What Is The Beef Industry Unethical
Have you ever gone to a fast food restaurant and wondered what is really in your cheeseburger? If you knew what was in it, there is a good chance you would not want to eat it. The real tragedy is that the American beef industry knows this, so they make it difficult for the average person to learn what goes into the production of their beef. But the beef industry is not the only party that is guilty of this. The large corporations who produce our food are all doing the same thing. The morality of the free market and the institutions in which our economy operates under in a free society needs to be reconsidered. In modern day America, the food industry, in particular, has become a perverse monster that is controlled by a few of large corporations, and as consumers we should demand something better.
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This growing monopoly of the production and distribution of our food and the industrialization of our meat and food industry has led to abuse and dishonesty.
According to Food, Inc., a documentary examining the growing industrialization of the food industry, “now there are essentially a handful of companies controlling our food system,” a result of the growing dominance of fast food chains like McDonalds who are big buyers in the market and look to be able to purchase from a big supplier, for products like beef, instead of many smaller ranchers/suppliers. According to the film, “in the 1970’s, the top 5 beef packers controlled only about 25% of the market” (Food). In just forty years, things have changed rather drastically, as “today, the top four control more than 80% of the market” (Food). This means more than eight out of ten burgers we order at Micky D’s or packages of beef we buy at the supermarket come from either Tyson, Cargill, National Beef, or Swift and that these four companies now have a virtual monopoly on the beef
industry.
Some of the dishonesty projected to consumers is by selling the image that their meat still comes from sunny, green farms, as depicted on some meat packaging. UC Berkeley professor and journalist Michael Pollan raises several questions in his essay “Power Steer” about beef and the moral hazards we face as consumers for eating meat. One question being: “What grocery-store item is more silent about its origins than a shrink wrapped steak?” (250). When you walk into the meat aisle of a grocery store, you’ll see ground beef surrounded by plastic parsley and labeled with a sticker that most likely has the image of red barn, a silo, and a cow. The packaging of our food is deceiving at best. The truth, as Pollan finds out when he buys a young steer and follows its life to its end when he has it butchered or “processed” into steaks, is that after 6 months of grazing on grass, steers are switched to a diet of “feed,” a mixture of grains, mostly corn, as well as “protein supplements—and drugs, including growth hormones” (“Power” 251). Why? This allows the beef industry to turn a calf into a steak in much less time than it did in the past. Instead of going to slaughter at 4 or 5 years of age, as they did several generations ago, we’ve now “progressed” to being able to grow the animal to butchering weight in 14 to 16 months (Pollan, “Power” 251). It’s all about efficiency. And part of this efficiency involves ranchers selling off young steers to huge feed lots, which are more like animals cities “populated by as many as 100,000 animals” (Pollan, “Power” 252). And huge feed lots mean no grassy green hills; it means acres of huge, mucky fenced pens, packed with animals walking around in their excrement. The consumer doesn’t see this—so much for honesty in advertising.
An ethical society requires transparency and regulation in the practices of the food industry because, without such, the workers and animals are abused and the American consumer is kept in the dark becoming an unwitting accomplice to the process. One thing consumers might not know is that “it’s accepted that animals will enter the kill floor caked with feedlot manure that has been rendered lethal by the feedlot diet” (Pollan, “Power” 257). Instead of preventing this, which might also be nice for the steers—as perhaps they’d prefer not to live caked with manure, the “industry focuses on disinfecting the manure that will inevitably find its way into the meat” (Pollan, “Power” 257). Yuck. The average consumer also doesn’t spend much time thinking about the workers in slaughterhouses that do a job that very few people have the stomach to do so that we can eat meat. These workers do this job over and over again all day long in factory settings receiving meager compensation for their efforts. According to Food, Inc., these jobs used to pay well, akin to being an auto-factory worker in a different era. Now pay is low, conditions bleak, and employees are often prohibited from unionizing (Food). If we are going to continue choosing to eat meat, and many of us will regardless of what we “know,” the ugly truth behind our food and where it comes from should be exposed just as Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed the malpractices of the Beef trusts at the turn of the 20th century.
I believe that Jean Bethke Elshtain would agree that there is certain moral responsibility on the part of producers to be honest with consumers about their food. In her essay “A Call to Civil Society” under the section titled: “The Moral Economy”, Elshtain asserts that, “Economic activity within democratic civil society is not a definition of, but an opportunity for, moral responsibility and authentic self-determination” (200). People have a right to know what is in their food, where it comes from, and how it gets to those pretty packages on the supermarket shelves. Not only should this kind of information be something that is easily accessible but it should also be printed on labels. Then consumers would be able to identify where their food comes from, how it is made, and whether or not the animals and employees of these corporations are treated fairly.
