Summary: Cogs In The Great Machine

Chapter 7: Cogs in the Great Machine (Page 149-168)

In Greeley, Colorado, the largest company that resides there is the ConAgra Beef Company. In this company, they grow and slaughter cows and sheep; they sell meat all over the United States. Although livestock animals were grass feed until the nineteenth century, they are now feed about 3000 pounds of grain.

Nathan Meeker founded Greeley in 1860. He helped this city become a major producer of beans and sugar beets. Then when the depression came in the nineteenth century, Greeley's economy fell. Also during this time a schoolteacher, Warren Monfort came up with the idea of feeding cows grain instead of grass. With this idea, he started a business in 1930 with eighteen cows, feeding them cheap

In 1906, The Jungle by Uptown Sinclair was released, revealing the working conditions of the slaughterhouses. After this book was released, the investigators confirmed that the claim that the book made was true; as a result, the Congress made food safety legislation. Although the Congress made the food safety legislation, nothing was done about the conditions the workers worked in. Then during the depression, the unions were successful in making their contract with the slaughterhouse companies increasing their wages and getting better working

He observed that the workers wore steel armor all around their body to protect themselves from getting cut by the knives. Although the workers take precautions when using knives, they still get hurt and the accident rate is very high. He also says that the working conditions in the slaughterhouse are very bad because the workers have to work in puddles of blood and organs of the animals. Schlosser also saw that workers work in an assembly line cutting different parts of the animals, and they work about eight hours per day and cut meat every two-three seconds. The knives that the workers work with are taken home to sharpen them. This was because dull knives can hurt the