“The US government doesn’t care about you.” You would think this would be quite a controversial statement–of course a country’s government should care! But for many, it’s an undisputed fact.
But if you’re still hoping the government cares much about the welfare of the greater public, maybe some stories about diseased chicken meat will convince you.
Sick Chicken
Avian Leukosis is a viral disease with multiple manifestations. The chicken can develop tumors and become more susceptible to other infectious diseases. Now, this tainted meat could end up on your plate. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) will now treat avian leukosis as a trimmable condition.
Formerly, the first 300 birds in a flock were inspected for the disease, an tumorous meat was discarded. As of July 16th, 2020, both of those things are no longer true.
Responding to a March 1st, 2020, petition, FSIS’s Office of Policy and Program Development agreed to treat avian leukosis as a “trimmable condition.” If you grew up with parents who were stingy, or couldn’t afford much food, you know this as the good old’ standby: just cut around it. (1, 2)
National Chicken Council
Don’t let the name fool you–the National Chicken Council is not advocating for chickens. At least, not in the way you might think. The National Chicken Council isn’t in the business of chicken welfare, taking “Big Chicken” to task–it is Big Chicken. The National Chicken Council “promotes and protects the interests of the chicken industry.” If that sounds too cynical–it’s a quote from their website. (2, 3)
Less Inspection
The FSIS is deregulating inspections across the board–more than just skipping the 300 chicken check. In pork plants that have switched over to these newer, faster, inspection methods, the results are apparent. Now, “inspectors have 2.6 seconds to determine whether the company employees have performed their tasks properly. As a consequence, it is not uncommon for hog carcasses to be contaminated with feces, hair, toenails, and bile to be greenlit for processing,” according to foodandwaterwatch.org.
This transitions to chicken processing lines, too. An inspector used to look at 35 chicken carcasses in a minute–a little under two seconds per chicken. Now, one inspector must examine three chickens per second.(4)
Faster Chicken Lines
An article in ProPublica decried the Trump Administration’s increase in production line speeds in the chicken industry. The chicken industry sees more fingers being amputated than any other job and is more dangerous than coal mining. And although ProPublica can show manifold studies that say increasing line speed increases worker risk, they can’t compare the rates of injury in the chicken industry before and after–because President Trump no longer requires processing plants to submit injury logs.
And the USDA doesn’t care. They have “neither the authority nor the expertise to regulate issues related to establishment worker safety.” That, they argue, is OSHA’s job.
However, it’s not OSHA who regulates line speeds. That’s the USDA.
Former OSHA chief of Staff Debbie Berkowitz says it best: “The USDA doesn’t care about worker safety, they just care about increasing profits for huge meatpacking companies.” (5)
