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
No comments:
Post a Comment