It's funny how sometimes you think you know almost everything about a subject. Well I thought I knew enough about English and writing. Turns out I had a lot to learn. In this class with Dr. M, I learned more things than I expected. especially how to do better research. I learned how to gather the information I needed and put everything together in a well organized essay. I learned about what those letters and numbers mean on t he back spine of a book. research will be a lot easier for me now, now that I know exactly what I can do to maximize my information.

Slaughterhouses have a major negative impact on the environment, workers, and consumers. I mean, think about it, all those animals in one place letting off lots of gas and manure. That just smells like trouble, literally. Meat is very high in demand, but a lot of people don’t realize the affect the slaughterhouse has on the environment and also its workers. The conditions are harsh. And what about the government (FDA – Food and Drug Administration), they know what’s going on but still ignore the conditions of a slaughterhouse like everything is all right.
Americans that eat meat are responsible for 1.5 million more tons of carbon dioxide than vegetarians’ every year (FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization). Livestock is a major contributor to green house gases that cause climate change. It's not just the well-known and frequently joked-about farts and manure of grass-eating cattle that's the problem, according to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Land-use changes, especially deforestation to expand pastures and to create usable land for feed crops, are a big part. So is the use of energy to produce fertilizers, run the slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants, and to pump water (FAO). Livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions as dioxide equivalent, reports the FAO. This includes 9 percent of all CO2 emissions, 37 percent of methane, and 65 percent of nitrous oxide. Altogether, that's more than the emissions caused by transportation (buses, cars, etc).
A Beef slaughterhouse in Washington was mandated to pay a $750,000 fine, for violating the clean water act, by the Justice Department. They also had to install almost $3 million in machinery and equipment to resolve this matter. I was reading this article via business week and it stated that Washington Beef discharged partially treated slaughterhouse wastes into nearby waterways without a permit and exceeded the level of pollutants allowed by its permit on more than 1 occasions. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) took water samples on Feb. 5th, 2008, that showed that the slaughterhouse has discharged 180 times more fecal matter than allowed under a permit. Now imagine drinking that water, disgusting. Basically they needed to get caught before they were going to fix the problem and install new environment friendly equipment that’s going to cost them money.
The conditions of these slaughterhouses are horrific. Lots of workers get sick every day. And most of them are illegal immigrants that can be replaced with a snap of the finger. So the big bosses don’t think twice about how they are mistreated or how they are feeling. Workers may complain about conditions with the risk of being deported right back to their country, so they say nothing. These slaughterhouses had no regards for employees. They hired illegal immigrants that were under aged and had them literally slaving in the factories. I read an article in business week that a slaughterhouse in Iowa was raided by police and 389 illegal immigrants, including 31 of their children, were detained.
In the same article a young girl named Yesenia Cordero Mendoza filed a lawsuit against the slaughterhouse. She was only 15 when she started working at the slaughterhouse. She received no formal training and learned by watching her co-workers. She was exposed to harsh chemicals that burned her skin, eyes and throat. She was cut and injured several times on the job, and workers frequently slipped and fell because of animal fat and grease on the floor. She would tell her superiors but they wouldn’t listen. She worked at least 12 hours a day, sometimes even more, 6 days a week and earning less than $400 a month. If that’s not child abuse then I don’t know what is. When government officials came to inspect the plant under aged workers were sent home. Each child labor charge was only a misdemeanor that carries a potential penalty of $625 and 30 days in prison; the owner of the plant was found guilty. He most likely laughed at that so called “punishment”.
Even the animals that are about to get slaughtered are put through horrendous conditions. Most of the time, they are driven hundreds of miles to slaughterhouses in conditions where they are packed so tight that it results in crush injuries or even death. Lots of the processed meat is contaminated with Escherichia coli (E. coli), which comes from the cattle having to stand in its own manure for long periods of time before getting processed. Then they use a highly toxic cleaning product called ammonia to try and rid the beef of the highly effective disease. People have died as a result of beef being contaminated with E. coli.
Many animals are mistreated terribly before slaughter, some being skinned or gutted while being conscious. In the U.S. there is the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, a law that states that all cattle be stunned unconscious before shackled and killed. The USDA is aware of this act (law), but there are no penalties for violating this act. Slaughterhouses usually violate this act because if the cattle is not rendered unconscious the first time they do not want to have to stop the production line to have to stun them again. They don’t want “down time” because it results in fewer profits.
After reading a book called Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, And Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.s. Meat Industry, I found out some very disturbing new that aggravated my stomach and mind. What started out with a single complaint about a Florida slaughterhouse turned into a tale of intrigue and suspense as investigator Gail A. Eisnitz uncovered more startling information about the meat and poultry Americans consume. This shocking story follows Eisnitz as she becomes deeply involved in a slaughterhouse subculture, venturing deeper and deeper into the lives of the workers. As the stakes become higher, in her David and Goliath type battle, this determined young woman finds herself courageously taking on one of America's most powerful industries. Slaughterhouse takes readers on a frightening but very true journey from one slaughterhouse to another throughout the country. Along the way we faced with example after example of mistreated animals, intolerable working conditions, the slow, painful deaths of children killed as a result of eating contaminated meat, the author's battle with the major television networks, and a dangerously corrupt federal agency that chooses to do nothing rather than protect their own backs before the whole affair is blown wide open in this powerful novel. In an effort to understand how such rampant violations could occur right under the noses of U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors, the individuals charged with enforcing humane regulations in slaughterhouses, Eisnitz examines the inspectors' track record for enforcing meat and poultry safety regulations, their primary responsibility. Following a long paper trail, she learns that contaminated meat and poultry are pouring out of federally inspected slaughterhouses and, not surprisingly, deaths from food borne illness have quadrupled in the United States in the last 15 years. Determined to tell the whole story, Eisnitz then examines the physical price paid by employees working in one of America's most dangerous industries. In addition to suffering disfiguring injuries and crippling repetitive motion disorders, employees describe tyrannical working conditions in which grievances are met with severe reprisals or dismissals.
"Slaughterhouse" is the first book of its kind to explore the impact that unprecedented changes in the meatpacking industry over the last 25 years, particularly industry consolidation, increased line speeds, and deregulation; have had on workers, animals, and consumers. It is also the first time ever that workers have spoken publicly about what's really taking place behind the closed doors of America's slaughterhouses. In this book, author Gail A Eisnitz brings the story up to date since the book's original publication. She describes the ongoing efforts by the Humane Farming Association to improve conditions in the meatpacking industry. Media exposes that have prompted reforms resulting in multi-million dollar appropriations by Congress to try to enforce federal inspection laws. As needed to be done, Eisnitz makes it clear that abuses continue and much work still needs to be done.
Its amazing how little we know about how and where our food comes from and what it does to our environment to get here. It’s even more amazing how the big food corp. doesn’t want us to know. They even made it illegal to have pictures of slaughterhouse conditions. Doesn’t that seem a little suspicious to you? What are they really hiding? They’re lucky that a majority of the consumers out there are blissfully ignorant. I can say I am a little bit because even after reading and watching all the controversy about the process of our meat, I’m still going to eat and enjoy it. But after doing more research on this topic, especially reading that book by Eisnitz I’m really considering cutting down on eating all this meat that I’ve been consuming. It’s going to be a real high stepping stone for me but in the long run I think it’s going to be worth it. But we all should try cutting down on the consumption of meat for the simple fact of what it’s doing to our environment, the animals and the people that pack the meat (the workers) in one of America’s largest industries. As if that’s going to happen, that’s like asking us to change the way we use our transportation. It’s just going to take time like everything else.

