Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight

by Timothy Pachirat

Overview

A political scientist goes undercover in a modern industrial slaughterhouse for this twenty-first-century update of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle

This is an account of industrialized killing from a participant’s point of view. The author, political scientist Timothy Pachirat, was employed undercover for five months in a Great Plains slaughterhouse where 2,500 cattle were killed per day—one every twelve seconds. Working in the cooler as a liver hanger, in the chutes as a cattle driver, and on the kill floor as a food-safety quality-control worker, Pachirat experienced firsthand the realities of the work of killing in modern society. He uses those experiences to explore not only the slaughter industry but also how, as a society, we facilitate violent labor and hide away that which is too repugnant to contemplate.

Through his vivid narrative and ethnographic approach, Pachirat brings to life massive, routine killing from the perspective of those who take part in it. He shows how surveillance and sequestration operate within the slaughterhouse and in its interactions with the community at large. He also considers how society is organized to distance and hide uncomfortable realities from view. With much to say about issues ranging from the sociology of violence and modern food production to animal rights and welfare, Every Twelve Seconds is an important and disturbing work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300192483
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	03/29/2013
Series:	Yale Agrarian Studies Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Timothy Pachirat is assistant professor, Department of Politics, The New School. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 Hidden in Plain Sight 1

2 The Place Where Blood Flows 20

3 Kill Floor 38

4 "Es todo por hoy" 85

5 One Hundred Thousand Livers 108

6 Killing at Close Range 140

7 Control of Quality 162

8 Quality of Control 208

9 A Politics of Sight 233

Appendix A Division of Labor on the Kill Floor 257

Appendix B Cattle Body Parts and Their Uses 271

Notes 275

Index 293

What People are Saying About This

Peter Singer

Pachirat’s extraordinary narrative tells us about much more than abused animals and degraded workers. It opens our eyes to the kind of society in which we live.—Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation

Clarissa Rile Hayward

…a detailed and brilliantly executed ethnography of an industrialized slaughterhouse in Omaha…its clear, jargon-free prose will make it accessible to both graduate and undergraduate students across disciplines.—Clarissa Rile Hayward, author of De-facing Power

Erik Marcus

By far the most thorough and immersive accounting of slaughterhouse operations in contemporary agribusiness.—Erik Marcus, author of Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, & Money

Steve Striffler

A truly stunning achievement.  Every Twelve Seconds takes us into the slaughterhouse and asks: Why do we work so hard to conceal the daily routine of industrialized killing?  The result is a masterpiece that is as sophisticated as it is hard to put down.—Steve Striffler, author of Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food

John Bowe

Pachirat’s prose and tone are readable, horrific, and compelling.  The documentary spell it casts recalls the steady, unflinching eye of Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier. Astonishing.—John Bowe, author of Nobodies: Slave Labor in Modern America and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy

Gene Baur

Timothy Pachirat's courageous study of kill floor work exposes the fiction of "humane" slaughter.  This book is required reading for people who care about animals and for those interested in how distance and concealment operate in our society.—Gene Baur, President of Farm Sanctuary and author of Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food

Ian Shapiro

A profoundly sobering exploration of the interplay between the imperatives of the modern meatpacking industry and the dehumanizing slaughter of cattle.—Ian Shapiro, author of The Real World of Democratic Theory

Editorial Reviews

"The book is superbly written, especially given the grimness of the subject."—Mark Bittman, The New York Times, Opinionator column

"A firsthand account of various kinds of slaughterhouse work [in which] Timothy Pachirat did it all. . . . We can count ourselves lucky that Every Twelve Seconds is a very good book if not a flawless one. . . . It forces upon us an unacademic yet profound question: How can something be right, if it feels so horribly wrong?"—B. R. Myers, The Atlantic

"From June to December 2004, Pachirat (politics, New Sch.) worked at a cattle slaughterhouse in Nebraska. During his tenure, he worked in three distinct areas: in the cooler as a liver hanger, on the killing floor herding cattle to the knocking box, and in quality control. Through these disparate positions, he gained a thorough understanding of the formal and informal rules that govern American slaughterhouses. His conclusions are grim—bureaucracy and ineptitude combine in a way that does not bode favorably for food safety. He argues that industrialized slaughter is a hidden world tolerable only because it is invisible to most. Repugnant tasks like the ones associated with processing cattle should be more transparent and would perhaps be duly transformed as a result. Complete with meticulous diagrams showing each worker's position in the slaughterhouse, descriptions of each worker's job duties, and an appendix detailing cattle body parts and their uses, this compelling documentary work illuminates in great detail the workings of an industrial slaughterhouse. VERDICT For anyone curious about the origin of beef in America or those interested in the politics of concealment."—Diana Hartle, Univ. of Georgia Lib., Athens, Library Journal

