Wolverine Packing Company Offers A

History of Meat Packing in the United

States

As new, more professional solutions to store meat were devised,

such as refrigeration, and as the railroads began to crisscross the

country, the meat packing market in the United States sprang to

life. With the popularization of railroads as a technique of

transportation, meat delivery and shipping became a lot easier

and faster and refrigeration methods allowed the meat to stay

more fresh for much longer.

Even though meat packing plants had been on the market for quite some time, it wasn't till the

novel The Jungle by author Upton Sinclair was circulated in 1906 that many became mindful of

the techniques of the meat packing industry, "The Jungle," an exclusive book about the

abominable working environments of the meat packers and detrimental, unsafe approaches

utilized to accelerate creation, shocked numerous readers across the nation. Employees were

obligated to work in harsh, unsanitary conditions. Strikes and unions were stifled as employers

hired newly arrived immigrants to occupy the slots of those who protested these conditions.

Fortunately, by the 1930's and well into the 1940's, the United Packinghouse Workers of

America of the CIO was established with regards to unionizing workers and improving the

working conditions and approaches in meat packinghouses. Through this labor union as well as

others, meat packers had the ability to get paid more in wages and were authorized to work in

more tolerable conditions for more reasonable shifts.

As the usage of technology heightened, a large number of workers were substituted for

machinery and various mechanized hardware. With the popularization of trucks, shipping was

transferred from a railroad system to a trucking system and many meat packing industries were

relocated from the cities to rural areas. This brought the factories closer to the pastures and

ranches that raised the cattle used for the meat packing. As a result, labor unionization was less

centralized and many workers lost employment. Although popular meat packing cities like St.

Louis, Illinois, Kansas City, Missouri, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and St. Paul, Minnesota still

preserved meat packing production, other cities like Omaha and Chicago closed their meat

packing factories and stockyards.

In recent times, an increase in on the job damage in meat packing factories has been drawing

the attention of some. Many investigations have been introduced in an effort to detect and

reduce any poor or dangerous working conditions that still exist or that have newly presented

themselves. Though popular meat packing companies of the United States, like Cargill Meat

Solutions, Lomen Company, Hormel Foods, Tyson Foods, and Perdue Farms are still

successfully operating, it is yet to be determined whether the industry of meat packing itself is a

safe, sanitary, healthy occupational provider. The meat packing industry is yet to be thoroughly

investigated and more factual evidence is yet to be found.