The Chain Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food - Ted Genoways (2014).epub

A powerful and important work of investigative journalism that explores the runaway growth of the American meatpacking industry and its dangerous consequences.

On the production line in American packinghouses, there is one cardinal rule: the chain never slows. Every year, the chain conveyors that set the pace of slaughter have continually accelerated to keep up with America’s growing appetite for processed meat. Acclaimed journalist Ted Genoways uses the story of Hormel Foods and soaring recession-era demand for its most famous product, Spam, to probe the state of the meatpacking industry, including the expansion of agribusiness and the effects of immigrant labor on Middle America.

Genoways interviewed scores of industry line workers, union leaders, hog farmers, and local politicians and activists. He reveals an industry pushed to its breaking point and exposes alarming new trends: sick or permanently disabled workers, abused animals, water and soil pollution, and mounting conflict between small towns and immigrant workers.

The narrative moves across the heartland, from Minnesota, to witness the cut-and-kill operation; to Iowa, to observe breeding and farrowing in massive hog barns; to Nebraska, to see the tense town hall meetings and broken windows caused by the arrival of Hispanic workers; and back to Minnesota, where political refugees from Burma give the workforce the power it needs to fight back.

A work of brilliant reporting, The Chain is a mesmerizing story and an urgent warning about the hidden cost of the food we eat.

Review
“Formidably researched and vividly told, The Chain is the definitive story of American pork. Ted Genoways intercuts intimate portraits of towns and factories with longer views of labor, business, and immigration history, making painfully clear the true cost of the ‘other white meat.’” (Ted Conover, author of The Routes of Man)

“A muckraker for our times, Ted Genoways goes behind the scenes in the meatpacking industry and shows us how the sausage is really made... An insightful chronicle of a changing American heartland, and of lives trampled in the headlong rush to industrialize the food system. Upton Sinclair would surely approve.” (Dan Fagin, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Toms River)

“Ted Genoways has crafted an unflinching, intimate portrait of America’s industrialized meat system, centered on pork but conveying lessons that go beyond it. The Chain is a must-read for anyone concerned with our nation’s food system, and the phenomenal cost—animal, human, and environmental—of cheap meat.” (Tracie McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating)

“A scathing report on the consequences of factory farming….Genoways…shows that little has changed in more than 100 years….[He] tells a sad, horrifying story, a severe indictment of both corporate greed and consumer complacency.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Comparable to Sinclair’s classic expose, The Jungle, Genoways’s blistering account of the meatpacking industry makes the case for tighter monitoring of this powerful sector of American agribusiness.” (Publishers Weekly)

“An exhaustive examination of this industry. . . . Readers curious about meatpacking and agriculture as well as the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the food industry will find Genoways’s nonfiction debut a valuable and stimulating read.” (Library Journal (starred review))
From the Back Cover

A harrowing investigation of the tortuous path our food products take—from slaughter to Spam

On the production line in American packing-houses, there is one cardinal rule: the chain never slows. Under pressure to increase supply, the supervisors of meat-processing plants have routinely accelerated the pace of conveyors, leading to inhumane conditions, increased accidents, and food of questionable, often dangerous quality. In The Chain, acclaimed journalist Ted Genoways uses the story of Hormel Foods and its most famous product, Spam—a recession-era staple—to probe the state of the meatpacking industry, including the expansion of agribusiness and the effects of immigrant labor on Middle America.

Interviewing scores of line workers, union leaders, hog farmers, and local politicians and activists, Genoways reveals an industry pushed to its breaking point. Along the way, he exposes alarming new trends: sick or permanently disabled workers, abused animals, water and soil pollution, and mounting conflict between small towns and immigrant labor.

The narrative moves across the heartland—from Minnesota, to witness the cut-and-kill operation; to Iowa, to observe breeding and farrowing in massive hog barns; to Nebraska, to see the tense town hall meetings and broken windows in reaction to the arrival of Hispanic workers; and back to Minnesota, where political refugees from Burma give the workforce the power it needs to fight back.

A searching exposé in the tradition of Upton Sinclair, Rachel Carson, and Eric Schlosser, The Chain is a mesmerizing story and an urgent warning about the hidden costs of the food we eat.