Table Of ContentChicken
Chicken
The Dangerous Transformation of
America’s Favorite Food
STEVE STRIFFLER
Yale University Press New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the Kingsley Trust Association
Publication Fund established by the Scroll and Key Society ofYale
College.
Copyright © by Yale University.
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Set in Minion Roman type by Integrated Publishing Solutions.
Printed in the United States ofAmerica by Vail-Ballou Press.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Striffler,Steve,–
Chicken :the dangerous transformation ofAmerica’s favorite food
/ Steve Striffler.
p. cm.—(Yale agrarian studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN ---(hardcover :alk.paper)
. Chicken industry—United States—History.. Poultry plants—
United States—History.. McDonald’s Corporation.I.Title.II.
Yale agrarian studies.
HD.US
.''—dc
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability ofthe Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity ofthe Council on Library Resources.
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
PARTI:A New Bird
one Love That Chicken!
two An American Industry
three Anatomy ofa Merger
four The Right to Work
PARTII:A New Worker
five Getting Here
six Inside a Poultry Plant
seven Growing Pains
eight Toward a Friendlier Chicken
Notes
Index
Preface
It is my first day ofwork in one ofthe largest poultry-processing
plants in the world.I am given “the tour”that all new workers
receive.We begin in live hanging. Hundreds of live chickens
flood offthe trucks,down a chute,and into a bin where work-
ers quickly hang them by their feet onto the production line.
It’s surreal.It is nearly pitch black,on the theory that the dark-
ness soothes the terrified birds.The smell and look ofthe place
are oppressive,so I look for something to focus on other than
the hanging itself.A worker.I eventually learn that Javier is from
Mexico,but the figure is hard to make out at first.He is cov-
ered from head to toe in protective clothing that is itselfcoated
with blood,shit,and feathers.Javier’s job is simple,ifsomewhat
gruesome.The chickens have already passed through scalding
hot water and have been electrocuted, a process designed to
both kill the bird and begin the cleaning. Neither task is ac-
complished perfectly.The communal baths,popularly known
as fecal soups,do clean,but they also pass harmful microbes
from one bird to the next.The bath also doesn’t do a particu-
larly good job ofkilling the chickens:one out ofevery twenty
seems to make it through alive.The birds are in their last stages
of life when they reach Javier.For eight hours a day he sits on
viii Preface
a stool, knife in hand, and stabs the few chickens that have
managed to hold onto life.
While watching Javier, I realize what this book will be
about. How did Javier and the chickens arrive in this place,
under these conditions? Where do they go once they leave the
plant? And what does their experience in the plant mean to
those ofus who eat chicken? The search for answers led me to
study a period when chickens were raised and processed quite
differently, and to visit poultry farms, supermarkets, restau-
rants,and communities in the southern United States and cen-
tral Mexico.As I learned while doing this research,whereas the
chicken’s journey is one characterized by uniformity and pre-
dictability,the worker’s path is defined by variation,insecurity,
and chaos. Neither experience leads to a particularly healthy
outcome for bird,worker,farmer,environment,or consumer.
I do not feel sorry for Javier or the chickens.I have worked
in a plant before,and stabbing chickens is a relatively easy job.
Many workers would be glad to trade places.And the chickens
are there to die.I knew this going in.The problem,which be-
came more transparent as I passed by “evisceration,”the “KFC
line,”and the “wing room,”was that no one departed from the
plant in particularly good shape. The workers left poor, ex-
hausted, and, in many cases, seriously injured. The chickens
not only exited the plant dead,but in a “further-processed”form
that was not particularly healthy for consumers.In short,the
postwar promise ofthe industrial chicken—as a healthy,plen-
tiful alternative to beef—has been lost for all ofthe people in-
volved in its raising,processing,and consumption.There has
to be a better way.
Acknowledgments
I used to eat chicken without much thought about where it
came from,or how and by whom it was raised and processed.
Life was much easier then.For complicating my dinner,giving
me an education,and allowing me to write this book,I thank
a number ofpeople.I begin with everyone involved in the in-
dustry,including workers,farmers,managers,and many others,
who took the time to share their stories and knowledge.I have
the greatest respect for the work you do.Libraries and librarians
were also a key part ofthis long process,particularly those as-
sociated with Wilkes Community College,Wilkes County Pub-
lic Library,Shiloh Museum,and the University ofArkansas.The
year I spent as a Rockefeller Fellow at the University Center for
International Studies at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill gave me precious time to read,write,and think in
a stimulating atmosphere.Many thanks to Don Nonini,James
Peacock, Niklaus Steiner, Ajantha Subramanian, Harry Wat-
son,and many others for making this possible.Leon Fink’s en-
couragement,as well as his own work,has been crucial to this
project. Bill Roseberry, who died before a page of this book
was written,remains a guiding force.His advice and assistance
during the project’s early stages were inspirational.
Description:Anthropologist Steve Striffler begins this book in a poultry processing plant, drawing on his own experiences there as a worker. He also reports on the way chickens are raised today and how they are consumed. What he discovers about America’s favorite meat is not just unpleasant but a powerful ind