Critics may argue that the nutrition facts and the current labeling we have on our food is enough. However, what they are ignoring is the fact that we see more out breaks of E. Coli, Salmonella, and mad cow disease than we did only a couple decades ago. This alone should raise concern regarding the quality of the processing of our food. The agencies that regulate these companies, like the USDA, FDA, and the Health and Drug Administration, should be punishing these companies and making sure that they all comply with current health and safety standards. Instead, it seems that a number the people who head these organizations are former executives and lobbyists of the food industry themselves. This should come off as a conflict of interest and raise red flags. With the current situation, it would seem that the leaders of the organizations have too much of an incentive to look the other way regardless whether it is in their self-interest. Elshtain argues that, “it is clear that our economic activities and institutions are not exempt from the need for moral renewal” (200). And though I may not entirely agree with everything Elshtain asserts, I agree with this wholehearted with respect to the food industry.
In closing, I might acknowledge that my extended family includes beef ranchers, dairymen, and farmers. My mother’s father grew up on a cattle ranch, and my mother, herself, in her youth raised market animals in 4-H for auction on their small farm. She tells stories of growing up helping her mom, aunts, and grandmother butcher chickens. Her family also raised other animals that the butcher would slaughter on their own property and then haul off to the butcher-house to turn into bacon or ham or whatnot to stock their freezer. Today, my family eats meat, and we nearly always buy it from supermarkets like the average consumer, and even watching a disturbing, eye-opening documentary like Food, Inc. is not likely going to change that. However, like all consumers, we have a right to know where our food comes from and what happens to it and the people who work to produce it before it reaches our plates. We have a right and a moral responsibility to either accept that or work to see it changed. Ben Franklin once said, “The great advantage of being a “reasonable creature” is that you can find a reason for whatever you want to do” (qtd. in Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma 310). Those of us who continue to eat meat in the face of understanding the modern production of beef will find a reason to do so—but perhaps we will also take a stand and demand changes in the food industry, as we all have in interest in doing so, even if it is only self-interest in our own health. The reality is that we will never go back to the days in American when the family farm was more the rule than the exception. We can, however, move forward toward a more morally conscious way of producing our food. And we should.
Works Cited
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. “A Call to Civil Society.” Pacific Seminar I 2012-2013. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
Food, Inc.. Dir. Robert Kenner. Alliance, 2008. DVD.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemna: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.
---. “Power Beef.” “What Is A Good Society? Pacific Seminar I 2012-2013. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
This growing monopoly of the production and distribution of our food and the industrialization of our meat and food industry has led to abuse and dishonesty.
According to Food, Inc., a documentary examining the growing industrialization of the food industry, “now there are essentially a handful of companies controlling our food system,” a result of the growing dominance of fast food chains like McDonalds who are big buyers in the market and look to be able to purchase from a big supplier, for products like beef, instead of many smaller ranchers/suppliers. According to the film, “in the 1970’s, the top 5 beef packers controlled only about 25% of the market” (Food). In just forty years, things have changed rather drastically, as “today, the top four control more than 80% of the market” (Food). This means more than eight out of ten burgers we order at Micky D’s or packages of beef we buy at the supermarket come from either Tyson, Cargill, National Beef, or Swift and that these four companies now have a virtual monopoly on the beef
industry.
Some of the dishonesty projected to consumers is by selling the image that their meat still comes from sunny, green farms, as depicted on some meat packaging. UC Berkeley professor and journalist Michael Pollan raises several questions in his essay “Power Steer” about beef and the moral hazards we face as consumers for eating meat. One question being: “What grocery-store item is more silent about its origins than a shrink wrapped steak?” (250). When you walk into the meat aisle of a grocery store, you’ll see ground beef surrounded by plastic parsley and labeled with a sticker that most likely has the image of red barn, a silo, and a cow. The packaging of our food is deceiving at best. The truth, as Pollan finds out when he buys a young steer and follows its life to its end when he has it butchered or “processed” into steaks, is that after 6 months of grazing on grass, steers are switched to a diet of “feed,” a mixture of grains, mostly corn, as well as “protein supplements—and drugs, including growth hormones” (“Power” 251). Why? This allows the beef industry to turn a calf into a steak in much less time than it did in the past. Instead of going to slaughter at 4 or 5 years of age, as they did several generations ago, we’ve now “progressed” to being able to grow the animal to butchering weight in 14 to 16 months (Pollan, “Power” 251). It’s all about efficiency. And part of this efficiency involves ranchers selling off young steers to huge feed lots, which are more like animals cities “populated by as many as 100,000 animals” (Pollan, “Power” 252). And huge feed lots mean no grassy green hills; it means acres of huge, mucky fenced pens, packed with animals walking around in their excrement. The consumer doesn’t see this—so much for honesty in advertising.
