The wages of food factories1

Abstract

The goal of modern, industrial agriculture has become the pro-duction of large quantities of uniform products at the cheapest price. Emblematic of these trends, and in many ways responsible for them, is the meat and poultry industry, which has led American agribusiness's headlong plunge into vertical integration and contract farming. Through restructuring, it has managed to externalize many of its costs and impose them on job-hungary small towns in the Midwest and South. The meat and poultry industry, and the food factories that produce and process its products, impose needless harm on animals, land, workers, and communities. This article examines the consequences of industrial food production and processing and suggests possible public policies and actions to mitigate the harmful effects of food factories. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.