Tyson foods introduced the economic principle of “vertical integration’ to the poultry farming in the United States of America. In this practice, companies buy up the businesses that supply the raw materials. Therefore, when a certain organization practices this concept it ensures ownership of all the companies that keep it afloat. In this instance, Tysons foods have bought all the companies that used to make a small town a running economy. It is not a surprise that it is one company with a slaughterhouse, feed mill as well as the hatchery. In addition, the company has a trucking line and a food processing plant whose main role is to make sure that raw meat is cooked and packaged into a ready to eat food. (p.74) The company makes use of restrictive contracts to control the farmers that supply the company with animals. The saddest part of this situation is the fact that the broad-based network of small businesses that were crucial to the economy of the majority of the populace in the rural areas being turned into one monopolized organization. (p.6) This means that there is no competition between different parties to ensure fair competitive prices at which farmers are sold baby chicks or full-grown chickens are reverted to the slaughterhouses.
Under the business models that Tyson foods introduced, the dirtiest and riskiest aspects of meat production were assigned to the family farmers. Besides, the local farmers were forced to be in competition with one another in the sense that they are ranked based on the amount of the animals they delivered. Consequently, any farmer that was at the bottom of the rating could risk losing a lot of money which led to the large-scale rearing of chicken to be an endless game of the catch up pegged on the newest know-how in relation to housing. Farmers were convinced to acquires the latest and expensive climate control technology through loans.
Not only has the vertical integration eaten up the poultry industry but also the pork and beef industries. The author of the book, “The Meat Racket” by Christopher Leonard clearly depicts industrialization in hog farming bay making use of the description of one Iowa pig farmer. Leonard writes, “The old rules of farming no longer apply. What determines the fate of industrial hog farmers is the raw power of companies like Tyson Foods. Open markets have been replaced by contracts. Independence has been replaced by close relationships with transnational corporations.” (p.184) The implication of this is that more farmers are not able to sell their animals independently because of the tight contracts imposed by Tyson Foods company and the open cash market for pigs is no longer available. Majority of the hogs in the US are grown through application contract terms via huge and vertically integrated corporations. Therefore, with the unavailability of open free market for pigs, the primary producers of pork that is the farmers barely make more than half of every buck that the consumer devotes when comparing to the situation in the year 1980. Surprisingly, the pay cuts that are imposed on the farmers are not a true reflection of what consumers pay of meat products which are evidenced by Leonard writing that consumers pay more but farmers are shortchanged and since the corporations are amidst the two parties, they grab a windfall. (p. 204) Therefore, the situation in the chicken sector has also engulfed the beef business where a few meatpackers have great influence on the market through the agricultural agreement
Tyson meats has gained unfair dominance of all the sectors of the meat industry. It has created a record in the history of the US and it sells all the major meat products, that is, chicken, beef and pork. Statistics have that Tyson produces more than 40 million chickens within a period of only one week which translates to more than 2.1 billion chickens that are delivered every year through a supply chain of trucks that are equipped with refrigeration facilities. Additionally, 20.5 million pigs and 7.2 million cows are killed by the company every year leading to the manufacture of bacon, hamburger, pepperoni, as well as, ground meat which finds its way into restaurants, institutions’ cafeterias and grocery stores. (p.123) The company is ever providing large volumes of relatively cheaper meat attracting consumers to buy more of it, and as a result, the company has acquired larger portion of the industry. Therefore, Tyson foods has massive market dominance to an extent that it produces one fifth the meat eaten in the US. Since the company utilizes economies of scale marked by the large network of meat factories in places like Waldron, new companies are unable to enter the market and compete with Tyson head to head. (p.146) This is because new companies will need to invest large amounts of money before starting the business. Besides, the competing company will need raw materials in the form of animals which are not available since farmers have restrictive contracts with Tyson Foods.
The company was putting farmers and the animals at health risk. In fact, in the first chapter of the book, it is evident that the company never provided farmers with protective clothing to use in the chicken houses. Leonard describes the workers from Tyson Foods dressed as people about to handle nuclear waste which shows that they were aware of the danger of handling the animals without proper clothing and yet Katan and her sons have been doing the work of carrying dead chickens without any proper clothing. (p.17) Some of the antibiotics that were pumped into the farmed animals led to the massive antibiotic-resistant type of infections which has led to the US government spending large amounts of money treating the patients. Additionally, the company has not set a treatment plant despite the fact that single hog farmer produces a fecal waste that can be produced by 40,000 people staying in the city considering the number of animals that each farmer own is equivalent to 10,000 animals. Additionally, the company encourages the violation of animal rights. According to Leonard, the chickens are bred to grow too fast that they can hardly breathe.
The industrial model that Tyson foods have increased the gap between the rich and the poor among the rural Americans. Therefore, the heartland has remained with people that are extremely rich and poor farmers that are struggling to make their ends meet. Leonard writes that about 68 percent of the counties which are believed to be the main operation areas for the company has experienced slow growth rates in relation to per capita income. (p.10) Despite the general belief that rural America is tranquil pastoral of red barns, it is currently full of unemployment, despair, and poverty.
Americans that are concerned with human dignity have a reason to oppose the practices of Tyson Foods company. Notably, the meat and poultry industry pose a serious threat to the health of millions of workers. U.S. Government Accountability Office, as well as the U.S. Department of Labor, workers in the poultry farms, are injured 5-fold than the rest of the workers. (p.287) Although there is an increase in the rate of production, Tyson poultry workers are denied bathrooms breaks and opt to wear diapers. Additionally, the company has failed to accord the appropriate medical care to the workers and never provides the exact figure of the injured workers. Sometimes the company has denied bearing the responsibility of the injured or disabled workers. In addition, it has found itself in a dispute with the federal government for poorly paying the workers.
If nothing is done about the practices of Tyson Foods, the U.S. will continue to struggle with the issue of antibiotic resistance and the abuse of the rural workers in terms of health and economic exploitation. Tyson Foods supplies farmers with drugs that are meant for human treatment of bacterial infections to speed up the process of growth of the animals and prevent some of the diseases that easily spread in the congested and dirty factory farms. The major public health organizations have declared antibiotic resistance one of the deadliest health threats in the US and the misuse in the animal agriculture is one of the main causes. Additionally, the majority of the workers will continue getting physically abused by the injuries sustained in the factory farms. Besides, the economic exploitation of the rural farmers is more likely to rise to another level.