Big Ag’s Immigration Racket | Rising Anxieties

Most of it... I, I have a number of stories that I wanted to talk about about immigration, because I think immigration is... the synergy between immigration and the meat industry is growing as issues that we really, really have to be paying attention to. And I think it's just fascinating and extremely, extremely troubling. Alright, my first story is from the American Prospect. The Escalating Bloody Exploitation of Meat Workers Under Trump. Conditions in meat packing plants are set to return to scenes from The Jungle.

Yeah, pretty strong. You know, most of the articles that I'm talking about today are about the situation for the workers, and I think that it's a really important time for us to recognize what a powerful issue this is for the animals as well. Not that it's not important enough for the workers themselves.

This, this article is mostly about the line speed increases and, you know, we've talked about them a little bit before, but this goes into a lot of detail. Brooke Rollins, who of course is the, uh, secretary of Agriculture announced in March that she would be extending line speed increase waivers granted to poultry and pork processing plants.

There had been an effort under the Biden administration to get these line speeds down because they're very, very dangerous and they're very, very hard on workers, and there are a lot of injuries and, and just, you know, uh, repetitive motion injuries that occur because of them.

It's just awful. Alright, so there's also an effort to finalize the implementation of a rule that was finalized during Trump's first term, which was known as the New Swine Inspection System, which allowed meat companies to reduce the number of independent federal inspectors on the processing line, instead replacing them with company-employed inspectors.

Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? Uh, who are not required to receive federal training and who would have to go through their bosses if they wanted to enforce safety measures that often incur high costs. Simultaneously, the rule got rid of speed limits entirely. Uh, so you know, the debates are going back and forth on these things.

Well, not really debates, but the efforts to get them implemented. And the implications for food safety, according to this article, of an accelerated and self-regulated meat packing process are clear. Yeah, they're clear to me. Boy these people. What these people have to do for their money?

Also, to make matters worse, sorry, um, Rollins has already implemented additional regulatory changes suggested by the Meat Institute that weakened food safety. It has to do with salmonella testing and keeping the, the requirement that salmonella be kept under a specific threshold.

For workers, it's gonna be even worse because of the, I I mentioned repetitive injuries, the most obvious one is carpal tunnel syndrome and other crippling upper extremity disorders. And these are really crippling, like people come out of these jobs unable to move their hands. In general, I'm gonna quote here, big meat preys on some of the most marginalized workers for its aggressive exploitation.

Somewhere between 30 and 50% of the workers in the meat industry are undocumented, with Latin Americans making up about two-thirds of that segment. And a lot of them are also not necessarily undocumented, but displaced refugees or asylees. And, you know, they're under the temporary protected status that Trump is working to end, uh, leaving them just in limbo.

They can't go back. They can't stay here. I'm sure they'll come up with a way to use them. And here's another quote, "not only are workers who live in fear of federal agents storming their homes and putting them in handcuffs easier to scare away from forming unions, no shit, but they're more likely to put up with wage theft, dangerous workplaces, grotesque injuries, harassment, and countless other abuses. Better keep quiet or the boss will call ICE." It is just a perfect storm, a perfect storm, and a perfect opportunity for the industry.

Here is, an article from syracuse.com, which is, uh, Syracuse is a city here in Upstate New York, Blunt Farmers... blunt. I love the use of the word blunt, it, it, you know, it acts like these, these people are... he's not really a farmer, he was producing dairy, and I refuse to call those people farmers.

Um, but blunt is, you know, the salt of the earth. They're just speaking the truth. No, that's not what's going on. Blunt Farmers Uncomfortable Truth About New York Dairy Industry. His name is Mike McMahon and he's, he's about to retire and he's been preaching about immigration obstacles in the dairy industry for 25 years since he first hired workers from Mexico and Guatemala.

The implication here is that he first hired workers who were here illegally, but you know, he's a farmer, so we don't have to blame him the way we do everybody else who hires workers illegally. Here's the truth, according to McMahon, there is no work visa available for foreign workers who milk New York's 630,000 cows, birth their calves... oh yeah. The farmers really birth the calves... take their temperatures. Oh. The care they give is just so wonderful. And administer their shots. It's difficult dirty work most Americans do not want to do. Instead, dairy farmers build workforces in ways that evade federal laws. Yeah, they break the law.

