Food and Technology

Meatpacking is the wholesale packaging of meat, which includes slaughtering, gutting, skinning, butchering, and further processing such animals as cattle, pigs, chickens, turckeys, and sheep. Most meatpacking today is done in large-scale slaughterhouses that are highly mechanized for fast and efficient processing. By using machines and other technologies, companies are able to employ unskilled, low-wage laborers for many tasks, which reduces their cost. However, the risk of both accidents and meat contamination are high when so many animals are processed and workers must work at a high speed.

The industry has undergone a lot of change since the 1980's, as the fast food industry has demanded more meat at cheaper prices. To cut costs, meatpacking companies lowered wages, sped up production, and had workers perform the same task again and again to increase efficiency. They moved operations from big cities to rural communities closer to feedlots and began contracting primarily with large farm operations that raise huge numbers of animals. In addition, the companies become more consolidated so that today, just five companies control over 83 percent of the beef packing market and 66 percent of the pork packing market.