As we all know, food production has drastically increased in the past 100 years. With the development of fast food companies such as McDonalds, who are the biggest buyers of potatoes, pork lettuce, tomatoes and apples, food production corporations like IBP (Tyson Foods), Smithfield Foods, JBS USA (Swift) and Cargill Foods, had to adjust to the large demand. This made the companies, which in 1970s controlled 25% of the market, today control more than 80%. Significantly fast increase in manufacture, consequently lead to numerous challenges that not only the corporations have to face, but also their workers, the government and even the people of United States. This report assigned by the United States Congressional Committee on Food, Health and
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100 years ago the Beef Trust - union of corporations that worked together to build a monopoly of the beef industry, had an extreme power of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Since they neither had rights, nor any government regulations, they were abused, injured or even killed in the beef factories. However, once Teddy Roosevelt took over the Beef Trust, labour unions began forming and by 1950’s working in the meatpacking industry was considered a good job, that paid well, gave good benefits and even pension. As the time progressed, and fast food companies took over, the meatpacking corporations had to adjust to their needs. One of the largest businesses IBP began borrowing from fast food industries a similar type of approach to labour - cutting wages, abolishing unions, increasing production and using division of labour, which meant that every worker had only one task that had to be done. Nowadays, meatpacking has become one of the most dangerous jobs. It is quite atrocious to think that with the knowledge that we have today, we allowed the food industry to move backwards. Some may state, like Adam Smith, that introducing division of labour, is a positive take, not only does it increase the outcome of production, it also increases the economy. In “Wealth of Nations” Smith states that “he greatest improvement*17 in the productive powers of labour, and …show more content…
However, just like in 19th century, nowadays workers are viewed by capitalist society as an “abstract idea with a stomach that needed to be filled”. ( Karl Marx on Alienation, BBC Radio 4) Therefore, division of labour, that is now applied to so many factories, does not allow the workers to express themselves, and consequently, their job turns into a long torture with no satisfactions. That is when workers tend to become alienated from their own work and the product they are making. This means that the labour becomes an item, an outside thing. Moreover, the labourer becomes becomes alienated from the object that he created, it does not belong to him and maybe never will, but it will belong to someone else. In Marx’s essay he writes “so much does the appropriation of the object appear as alienation that the are objects the worker produces, the fewer he can own and the more he falls under the domination of his product, of capital.” (Marx, 2) The German philosopher argues that every time the worker produces more, he becomes poorer, turns into an ever cheaper commodity. This can also be seen in an interview with chicken grower Carole Morison, who works for Perdue
100 years ago the Beef Trust - union of corporations that worked together to build a monopoly of the beef industry, had an extreme power of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Since they neither had rights, nor any government regulations, they were abused, injured or even killed in the beef factories. However, once Teddy Roosevelt took over the Beef Trust, labour unions began forming and by 1950’s working in the meatpacking industry was considered a good job, that paid well, gave good benefits and even pension. As the time progressed, and fast food companies took over, the meatpacking corporations had to adjust to their needs. One of the largest businesses IBP began borrowing from fast food industries a similar type of approach to labour - cutting wages, abolishing unions, increasing production and using division of labour, which meant that every worker had only one task that had to be done. Nowadays, meatpacking has become one of the most dangerous jobs. It is quite atrocious to think that with the knowledge that we have today, we allowed the food industry to move backwards. Some may state, like Adam Smith, that introducing division of labour, is a positive take, not only does it increase the outcome of production, it also increases the economy. In “Wealth of Nations” Smith states that “he greatest improvement*17 in the productive powers of labour, and …show more content…
However, just like in 19th century, nowadays workers are viewed by capitalist society as an “abstract idea with a stomach that needed to be filled”. ( Karl Marx on Alienation, BBC Radio 4) Therefore, division of labour, that is now applied to so many factories, does not allow the workers to express themselves, and consequently, their job turns into a long torture with no satisfactions. That is when workers tend to become alienated from their own work and the product they are making. This means that the labour becomes an item, an outside thing. Moreover, the labourer becomes becomes alienated from the object that he created, it does not belong to him and maybe never will, but it will belong to someone else. In Marx’s essay he writes “so much does the appropriation of the object appear as alienation that the are objects the worker produces, the fewer he can own and the more he falls under the domination of his product, of capital.” (Marx, 2) The German philosopher argues that every time the worker produces more, he becomes poorer, turns into an ever cheaper commodity. This can also be seen in an interview with chicken grower Carole Morison, who works for Perdue