They break the law because they're not willing to pay American workers enough. You know, this whole you, well, you know, I say it every week, so, so I'm just gonna say it again. Most Americans do not wanna do this because it pays shit. You pay people enough money... if you have a really, really horrible job to be done, you just have to pay people enough money, and then you have to compete in the marketplace. Isn't that how capitalism works? No, apparently not. That is really not how capitalism works, is it? Alright, then there's a story in The New York Times, Trump Shifts Deportation Focus, Pausing, Most Raids on Farms, Hotels, and Eateries.

I mean this is totally an aside, but can we just call them restaurants? Do we have to call them eateries? So ridiculous. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Um, you've probably heard this, that apparently the way this is being played is that these raids started taking place on farms, and probably on factory farms for animals as well.

And, and they started, you know, getting all of these undocumented workers. And the idea is that Trump hadn't thought about this, and this is of course, a crisis because these industries really need these. And so he's reworking his policy. That's the way everybody's covering this. I think this was the plan all along.

I mean, I really do. Create a crisis, imply to people that it's gonna raise the cost of their food, and then come up with a fix. And, you know, we have yet to see what that fix is going to be. But my bet is on changing H2A visas, which are already incredibly exploitative and give quote unquote farm.

Well, some of them are farmers 'cause a lot of all of this has taken place in the plant world, not the meat plant. Plant plant. Uh, and, you know, act like you're doing it to save the American people from starving to death. Uh, yeah. That's not what's going, I, I, I swear this was the plan all along.

'Cause the meat industry has wanted to have H2A visas applied to them for a really long time. They're not, because they only apply to seasonal work, and they grind out these animals' lives year round.

But it's not just to, to apply them to the meat industry and to slaughterhouses, I'm sure they also wanna revise them so they're even more exploitative. That's my prediction. All right. Finally on the same topic, forgive me, but you know, who's anxieties are not incredibly rising about, uh, this topic, theirs are as well. They really wanna pull this off. Unfortunately, mine are probably rising higher.

Um, this is from Progressive Farmer, so you could imagine, from the Ag Policy blog by Chris Clayton. He quotes Trump's recent tweet announcing this change in how immigration enforcement is going to work. Our great farmer, I'm sorry to quote Trump, but you know, at least I'm not showing you his face.

Our great farmers and people in the hotel and leisure business. Gee, I wonder why it's not just farms, but hotels, I wonder anyway, have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them. With those jobs being almost impossible to replace. I think that that whole longtime workers is interesting because the way H2A visas are now, they only apply to relatively short time workers.

I think they can be extended like maybe for a few years, but that's it. And so that's another clue to me. I could be making all of this up, you know that. This is totally my prediction. Alright, this is the second time since mid-April that Trump has suggested there would be policy changes to protect farmers and their workers.

That supports my theory. I think that this, this whole crisis that they have created by ICE seizing workers from farmers is not suddenly, "oh, gosh, we never thought of this." This is the plan, Chuck Connor. Chuck Connor. That's odd. Your name is, last name is Connor, that you would choose the first name Chuck, President of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, issued a statement commending Trump for recognize the importance of foreign born farm workers. Yes, the importance. The importance to you, uh, you know, to be able to employ them for really low, low wages. Members of the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday also talked with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins about the issue.

Representative Don Davis of North Carolina said farmers in his state struggle with the costs of the H2A program and the adverse effect wage rate that the Department of Labor uses to set wages. So they want this system. Basically the industry's goal is to make this system much better for them and apply it to meat.

Meat, you know, meat, dairy, eggs. We have to fix the H2A program and ensure that we can make certain our producers have the labor that they need to not only feed America, but the world. I hate these people. They expect there to be more enforcement at food processing facilities, and they don't want that to happen.

And, those business wouldn't fall under any protection granted to farms. But the owner of the meat processing plant raided in Omaha also made it clear that his company used E-Verify system, and that it didn't stop his facility from being raided. Oh these poor slaughterhouses.

Yeah, he's really the victim here. Not the people he employed, not the people who are being deported. He's really the victim here. ICE later noted it detained 70 illegal aliens in the raid. Oh my God. Now he's short of labor. It's just awful for these people.

Oh, there's one more. Uh, I'm sorry. I, I have a whole lot of articles on immigration, but I really think we have to be paying attention, and this is from Farm Stand, one of my favorite organizations. How Big Ag Thrives on Trump's Immigration Threats. And this is just a good explainer to some of the issues going on. And this is by Amal Bouhabib.

