Factories

Chicken workers in China (Photo: Edward Burtynsky/Hasted Hunt Gallery, NY)

It’s not just animals who face devastation inside meat production facilities. Workers on assembly lines are tasked with killing the animals, and cutting and de-boning the meat. They often work in large facilities where there’s little privacy or respite from the monotony and the line work. With the conveyors moving as fast as possible, many workers end up with repetitive motion afflictions.

“Not all workers are affect in the same way or to the same extent, but if you spend more than a year on the line – doing the exact same series of motions over and over again – it is certain that your fingers, wrists, hands, arms shoulders or back will feel the effects. A few more years and the damage may be irreparable,”  writes Steve Striffler, author of a CAFO chapter on the chicken assembly lines where he worked for a time researching his own book, “Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America’s Favorite Food.”

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