Through a steady chain reaction, fast food has slowly changed factory farming and agriculture. Corporate ownership, harsh working conditions, and new ways to produce food have risen out of the fast food industry and are now prominent in all aspects of agriculture. Although agriculture affects many, those who witness its negatives first hand are workers. Agriculture in today’s terms can no longer be called farming. Regarded as “agribusiness” by an environmentalist group known as Grace Communications, factory workers are often employed and controlled by corporate owners. These corporations have an unexplainable upper hand over workers and other farmers.
Two types of corporate farming are common in the U.S: contract farming and vertical …show more content…
In return, the farms’ material is paid for and the farm owner gets a large supply of money. Another common form of agribusiness is vertical integration. Vertical integration is used to describe a corporation that is involved in more than one phase of processing, packaging, or raising food. (“Industrial Livestock Production”) Corporations that are vertically integrated have complete, utter control over the lives and deaths of animals, which crops are raised, and the work environment. Superiors often abuse and harass workers. Women in the food industry are sexually harassed and abused into thinking sex can be used as a form of payment to superiors. (Schlosser, 176) Slaughterhouse workers are forced to wear head to toe metal plates and chain- mail in attempts to prevent deep cuts in the skin. However, this is often not enough. (Schlosser, 169) According to Lucas Spangher an environmental scientist for Huffington Post, “Workers in the meat industry make an average of $23,000 a year, work 10+ hours a day, are pushed so hard they often defecate in their pants to avoid slowing down and suffer a repetitive motion injury rate 30 times the national average. This statistic misses out on the harassment and abuse that workers face from superiors. Although the exact number …show more content…
When first created, McDonald’s was only buying potatoes from few family owned farms. However, Ray Kroc, the founder and owner of the golden arches decided these purchases weren’t efficient enough. Realizing that potatoes’ shape, size, and taste are directly related to their environment during growing, he decided to alter the way potatoes grow and are packaged. Using a giant corporate supplier, J.R. Simplot, Kroc was able to grasp a new form of farming and marketing, allowing McDonald’s to buy many, cheap potatoes at one time. (Schlosser, 114) These new frozen, pre-cooked fries caused an influx of profit for McDonald’s and Simplot. This cheap, efficient new way of buying potatoes makes french fries the most profitable item on the McDonald’s menu. Another source of major profit for Mcdonald’s, the Chicken Mcnugget, also changed how chicken is raised and used in the United States. Before 2002, most chicken was sold whole, with bones. Recently however, almost 90% of all chicken is bought deboned, frozen, and in pieces. (Schlosser,140) Directly a cause of McDonald’s marketing and recreation of food, chicken as a whole is now consumed differently than before