The Inhumanity behind it all

The relationship between the industry and its animals and workers is simply inhumane. The relationship is inhumane because these large companies such a McDonald’s, Burger King, factories etc. target teenagers, immigrants and other “de-skilled” individuals to work for them intensively with the unfair pay of minimum wage. In this essay I will to my best ability, attempt to elaborate on the truth behind the portion of individuals who are treated unfairly everyday because these companies benefit from their suffering.

I will use a number of materials to support my points. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, a food investigator who microscopically views and unravels the truth behind fast food restaurant's history, present and future and it’s outcomes on society.  Also, The Ethics of what We Eat by Peter Singer, who describes a similar story; however within different environments. He explains in great detail of where our food actually comes from, and the process the food goes through before it reaches our plates. A very short clip between Eric Schlosser and PBS. In addition the movie Food Inc.

Agricultural work all over American is very demanding and within its demands there is much exploitation of workers taking place. Both Eric Schlosser’s interview with PBS and Peter Singer’s book explains what takes place inside factories and other various work sites. According to Eric Schlosser, strawberry picking is an extremely tedious process in which multiple hands laboring endless hours to produce a massive quantity of produces is necessary. Therefore immigrants, the people who are usually looked down upon and hold very little status in the United States are forced to be outside everyday picking these strawberries non stop just to make enough money to ensure their families survival. Supervisors and managers are aware of the situations of each individual, which gives them unspoken authority to control their working pace.

In the book Ethics of What we Eat by Peter Singer (p32) describes the worldwide famous brand Tyson’s industry and their ill-treatment towards their workers. “Jobs at Tyson foods are so poorly paid and unpleasant that job turnover in some plants has been reported to be higher than 100 percent annually, meaning that the average employee lasts less than a year.” (Singer, 32)He also went on describing the deaths and injuries of two fifteen years old children that occurred at this plant. This only shows that Tyson does not care about it’s people at all. Having under aged minors work at a company strictly meant for adults is dehumanizing. Think of all the things the children may have seen every day; animals being killed by people they work with, accidental deaths etc. These events can corrupt a child's mind causing him or her to look at life from a different perspective based on what they see occurring around them everyday. Hence, the health and well being of some of the children may be permanently damaged or may affect them in the long run.

Women are also a constant target of sexual abuse at work sites. Since supervisors are “dictators” of their work area according to Fast Food Nation (Schlosser, 175-76) they tend to have a great amount of power over their workers and how they do their jobs. As a result, women are fondled and spoken too in a manner in which a lady is not subjected to be spoken too. Women who have been through hardships tend to think on their feet a lot, because of lessons learned from past experiences and encounters with life’s obstacles. Some of the women put up with the ill treatment at factories simply so they can marry a man of high power. Once they are able to convince the man of their humbleness and ability to be controlled in order for him to accept her as his lawfully wedded wife. Then she is legally one step closer to becoming a free woman and sooner or later she will be employed working a legal job, somewhere besides a factory. Women now have to degrade themselves by using the gift of marriage as their escape to happiness from their life according to Fast Food Nation(Schlosser, 175-76) What has society come too that a woman must lie and marry a man she might not love just to be a woman in society?

The inhumanity of the relationship of the system affect on its workers comes when workers don't get fully credited for their hard work. What I mean is that the companies usually do everything in its power to ensure that a worker gets paid as little as possible, in order for them to profit. “Tyson has a record of seeking to lower wages and cut health benefits for its workers, even while the corporation has been experiencing unprecedented growth and making billions of dollars in profits.”(Singer, 33) This basically means that Tyson wants to be cheap and selfish towards its hard workers. They don’t want to provide them with any help or safety although they have the ability to do so. Therefore, if large companies around the United States are making profits from their workers hard work, why shouldn’t workers get credited for their hard work and dedication towards the company?

There is another significant reason that the relationship between the workers and the industry is inhumane. That reason is because some workers are not being credited for their hard work. In the book Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser he elaborates on the relationship between fast food workers and the intense labor being put into these companies and the "company policy “careless responses from their managers. He then gives an example and states "The bonus of Taco Bell restaurant managers were tied to

Their success at cutting labor costs.” The managers have devised a number of creative ways to do so. This basically means less money for the workers and more money for the managers. Some ways that workers were subjected to this ill treatment was to work in the restaurant after their shift had already come to an end.

