Poultry plant tour

[footfootfoot]

I can get local chickens from farmers around her for $3/# that are free range. Sens like a lot to pay for a CAFO chicken.

[Gravdigr]

Ortho prolly don't wanna be learning 'bout no Mike The Headless Chicken, I don't guess...

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

I toured a poultry 'processing' plant today, aka an abattoir. I was NOT looking forward to it, having read various accounts of same and being a non-meat-eater currently for various reasons.

I'll regret this, I just know I'll regret this, but...Why would you tour a poultry processing plant, knowing you weren't gonna like it?

[BigV]

work assignment.

[orthodoc]

Got it in one, V. I didn't have a choice. Sorry to have neglected this thread; work is a little crazy until after I give a presentation tomorrow. And my clumsy thumbs make posting from my phone a trial.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by glatt

Do you think the chickens know any better? Do they seem unhappy? I know it looks like a hellish place to live to us, but we've seen the outside. If a chicken grows up there and doesn't know anything else, is it unhappy?

This reminds me of an encounter my friend's brother had with their uncle.
The kid was pulling wings off of a fly and the uncle told him to stop. The kid responded with this intellectual argument about how flies don't feel pain the way we do and how it isn't hurting the fly.

The Uncle said, "I'm not worried about what it is doing to the fly, I'm worried about what it is doing to you."

[glatt]

I heard a really interesting story on NPR a couple weeks ago. It was all about the financial picture of one of these chicken farms. The entire industry uses a contract system. Perdue supplies the chicks and the feed to the farmer and then pays the farmer to raise the chickens. The farmer has to provide the farm and barn and labor and can expect to earn $200K per year for 4 big chicken houses. Except the barns have to meet a standard spec, and cost about $1 million. So the farmer takes out a loan. After making payments on the loan, and operational costs, the farmer can expect to clear about $60k per year in profits on average. Except the "on average" part is key, because Perdue pays some farmers a bonus and gives some farmers a penalty, based on how efficient they are compared to the other farmers. Perdue is turning it into a competition to get economic efficiency to constantly improve. Sounds good from Perdue's viewpoint, but for the farmer, it means that you can be doing everything right, and even improving your efficiency from year to year, but since you are compared to other farmers, they might be doing even better, and you will be assessed a penalty while they get a bonus paid for with your penalty.

So you get some farmers who end up not making any profit at all, but they are stuck because they took out a loan to build the barn, and the bank will take their land if they don't keep making payments. So they can't get out of the business.

Anyway, all these financial pressures are directly responsible for the conditions of the CAFO places. They are going to cut costs any way they can.

[footfootfoot]

Makes me suspect the original premise is faulty. i.e. cheap meat.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

...Why would you tour a poultry processing plant...

Originally Posted by BigV

work assignment.

Originally Posted by orthodoc

Got it in one, V.

What kind of doctor is she again? Serious question.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Purdue is screwing everyone, they're the walmart of the chicken world.

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

What kind of doctor is she again? Serious question.

I'm an Occ Doc: Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The poultry plant tour was to look at the conditions employees have to work in, not to agonize about the chickens ... but of course it was thought-provoking in more ways than one.

I also do Public and Preventive Health (MPH), disaster preparedness, epidemics, international/global health, anything to do with population health (including immunizations and attempts to eradicate various infectious diseases), etc.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Then you could help Sheldon with the Zombie invasion.

[orthodoc]

Yeah, I'm up on the zombie invasion. We're totally prepared at the CDC.

[footfootfoot]

[chrisinhouston]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Purdue is screwing everyone, they're the walmart of the chicken world.

Pilgrim Corp takes the cake.

Texas Businessman Hands Out $10,000 Checks in State Senate
AP
Published: July 9, 1989

Bo Pilgrim, Texas millionaire handed out $10,000 checks on the State Senate floor one day this week while legislation that interested him was pending. He says the checks were political contributions, not an attempt to bribe the lawmakers.

Business interests favored the bill, but the Senate rejected it in a vote that was not recorded.

Lonnie (Bo) Pilgrim, an East Texas chicken processor, offered the personal checks, with the payee's name left blank, to nine of the Senate's 31 members Wednesday, two days before the Senate's vote on a House workers' compensation bill.