Ann Friedman - The chicken and the eggs

Like most of you, I am trying to stay informed while avoiding the news firehose. Books are a simple solution. I've been trying to reallocate my scrolling hours to topical, well-researched nonfiction. 

One of the many contradictions espoused by those in power right now is that it's possible to be both pro-meat and anti-immigrant. This delusion is laid bare in Alice Driver's Life and Death of the American Worker, about the mostly-immigrant workforce that processes chickens in Tyson facilities in Arkansas. Face it: If you're in the U.S. and you buy meat or dairy or eggs, you rely on immigrants. And, increasingly, incarcerated people. And sometimes? Child labor.

I sent Alice a few questions about what we eat and the workers who produce it.

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What has changed for immigrant workers in rural places since this administration took office? 

In Arkansas, the home of the largest meat processing company in the U.S., sanctuary cities are illegal. Immigrant workers are afraid of being separated from family members who are undocumented. Workers remember that the Trump administration declared them "essential" during the pandemic. Now, facing mass deportation, they say the environment of fear makes it harder to organize. Immigrant workers have commented that companies facing a labor shortage will likely rely more heavily on incarcerated labor. 

It seems unbelievable, but children are employed in many meat processing facilities. How do companies get away with this?

Children work the night shift. At night, facilities bring in cleaning crews hired by a third-party provider. This work involves hazardous chemicals. A recent U.S. Labor Department investigation found more than 100 kids ages 13-17 worked for Packers Sanitation Services. I conducted interviews for my book in Green Forest, Arkansas, a rural poultry town where, in 2023, the Labor Department found six children working the night shift at the Tyson Foods plant.

With the cost spikes and shortages associated with eggs lately, do you think people are starting to confront the realities of how animal products are produced?

Many states have strong ag-gag laws that prevent workers or citizens from documenting the appalling conditions in which chickens are raised. As is true with meat, we need to consume less and pay more for eggs, which is an unpopular idea (although it might be more popular if we raised wages for workers and taxed billionaires). I think the answer is a combination of structural and consumer changes, including the government incentivizing sustainable farming practices and increasing transparency around industrial egg production. 

Speaking of transparency, how did you get the recipe for chicken nuggets?

One of the workers I interviewed for my book spent a decade making chicken nuggets at a Tyson plant in Rogers, Arkansas. He said he threw 40-pound frozen blocks of chicken parts into an industrial grinder: three blocks of chicken breast; two of ground skeleton mixed with blood, necks, and other bits; and one of chicken skin and fat. He described, “All the waste from the debone area, the skeleton, the skin, the neck, the hip bone—all of that is ground up to make nuggets, which have almost no meat in them.”

I shudder. Has your reporting affected your own choices about what to eat?

I am a pescatarian, but also when I travel and report, for example, on migrants, if they offer to share food with me, I eat whatever they have prepared. I love the idea of everyone thinking of ways to eat less meat or support local farmers, but I know that hasn't been a very successful campaign. I look at this post by Alicia Kennedy frequently.

What's our best course of action as consumers who care about agricultural workers' welfare?

In my book, I write about the power of worker-led organizations like Venceremos and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Look for local organizations like these where you can donate money, volunteer, and learn from workers about how to support them.

Have we all just agreed to live with soul-crushing racism? Zak Cheney-Rice on our moment of widespread indifference. Adam Serwer calls it the Great Resegregation. [NYmag; Atlantic paywalled link, alas]

Olga Khazan wonders if having a baby changes your personality. For her? It did. For me? Not at all. I related more to Anastasia Berg's experience. [Atlantic gift link; The Cut] Speaking of great nonfiction: I loved Anastasia's book (with Rachel Weisman) about children and choice. Olga's book about personality change is on my to-read pile.

A new concept to me: Dispersed tourism, which "seeks to stay within the social and ecological carrying capacity of a location to ensure the lasting ecological, social, and economic stability of a region." Elijah Hicks talks to Kim Kobersmith about it. [Daily Yonder]

"The sudden appeal of old-money aesthetics is part of the reactionary moment." Sarah Manavis on the conservatism of Instagram. And Alex Abad-Santos on why Reels are so bad. [New Statesman; Vox] 

And if you, too, are eager to escape into some fiction: I'm hovering above it all with Samantha Harvey's dazzling Orbital. 

Rest in power, Roberta Flack.

My soul is making you breakfast.

[I'm not sure who is the creator of this vision, but reverse-image search provides this clue.]

Jane writes: "Ann, thank you so much for this essay. One element that it encapsulates is something that I've been thinking about for a while, which is there is a large segment of people that view society as zero sum, where if someone else achieves something, it must have been taken away from someone else. Of course that is a total fallacy!" I hate living in the zero-sum era. 

"Just wanted to say THANK YOU for your words about gender today - amen to all of them," writes Kate. "Also, I'm so proud to be part of the 6%." The membership is truly an elite niche.