Within the industry not only is there the exploitation of human beings; however, there is also the exploitation of innocent animals every day. In the book Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer (p24- 26) the author describes the everyday life inside a chicken shed. Within these pages, they describe the cruelty of the chickens, “food among feces”, and the manner in which chickens are denied food, growth and freedom of living. The passages also went on describing cruel and irresponsible acts done by workers that are inflicted upon these animals. In addition (p28) the author describes the day in the life of a Turkey Inseminator. Turkey inseminators are persons that simply physically impregnate a female turkey using male sperm that was collected through a horrid process. The process is for a worker to catch and snatch a male turkey and hold it against its will while fighting him to extract semen. Then the worker must do the same to a female turkey, but must inject the semen collected into her while fighting her. In addition to this horrific scene, some of the chickens that pass through the industrial process are killed alive, in scaling hot water. Consequently, body parts of the animal may end up becoming broken or misplaced. This is all due to the irresponsibility of workers that have no care about the animals.

As the food industries grow more powerful the demand for produces increases. Consequently, farmers adjust their farms to the needs of their supervisors. As Fast Food Nation states in chapter six, On the range where most farmers are in debt, therefore they have no choice but to work off their debt. Within this chapter we were introduced to a farmer by the name of Hank and his family in Colorado who owned a farm in modern day society. Within the chapter Hank explained about life on the farm, some issues the family were facing at that point in time and in the end Hank took his life because his dead body was worth more than his living body. By providing large companies with their products when necessary they weave their way out of this debt little by little. Even if this means as Richard Lobb said in Food Inc.” these industries don’t produce chickens anymore, they just produce food.” Indeed he is correct; industries no longer take in consideration the lives of the animals. The look, the feel and the actual environment of these animal farms are as the inside of a HENRY FORDS assembly line factory.

Although farmers are the one spending money to grow and tend to these animals, they have the least say in how this business works. In terms of how they raise the animals and what precautions should be taken to ensure comfort to these animals. Carole Morison a chicken farm owner from the movie Food Inc. has got to the point where she feels that it is time her right to the freedom of speech needs to be exercised. She is fed up of keeping her mouth shut and letting the bigger industries not only abuse her animals, but her as well. Carole, refused to keep her chickens in the dark during their growth stage as she was instructed to do. She states that “the growers have no choice, the debt just keeps building”. And went on to say “to have no say in your business is degrading.” This is also true. To truly know that your business is being controlled by someone else who is making a profit off of you and your hard work is gut wrenching. What makes this even worst is that you cannot say anything about it, because your life is in jeopardy.

Supervisors of these industries give these jobs to individuals without a care of what happens, just as long as the job gets done at the end of the day. Eric Schlosser stated on an interview with PBS that within the choice of eating three times a day, the main concern of most individuals are what to eat and what will it do to them. However, most people fail to realize where does the food that they are about to eat come from.

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Another significant reason !

There is another significant reason that the relationship between the workers and the industry is inhumane. That reason is because some workers are not being credited for their hard work. In the book Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser he elaborates on the relationship between fast food workers and the intense labor being put into these companies and the "company policy “careless responses from their managers. He then gives an example and states "The bonus of Taco Bell restaurant managers were tied to their success at cutting labor costs. The managers have devised a number of creative ways to do so. This basically means less money for the workers and more money for the managers. Some ways that workers were subjected to this ill treatment was to work in the restaurant after their shift had already come to an end. Also some were forced to clean the restaurant on their personal time. Therefore managers were not paid to ensure that a fair working environment was in place for their workers; however, paid to manage injustice.

Fast Food Nation and Kid Konsumers!

   Within the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, he explains to readers the history, strategies and propaganda behind the popular industries. However, within pages (40-45) Schlosser elaborates on children as main targets of these industries, such as McDonalds, Walt-Disney etc. Hence, he touches on something so true, people fail to realize this and as a result waste money and put their families health in jeopardy.

