Any Way You Cut It: Meat Processing and Small-Town America / Edition 1

by Donald D. Stull, Michael J. Broadway, David Griffith

Overview

In pursuit of jobs and economic development, many rural communities have attracted large meat, poultry, and fish processing plants owned by transnational corporations. But what they don't bargain for is the increase in crime, homelessness, school overcrowding, housing shortages, social disorder, cyclical migration, and poverty that inevitably follows.

To shed light on the forces that drive the meat industry and the communities where it locates, Donald Stull, Michael Broadway, and David Griffith have brought together the varying perspectives of anthropologists, geographers, sociologists, journalists, and industry specialists. Despite increased automation, these experts show that meat, poultry, and fish processing remain labor intensive create problems for employees, host communities, and government regulatory agencies.

Since 1906 when Sinclair Lewis exposed the horrors of Chicago meat-packing in The Jungle, consumers have been wary of the process that-even under the best conditions-is an ugly business. Conversely, meat packers are often defensive and distrustful of outside advice and government intervention, even as they look for ways to cut costs and enhance low profit margins.

In an effort to lower costs, meat processors have moved from urban to rural areas, where plants are closer to the supply of raw materials. But rural communities lack a pool of surplus labor and companies end up recruiting immigrants, minorities, and women to work on the plant floors. By examining communities in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Georgia, and North Carolina, the authors evaluate the impact rural plants have on regions with few employment opportunities and the strain their presence places on social services, schools, and law enforcement agencies. They also investigate the underlying causes of high rates of injury and personnel turnover within the industry.

Providing an overview of structural and geographical changes occurring in meat processing, the authors explore the factors that sway industry and community decision making and subsequently influence the future of rural America. But more than just an analysis of the current circumstances, Any Way You Cut It proposes alternate routes communities and meat processors can take to reverse deteriorating conditions and avoid potentially explosive predicaments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700607228
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	11/24/1995
Series:	Rural America
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.65(d)

Table of Contents

Preface

Contributors

1. Introduction: Making Meat, David Griffith, Michael J.Broadway, and Donald D. Stull

2. From City to Countryside: Recent Changes in the Structure and Location of the Meat- and Fish-Processing Industries, Michael J. Broadway

3. On the Horns of a Dilemma: The U.S. Meat and Poultry Industry, Steve Bjerklie

4. Killing Them Softly: Work in Meatpacking Plants and What It Does to Workers, Donald D. Stull and Michael J. Broadway

5. Dances with Cows: Beepacking’s Impact on Garden City, Kansas, and Lexington, Nebraska, Lourdes Gouveia and Donald D. Stull

6. Pork, Poultry, and Newcomers in Storm Lake, Iowa, Mark A. Grey

7. Hay Trabajo: Poultry Processing, Rural Industrialization, and the Latinization of Low-Wage Labor, David Griffith

8. New Immigrants in an Old Industry: Blue Crab Processing in Pamlico County, North Carolina, David Griffith

9. Industries, Immigrants, and Illness in the New Midwest, Robert A. Hackenberg and Gary Kukulka

10. The Kill Line: Facts of Life, Proposals for Change, Bob Hall

11. Conclusion: Joe Hill Died for Your Sins. Empowering Minority Workers in the New Industrial Labor Force, Robert A. Hackenberg

Index

Editorial Reviews

"These essays encapsulate a wide range of the most recent social science research on the nature of work and concerns of workers in the modern meatpacking industry. Several essays also describe the impact of plants and their workers on various small, isolated communities, and some include prescriptions for change."—Journal of the West

"This book does not just criticize a powerful and polluting industry, it offers positive policy suggestions, many simple and well known, on how to control and contain the process."—Annals of Iowa

"The premise of this book is exciting and timely, touching on an industrial sector generally overlooked in discussions of the U.S. economy. This accessible and well-written book will be widely read and much debated."—Mark Moberg, author of Citrus, Strategy, and Class: The Politics of Development in Southern Belize

From the Publisher