Meat Packing By William Cronon Summary

In the reading, William Cronon describes a society in the late nineteenth century dominated by the meat packing industry. In order to get this way, the cultures across America had to adapt to the much more efficient meat dressings. In this sense, it was the new technologies of refrigerator cars and “disassembly” lines that influenced the change of culture, known as technological determinism. Before the new technologies were developed, meat packing was a slow process met with many health problems. Meat was difficult to transport long distances, and unkempt meat in warm conditions carried infectious bacteria. This meant that the pork and beef needed to be processed only in winter, to keep the meat from spoiling. To combat this, Gustavus Swift …show more content…
In order to coax the local butcher shops to buy dressed meat, Swift, as well as other meat packers, had to sell their meats for ridiculously low prices. On top of that, the meat packers needed to build infrastructure in the towns to insure that the dressed meat is kept cold and bacteria-free. If the locals still denied the consuming of dressed meats from animals that were slaughtered days earlier, these major investments could have backfired, resulting in a huge loss of capital. There were actual losses, however, that Swift and Armour experienced. The most evident of these is the fact that the railroads at the time did not endorse the shipping of dressed meats, and preferred transporting livestock. Live animals weighed more and did not require any special train cars, unlike the pork and beef that the meat packers intended on shipping. Because of this, the major railroad systems greatly increased their shipping costs for dressed meats. At the time, the meat packers were barely breaking even on their shipments. They were forced to turn to the Grand Trunk, a railroad on the south border of Canada that was largely uninfluenced by the meat packing industry. The meat packers also began taking the other half of the animal, the 46% that was not packed as meat, and processed it into other items. Converting the waste useful material helped Swift and Amour break even and gain some profit,