Supersize me was a very good movie. It showed me how McDonalds, if eaten everyday is very hazardous to your health and there's a real problem with that. If its not good for your health to eat McDonalds everyday i think they should tell us that, instead of going out there and sponsoring the Olympics. That right there makes it look like its great for the body and with enough practice and enough "mcdonalds" we could join the Olympic. I think that's absurd. the movie was defiantly an eye opener for me, they also got a movie like this one called superhigh me, which is also a good movie.

My research is very resourceful. I am gettin a lot of information about how and where our food comes from; and to tell u the truth its kind of sickening, but people will still still eat without a problem. Slaughterhouses have a major impact on the environment. http://www.ciwf.org.uk/publications/reports/animal_welfare_in_uk_slaughterhouses>.

I understand to well about how our gov't sees us(people of america). They just have too much power under their belt. They know what we need and what a lot of us can't live without. They can show us all the disgusting places where and how our food gets to us, and a majority of us will still consume it. They can tell us that somethings not good for us and we'll disregard that and still consume it.

Slaughterhouses have a major impact on the environment. I mean, think about it, all those animals in one place letting off lots of gas and manure. That just smells like trouble, literally. Meat is very high in demand, but a lot of people don’t relize the affect the slaughterhouse has on the environment and also its workers. The conditions are harsh. And what about the government, they know what’s going on but still does nothing about it.
Americans that eat meat are responsible for 1.5 million more tons of carbon dioxide than vegetarians’ every year (FAO). Livestock is a major contributor to green house gases that cause climate change. It's not just the well-known and frequently joked-about farts and manure of grass-eating cattle that's the problem, according to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Land-use changes, especially deforestation to expand pastures and to create usable land for feed crops, are a big part. So is the use of energy to produce fertilizers, to run the slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants, and to pump water (FAO). Livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions as dioxide equivalent, reports the FAO. This includes 9 percent of all CO2 emissions, 37 percent of methane, and 65 percent of nitrous oxide. Altogether, that's more than the emissions caused by transportation.
The conditions of these slaughterhouses are horrific. Lots of workers get sick every day. And most of them are illegal immigrants