigrant workers, it says that many local businesses had difficulty staying afloat, on top of this Agri, one of Postville’s largest landlords, was also collapsing. When the factory finally collapsed, they left hundreds without jobs, and thousands of dollars in unpaid bills (Maggie Jones). Essentially industrial processing of beef had complete control over these towns, and once Agri failed so did Postville, but only briefly because the factory reopened and the cycle essentially began