Vox explains 'The chicken industry’s worker safety problem' for Food Day 2022

Happy National Food Day! For this year's celebration, I'm following up on last year's Vox explains how 4 companies control the beef industry for a late National Food Day with the next video in the series, The chicken industry’s worker safety problem.

There's a human cost to factory-processed chicken.
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In the 1960s, the US began a love affair with chicken, and poultry workers paid the cost. Over the past few decades, poultry processing line speeds have increased to meet demand. But that’s happened in tandem with the decline of unions and deregulation of the industry. The result is a high rate of workplace injuries and repetitive motion disorders, with gaps in workplace safety oversight.
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This is the second episode in a series of three by producer Laura Bult and Vox’s Future Perfect team, which explores big problems and the big ideas to solve them. This series explores the human cost of the meat industry.

I already covered chicken raising in John Oliver and 'Food, Inc.' explain chicken farming, so I'm moving on to the question about working conditions in meatpacking. One of the questions I covered in Joel Salatin from 'Food, Inc.' for Food Day sets up the question and answer.

21. What ethical effects does he think the treatment of pigs as “a pile of protoplasmic material” would have on the treatment of people and other countries?

He thinks the people who do not respect "the pigness of the pig," will treat other people and other countries in the community of nations as disdainfully as they do the pigs and will try to control them the same way. The film then jumps to a segment about Smithfield Farms that supports Salatin's contention.

The next question asks "Does the portrayal of the working and living conditions of the Smithfield meatpackers support the opinion of the owner of Polyface Farms that you described in question 21?" The answer is yes. The video shows the same is true of the workers processing chickens. Remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

One of the things that occurred to me when the video described how the USDA regulated the line speed in the plant for food safety but OSHA could not for worker safety was Upton Sinclair's remark about how he aimed for the heart when he wrote "The Jungle" but hit the stomach instead. I appreciated Laura Bult using that as a postscript for this episode. It really shows what Americans value.

That's it for Food Day and "Food, Inc." Stay tuned as I go all Halloween from now to the end of the month.