Cogs in the Great Machine

By: Logan Leathem, Erica Osborne, and Olivia Winstead

Author This chapter exposes the abuses of one

of the nation’s largest industries and a company that invades all of our lives.

Evidence and arguments were successfully argued, including factual, government evidence and his own experiments.

ConAgra, a company that processes nearly all types of food today, is the focus of the chapter.

Greeley Home to the nation’s largest food

processing complex Owned by ConAgra Labor is predominantly illegal

immigrants Wages are one third lower than they

were forty years ago. The cows are corn and grain fed, not

grass fed.

The Jungle Written by Upton Sinclair Exposed unfair, unsafe, and

unhealthy working conditions in the meat packing industry.

Provoked Theodore Roosevelt to order an investigation.

Public cared more about their meat than the conditions of the workers.

IBP Moved out west to avoid unions and

get lower wages Caused the degradation of the labor

force by removing all the skill from the job

Workers became replaceable, working only six months, on average

Bribed union leaders, meat wholesalers and had ties to organized crime

Other Findings Most workers live below the poverty

line. Two-thirds cannot speak English and

one-third are not literate in any language.

The building of meat processing centers caused drastic increases in crime.

Bias The author was very anti-meat

packing corporations, but who can blame him with so many abuses?