Meat, Blood and Books

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to tour Excell, a Cargill meat processing facility in Dodge City. Ever since I started taking ag classes - I've wanted to get inside one of the plants. From an agricultural/efficiency standpoint, it's fascinating. For food safety reasons, we worked backwards in the process, starting at the finished, packaged products and ending at the knock box and kill floor. Packing plants aren't for faint of heart. The smells are terrible and there is actually a river a blood running through the plant. From working at a hospital and on a dairy farm, I can look at anything but smells really get to me. Most of the plant is quite cold, because meat is being cut and packaged, and those parts aren't bad. But when we got to the rooms where organs are processed, I had to breathe into my sleeve.

I was with a group of other farm kids, and we're pretty resilient. Our unanimous favorite in the plant was the hide pulling machine; it grips the hide and just RIPS it off the carcass...spilling blood everywhere. Another part I liked was the gutting of the carcass. These men are among the highest-paid in the plant, and they go around and around on a conveyor belt cutting the organs out of the cows. After the tour, we went to a restaurant in Dodge and ate cow fries and hamburgers. That night we had steak. Rather than be disgusted, now I appreciate the effort it takes to get food on my plate.

Anyway, walking through the plant reminded me of a book I read a long time ago - The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The novel, written in 1906, was intended to draw attention to differences in social class, corruption of businesses and the horrible working conditions in factories. He does this through an examination of the meat-packing industry, including telling horrifying stories of workers getting caught in machinery and ground up in the beef.

Amazingly, this publication of The Jungle had massive repercussions. As a result, both the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act were passed in 1906. Ironically, no changes were made in regard to the living and working conditions for industry employees, Sinclair's original intent. I read in a wikipedia article that he famously said, "I aimed for the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

Disclaimer: I really hope PETA doesn't find this blog. As a farm girl, I view animals as food, but also insist they're treated ethically while alive. By law, all meat-processing facilities are required to take good care of livestock before harvesting, and ensure they feel no pain.