     He explains that" children often recognize a brand logo before they recognize their on name.” He also went on to say that these companies have a plan to “give kids a reason to ask for the product.”  Therefore, companies with the motto of families first have completely went against their philosophy. They don’t really care at this point, as the money they make pile up they begin to loose interest of quality and focus on quantity. How could you treat the customers that keep your company going in a harsh and unfriendly manner?

    Another interesting point to touch on is that company has spent money to do research on their strategies in order for them to succeed as necessary to gain more customers and eliminate competition. The author explains that the researchers have found that there are many ways in which a child requests what he or she wants or desires and the manner in which they do it. There is the pleading nag, a persistent nag, the forceful nag, demonstrative nags, the sugar coated nag, threatening nag and the pity nag. Each nag entitles a child to frustrate the busy mind of his or her parent to say, “YES”, just for the child to stop. With this being said, companies have come to the realize that as well and instead of preventing this from occurring they try to increase this action, because with this action their companies grow. If children don’t do these actions, their companies will indeed falter.

    This process is insane especially when Kroc who is associated with the growth of McDonalds said that this is a “rat eat rat, dog eat dog, society and before the customers kill him he will kill them.” Slowly but surely his success is growing at killing his customers. Killing them in any way possible, breaking their pockets, making them feel insecure and making them unhealthy with ever bite of their big Mac or French fries. What could have been done to Kroc in the past influences his philosophy?

My first college assignment (diagnostic)

Javed Najhafeez

Assignment #1

 

   The relationship between the industry and its workers is simply inhumane. Immigrants are brought from Central American countries such as Guatemala, to work intensively, with little to no pay in unsanitary and unsafe work environments. Immigrants are considered individuals with limited freedom and as a result they are forced to work for large companies that treat them with no respect in order to have massive productions worldwide.

     Agricultural work in American tends to be very demanding and within its demands there is much exploitation of workers taking place.  For example according to Eric Schlosser strawberry picking can be a very tedious process. As a result, the demand of multiple hands laboring endless hours to produce a massive quantity of produces is necessary. In the book Ethics of What we Eat by Peter singer (p32) describes the worldwide famous brand Tyson’s industry and their ill-treatment towards their workers. “Jobs at Tyson foods are so poorly paid and unpleasant that job turnover in some plants has been reported to be higher than 100 percent annually, meaning that the average employee lasts less than a year. “Stated the author, and he also went on describing the deaths and injuries of two fifteen years olds that occurred at this plant. Women are also a big target of sexual abuse at worksites. Since supervisors are “dictators” of their work area they tend to have a great amount of power of their workers and how they do their jobs. As a result, women are fondled and spoken too in a manner in which a lady is not subjected to be spoken too.  Ethics of What We Eat Peter Singer (p33) describes a Tyson Food practice. “Tyson has a record of seeking to lower wages and cut health benefits for its workers, even while the corporation has been experiencing unprecedented growth and making billions of dollars in profits.” If a company of its caliber is making such high profits, it is possible for workers to work in better environments and be paid more than minimum wage. Therefore, if large companies around the United States are making profits from their workers hard work, why shouldn’t workers get credited for their hard work and dedication towards the company?

   Within the industry not only is there the exploitation of human beings; however, there is also the exploitation of innocent animas every day.  In the book Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer (p24-26) the author describes the everyday life inside a chicken shed. Within these pages, they describe the cruelty of the chickens, “food among feces”, and the manner in which chickens are denied food, growth and freedom of living. The passages also went on describing cruel and irresponsible acts done by workers that are inflicted upon these animals.  In addition (p28) the author describes the day in the life of a Turkey Inseminator. The process is for a worker to catch and snatch a male turkey and hold it against its will while fighting him to extract semen. Then the worker must do the same to a female turkey, but must inject the semen collected into her while fighting her.  In addition to this horrific scene, some of the chickens that pass through the industrial process are killed alive, in scaling hot water. Consequently, body parts of the animal may end up becoming broken or misplaced. This is all due to the irresponsibility of workers that have no care about the animals. Supervisors of these industries give these jobs to individuals without a care of what happens, just as long as the job gets done at the end of the day. Eric Schlosser stated on an interview with PBS that within the  choice of eating three times a day, the main concern of most individuals are what to eat and what will it do to them. However, most people fail to realize where does the food that they are about to eat come from