"A lucid writer, Pachirat excels in explaining how a slaughterhouse works."—Ted Conover, The Nation

"A fascinating, gut-wrenching study—but absolutely not for the weak of stomach."—Kirkus Reviews

"[I]t would take an exceptionally visceral, in-depth account to make a meaningful contribution to the literature of animals suffering for our nourishment. That’s exactly what Timothy Pachirat provides in Every Twelve Seconds."—Tom Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education

"The fascination of Every Twelve Seconds lies in the meaty main chapters, which recount Pachirat’s passage through the hiring process and then into the factory and abruptly out of it, five months later."—Ted Conover, The Nation

"Pachirat thinks about the larger issues of killing in a satisfying, comprehensive way: how people in the plant handle it, and how he did."—Ted Conover, The Nation

"This is a masterful expose, written in crystalline prose. In tying the cruelty and dehumanization of industrialized slaughter to the politics of sight, the book adds to a growing canon of recent work . . . by extending people's understanding of and exacerbating human repugnance to one of the great moral failings of current times. Summing Up: Highly recommended."—Choice

"This book is important. Very important. [. . .]  buy it, read it, and share it with anyone who thinks they’re at peace with eating animals. After all, what Pachirat shows without telling, is that every time we eat animals we promote suffering that, should we confront it directly, we’d deem entirely unacceptable."—James McWilliams, Eating Plants blog

"The Jungle for the 21st century."—Portland Press Herald

“Eye-opening for students. . . . often fuels days of discussion among my students, who want to believe that ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’ but are learning that change requires more than just visibility. . . . I would highly recommend this book,”—Abby Kinchy, Edge Effects

Singled out as "one of the best scholarly books of the decade" by Chronicle of Higher Education

"Pachirat’s extraordinary narrative tells us about much more than abused animals and degraded workers. It opens our eyes to the kind of society in which we live."—Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation

"You may not want to know what happens behind the walls of a modern slaughterhouse; but Pachirat’s extraordinary narrative tells us about much more than abused animals and degraded workers. It opens our eyes to the kind of society in which we live."—Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation

"A truly stunning achievement. Every Twelve Seconds takes us into the slaughterhouse and asks: Why do we work so hard to conceal the daily routine of industrialized killing?  The result is a masterpiece that is as sophisticated as it is hard to put down."—Steve Striffler, author of Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food

"By far the most thorough and immersive accounting of slaughterhouse operations in contemporary agribusiness."—Erik Marcus, author of Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, & Money

"Pachirat’s prose and tone are readable, horrific, and compelling. The documentary spell it casts recalls the steady, unflinching eye of Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier. Astonishing."—John Bowe, author of Nobodies: Slave Labor in Modern America and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy

From the Publisher

“The book is superbly written, especially given the grimness of the subject.”—Mark Bittman, The New York Times, Opinionator column

The New York Times - Mark Bittman

“A lucid writer, Pachirat excels in explaining how a slaughterhouse works.”—Ted Conover, The Nation

The Nation - Ted Conover

"Pachirat’s extraordinary narrative tells us about much more than abused animals and degraded workers. It opens our eyes to the kind of society in which we live."—Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation

Peter Singer

“The Jungle for the 21st century.”—Portland Press Herald 

Portland Press Herald

“A firsthand account of various kinds of slaughterhouse work [in which] Timothy Pachirat did it all. . . . We can count ourselves lucky that Every Twelve Seconds is a very good book if not a flawless one. . . . It forces upon us an unacademic yet profound question: How can something be right, if it feels so horribly wrong?”—B. R. Myers, The Atlantic

The Atlantic - B.R. Myers

“This book is important. Very important. [. . .]  buy it, read it, and share it with anyone who thinks they’re at peace with eating animals. After all, what Pachirat shows without telling, is that every time we eat animals we promote suffering that, should we confront it directly, we’d deem entirely unacceptable."—James McWilliams, Eating Plants blog

Eating Plants - James McWilliams

“This is a masterful expose, written in crystalline prose. In tying the cruelty and dehumanization of industrialized slaughter to the politics of sight, the book adds to a growing canon of recent work . . . by extending people's understanding of and exacerbating human repugnance to one of the great moral failings of current times. Summing Up: Highly recommended.”—CHOICE

