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The Meatpacking Industry: A Century of Exploitation

In the early 20th century, meatpacking plants were full of dangerous working conditions,

rampant disease, and often toxic products. They were places where profits were prioritized over

the health and safety of workers and consumers alike. As exposed in Upton Sinclair’s famous

1906 novel The Jungle, these plants lacked even basic safety and sanitation standards, were

staffed mostly by exploited immigrant labor, and produced meat that was often contaminated 1.

Working conditions and food safety controls improved slightly over subsequent decades due to

new legislation and union activity, but many problems persisted into the late 20th and early 21 st

centuries, as documented by John Herron in “Making Meat” (2018)2, and Eric Schlosser in “Fast

Food Nation” (2001)3. Ultimately, meatpacking in 1900 differed little from meatpacking in 2000.

Both eras reveal industries placing efficiency and earnings above worker welfare and public

health. By examining these three works, it becomes clear that the meat industry has

subjected its workers to a century of unethical labor practices and unsanitary working

conditions in pursuit of higher profits.

In the early 1900s, the meatpacking industry operated largely free of regulations or oversight.

Sinclair provides a disturbing window into the unsafe, unsterile factories of the time, describing
1
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906), 197-98.
2
Herron, John. "Making Meat: Race, Labor, and the Kansas City Stockyards," in Wide-Open Town: Kansas City in
the Pendergast Era. eds. Diane Mutti-Burke, Jason Roe, and John Herron. Lawrence: University Press Kansas, 2018.
3
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
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the exploitation of “women and children” who worked on killing floors and were traumatized by

their labor4. The work was extremely dangerous, with many accidents and few protections for

workers. Illness also spread easily in contaminated environments. Herron similarly reveals how

lack of government oversight in later decades likewise left the poor and minorities vulnerable to

unequal treatment and discrimination5. But federal requirements and some technological changes

eventually yielded some improvements in injury reporting, food safety inspection, and facilities.

Still, issues like repetitive stress, long hours, and constant production pressure continued as

Schlosser demonstrates6. Meatpacking labor has remained dirty, difficult work from Sinclair’s

days through today, with human costs persisting regardless of regulatory or technological

improvements.

By 2001, Schlosser shows that many poor practices remained despite reforms and countless

exposés like Sinclair's. Despite important food safety gains, inhumane animal treatment and

harsh working conditions continued. Lack of oversight still permitted the use of higher risk

meats and introduction of new risks like microbiological contamination7. Schlosser argues the

industry’s relentless drive to reduce costs produced ever more corner cutting, including new cost-

saving chemicals and diluted sanitation efforts8. The exploitative labor model also persisted,

evolving to rely more heavily on undocumented immigrants with few legal protections.

Meatpacking workers remained predominantly lower class, nonwhite recent arrivals occuping

the industry’s most dangerous jobs, just as Sinclair described nearly a century earlier9. Like

Sinclair and Herron, Schlosser effectively exposes the ongoing need to balance profits, labor

4
Sinclair, The Jungle, 117
5
Herron, Making Meat, 121
6
Schlosser, Fast Food nation, 7
7
Ibid, 17
8
Ibid, 23
9
Ibid, 8
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rights, food safety, and other societal interests in reforming the country’s important meat

businesses.

While the works highlight different eras, each argues for overhauling an industry emphasizing

profits over ethics. Their shared argument for reform emerges clearly despite differing subject

matters and goals. Sinclair sought mainly to mobilize public opinion and policy change by

writing a vibrant fictional novel10. Herron offers more scholarly examination of stockyards in

another midwestern hub, Kansas City. Finally, a century after The Jungle’s publication,

Schlosser’s journalistic investigation explores national and global modern meatpacking 11.

Collectively, the works underscore the ongoing need for vigilance and oversight in vital

industries historically prone to exploitation. Sinclair and Schlosser proved highly influential,

directly shaping public discourse and policies—Sinclair inspired Teddy Roosevelt’s reforms 12,

while Schlosser’s book preceded increases in USDA testing programs13. Herron’s academic

research has also indirectly impacted views. Despite their successes, however, all three authors

would agree that systemic change still remains wanting a hundred plus years later.

The most striking commonality across these works is the meat business’s consistent

undervaluing of human wellbeing and health versus profits and efficiency, leading to exploited

workers, mistreated animals, or contaminated products. Second, the works share consistent

depictions of meatpacking laborers across the decades as comprised of disadvantaged ethnic or

migrant groups, confined to low-paid unskilled work, and largely powerless against institutional

exploitation14. The authors collectively argue for balancing economic priorities with other ethical

and public health interests, a theme dating back to Sinclair but still relevant today. If a lesson
10
Sinclair, The Jungle
11
Schlosser, Fast Food nation,
12
Ibid, 22
13
Ibid, 12
14
Ibid, 21
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emerges, it is the continued need for public vigilance against tendencies to fester into abuse in

the absence of oversight. Another striking feature is simply the industry’s scale and critical

importance feeding millions, magnifying consequences from its problems. The works differ in

format but share a common mission: exposing inhumane practices to urge calls for reform.

Judged by continuing problems presented by Schlosser and other critics, their victories remain

incomplete. But the struggle continues.

In conclusion, while federal oversight has improved certain issues Sinclair outlined in 1906, the

nature of meatpacking work remains harsh and hazardous even today. Schlosser and Herron

reveal how worker exploitation as well as health and safety concerns persist in today’s plants

much as they did generations before. Their insights, building on Sinclair’s transformative work,

provide a record of resilience by ordinary workers while exposing an industry desperate for

reform. Only through strong regulatory changes and a renewed commitment to prioritizing

human interests over profits can the meatpacking business evolve toward accountability and

ethical operations into the future.

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Works cited

Herron, John. "Making Meat: Race, Labor, and the Kansas City Stockyards," in Wide-Open

Town: Kansas City in the Pendergast Era. eds. Diane Mutti-Burke, Jason Roe, and John

Herron. Lawrence: University Press Kansas, 2018.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York:

Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. 1906.