The meatpacking industry’s corporate exceptionalism: racialized logics of food chain worker disposability during the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Building on theories of biopower and necropolitics, we detail how the meatpacking industry expanded corporate exceptionalism amidst the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis argues that the industry utilized three strategies to assert exceptionalism and secure increased production and profitability despite significant risks for meatpacking workers. First, the industry constructed COVID-19 as an urgent threat to the nation’s meat supply, casting themselves as a critical economic linchpin. Second, the industry aligned themselves with heroic portrayals of meatpacking workers, deflecting criticism of their handling of the crisis. Third, the industry promoted images of themselves as competent stewards, meriting unfettered autonomy to manage workers’ health risks. Detailing these strategies sheds light on how corporate exceptionalism functions within late capitalist food systems to further racialized logics of worker disposability.