Choice

“[I]t would take an exceptionally visceral, in-depth account to make a meaningful contribution to the literature of animals suffering for our nourishment. That’s exactly what Timothy Pachirat provides in Every Twelve Seconds.”—Tom Bartlett, Chronicle of Higher Education

Chronicle of Higher Education

“A profoundly sobering exploration of the interplay between the imperatives of the modern meatpacking industry and the dehumanizing slaughter of cattle.”—Ian Shapiro, author of The Real World of Democratic Theory

Ian Shapiro

"…a detailed and brilliantly executed ethnography of an industrialized slaughterhouse in Omaha…its clear, jargon-free prose will make it accessible to both graduate and undergraduate students across disciplines."—Clarissa Rile Hayward, author of De-facing Power

Clarissa Rile Hayward

"Timothy Pachirat's courageous study of kill floor work exposes the fiction of "humane" slaughter.  This book is required reading for people who care about animals and for those interested in how distance and concealment operate in our society."—Gene Baur, President of Farm Sanctuary and author of Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food

Gene Baur

"Pachirat’s prose and tone are readable, horrific, and compelling.  The documentary spell it casts recalls the steady, unflinching eye of Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier. Astonishing."—John Bowe, author of Nobodies: Slave Labor in Modern America and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy

John Bowe

"By far the most thorough and immersive accounting of slaughterhouse operations in contemporary agribusiness."—Erik Marcus, author of Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, & Money

Erik Marcus

"A truly stunning achievement.  Every Twelve Seconds takes us into the slaughterhouse and asks: Why do we work so hard to conceal the daily routine of industrialized killing?  The result is a masterpiece that is as sophisticated as it is hard to put down."—Steve Striffler, author of Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food

Steve Striffler

A firsthand account of various kinds of slaughterhouse work [in which] Timothy Pachirat did it all. . . . We can count ourselves lucky that Every Twelve Seconds is a very good book if not a flawless one. . . . It forces upon us an unacademic yet profound question: How can something be right, if it feels so horribly wrong?—B. R. Myers, The Atlantic

— B.R. Myers

The Atlantic

This book is important. Very important. [. . .]  buy it, read it, and share it with anyone who thinks they’re at peace with eating animals. After all, what Pachirat shows without telling, is that every time we eat animals we promote suffering that, should we confront it directly, we’d deem entirely unacceptable.—James McWilliams, Eating Plants blog

— James McWilliams

Eating Plants

The book is superbly written, especially given the grimness of the subject.—Mark Bittman, The New York Times, Opinionator column

— Mark Bittman

The New York Times

A lucid writer, Pachirat excels in explaining how a slaughterhouse works.—Ted Conover, The Nation

— Ted Conover

The Nation

An in-depth examination by an undercover academic about the slaughtering of cattle for food. Pachirat (Politics/New School Univ.) settled in Omaha in 2004 to conduct participant-observation research at a large slaughterhouse processing 2,500 cattle per day. He obtained employment after only the most cursory of interviews, partly because he looked the part (he is half Thai and therefore brown skinned) and partly because the turnover at slaughterhouses often reaches 100 percent annually. The author writes that he was determined to publish an interesting narrative, unlike most books by academics, often just expansions of their dissertations. Mostly, he succeeds, despite his interjections of theory derived from scholars both well known and obscure. The primary theory revolves around how societies keep unpleasant institutions as invisible as possible from the consuming public. Pachirat's firsthand descriptions of how the cattle are killed and butchered are graphic and stomach turning. He says the book is not intended primarily to promote animal rights or turn meat eaters into vegetarians, but his narrative may encourage those results among some readers. An appendix titled "Division of Labor on the Kill Floor" lists 121 steps involved from the time the cattle arrive at the slaughterhouse until they have been dismembered and the animal products packaged for shipping. Another appendix lists a few dozen "Cattle Body Parts and Their Uses," including the blood, used as a "sausage ingredient, sticking agent for insecticides, and blood meal for livestock and pet food." Throughout the process, Pachirat worried that he would be outed within the plant; instead, his advanced education and eloquence worked to his advantage as he was promoted to quality-control examiner. In that position, he provides alarming insights about evading the meat inspectors meant to enforce sanitation. A fascinating, gut-wrenching study--but absolutely not for the weak of stomach.

Kirkus Reviews