An ethical society requires transparency and regulation in the practices of the food industry because, without such, the workers and animals are abused and the American consumer is kept in the dark becoming an unwitting accomplice to the process. One thing consumers might not know is that “it’s accepted that animals will enter the kill floor caked with feedlot manure that has been rendered lethal by the feedlot diet” (Pollan, “Power” 257). Instead of preventing this, which might also be nice for the steers—as perhaps they’d prefer not to live caked with manure, the “industry focuses on disinfecting the manure that will inevitably find its way into the meat” (Pollan, “Power” 257). Yuck. The average consumer also doesn’t spend much time thinking about the workers in slaughterhouses that do a job that very few people have the stomach to do so that we can eat meat. These workers do this job over and over again all day long in factory settings receiving meager compensation for their efforts. According to Food, Inc., these jobs used to pay well, akin to being an auto-factory worker in a different era. Now pay is low, conditions bleak, and employees are often prohibited from unionizing (Food). If we are going to continue choosing to eat meat, and many of us will regardless of what we “know,” the ugly truth behind our food and where it comes from should be exposed just as Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed the malpractices of the Beef trusts at the turn of the 20th century.
I believe that Jean Bethke Elshtain would agree that there is certain moral responsibility on the part of producers to be honest with consumers about their food. In her essay “A Call to Civil Society” under the section titled: “The Moral Economy”, Elshtain asserts that, “Economic activity within democratic civil society is not a definition of, but an opportunity for, moral responsibility and authentic self-determination” (200). People have a right to know what is in their food, where it comes from, and how it gets to those pretty packages on the supermarket shelves. Not only should this kind of information be something that is easily accessible but it should also be printed on labels. Then consumers would be able to identify where their food comes from, how it is made, and whether or not the animals and employees of these corporations are treated fairly.
Critics may argue that the nutrition facts and the current labeling we have on our food is enough. However, what they are ignoring is the fact that we see more out breaks of E. Coli, Salmonella, and mad cow disease than we did only a couple decades ago. This alone should raise concern regarding the quality of the processing of our food. The agencies that regulate these companies, like the USDA, FDA, and the Health and Drug Administration, should be punishing these companies and making sure that they all comply with current health and safety standards. Instead, it seems that a number the people who head these organizations are former executives and lobbyists of the food industry themselves. This should come off as a conflict of interest and raise red flags. With the current situation, it would seem that the leaders of the organizations have too much of an incentive to look the other way regardless whether it is in their self-interest. Elshtain argues that, “it is clear that our economic activities and institutions are not exempt from the need for moral renewal” (200). And though I may not entirely agree with everything Elshtain asserts, I agree with this wholehearted with respect to the food industry.
In closing, I might acknowledge that my extended family includes beef ranchers, dairymen, and farmers. My mother’s father grew up on a cattle ranch, and my mother, herself, in her youth raised market animals in 4-H for auction on their small farm. She tells stories of growing up helping her mom, aunts, and grandmother butcher chickens. Her family also raised other animals that the butcher would slaughter on their own property and then haul off to the butcher-house to turn into bacon or ham or whatnot to stock their freezer. Today, my family eats meat, and we nearly always buy it from supermarkets like the average consumer, and even watching a disturbing, eye-opening documentary like Food, Inc. is not likely going to change that. However, like all consumers, we have a right to know where our food comes from and what happens to it and the people who work to produce it before it reaches our plates. We have a right and a moral responsibility to either accept that or work to see it changed. Ben Franklin once said, “The great advantage of being a “reasonable creature” is that you can find a reason for whatever you want to do” (qtd. in Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma 310). Those of us who continue to eat meat in the face of understanding the modern production of beef will find a reason to do so—but perhaps we will also take a stand and demand changes in the food industry, as we all have in interest in doing so, even if it is only self-interest in our own health. The reality is that we will never go back to the days in American when the family farm was more the rule than the exception. We can, however, move forward toward a more morally conscious way of producing our food. And we should.
Works Cited
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. “A Call to Civil Society.” Pacific Seminar I 2012-2013. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
Food, Inc.. Dir. Robert Kenner. Alliance, 2008. DVD.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemna: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.
---. “Power Beef.” “What Is A Good Society? Pacific Seminar I 2012-2013. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.