It points out that quote, "it is an open secret that our food system from farms to factories feeds off the labor of undocumented workers and other vulnerable immigrants. It's estimated that undocumented workers make up anywhere from 30 to 50% of the meat packing workforce. Foreign born workers make up an even larger proportion of animal agriculture industries like dairy and pork processing from 60 up to 90% in some states. Many of them undocumented."

How vulnerable are these people? And it, it gives a little of the history here. Uh, it started like when, when quote, "when Black Americans began to unionize in the 1970s and 1980s, asserting their rights to fair pay and safe work conditions, Southern poultry plants implemented the Hispanic project aimed at recruiting migrant workers from Central and South America, regardless of legal status. As journalist Eric Schlosser quipped the quote invasion, as the incoming administration calls it, was in fact a quote, corporate recruitment drive for poor, vulnerable, undocumented, often desperate workers." And of course, we weren't gonna give them citizenship. God forbid.

Well, we sort of want second class citizens only ci the word citizen is wrong because they're not even getting close to being citizens, but we want this whole workforce to be second class, to not have the rights that the rest of us have. It's disgusting. It's just disgusting.

"Big ag," it, it goes article goes on to say, "big ag has turned increasingly to recent refugees and asylees who have work authorization but limited options for work."

I'll just offer one more quote. "Of course, big ag justifies the reliance on immigrant labor by citing the lack of a willing American workforce. And to some extent, it's true that Americans don't want these jobs. Killing and cutting up animals has always been bloody, hard, and dangerous work."

But, you know, I always emphasize the fact that, well, you know, they don't pay people enough to do it, and that's why they can't get Americans to do it. But there are other reasons as well that people are even more resistant to doing this kind of work than they used to be. Not just because you know it, it destroys your soul, but conditions quote today are much worse than even a generation ago.

Wages at meat packing plants have plummeted a staggering 50% since 1975 while injury rates spiked and then plateaued due to under-reporting for fear of reprisal during the same period. At the same time, line speeds, again the line speeds, have more than doubled in the past half century. So that workers quote can barely move, unquote at the end of their shift, quote, exhausted from working on a line that turns live animals into processed meat as fast as six times a minute.

Oh my God. You know, the more you know, the worse you feel. All right. I have a few other things to talk about.

I'm just gonna mention these things. Uh, they're not, this is from The Healthy, more than 92,000 pounds of milk have been recalled in two states. I think the reason this is done in pounds is 'cause this is dry milk, which is used in other products. Um, 92,000 pounds. Think about that. It's from the Crystal Creamery.

Along with that, a salmonella outbreak, this is from CNN, linked to eggs, sickens, dozens of people across seven states. And I don't think anybody has died that we know of, but at least 21 of those people ended up in the hospital. So we're not talking about, you know, one bad night.

So yeah, maybe people should stop eating this crap. Fix so much. Finally, just in case you're, you're concerned that maybe people will, I just have one piece of legislation to report on. It's a Ohio bill. It hasn't passed. Ohio Bill targets Just Egg, lab grown meats, and other imitation products. And I have a theory here as well.

I many theories. This is by Avery Kreer and Dion Johnson in the Dayton Daily News. The Ohio House voted 92 to nothing, very popular, on a bill targeting imitation meat and egg products by requiring forthright labeling and potentially removing lab grown meat's food stamp eligibility and banning them from public schools.

Alright, so, it doesn't say they can't sell imitation products, but they can't use meat or egg related terms unless accompanied by a caveat, like meat-free, plant-based, vegetarian, et cetera. The, the people who introduced this said how important this was that people not be deceived.

There's nothing wrong with these products, but we have to have truth. The fact is, as this article actually points out, it's not clear what, if any, labeling changes brands like Just Egg or other producers would have to make under HB 10. One of the people introduced it emphasized Just Egg.

These prominent products tend to have disclaimers, Just Egg products, say made from plants. Beyond Meat's imitation burgers are clearly identified as plant-based patties. I mean, this is what we've been saying forever, and it is kind of obvious, like nobody's hiding the ball here. But there's that second provision that they slipped in with this. Schools would be required to create policies against purchasing lab grown meats because it's experimental food.

And it would require the state to request a waiver from the federal government to remove lab grown meats from food stamp eligibility. I think this is more the purpose. I think that they know, I really hope I'm right because my theory is, is that they know that lab grown on a cell base, whatever, cultured, whatever you wanna call it, meat.

It is gonna click. It's not there yet, but it's gonna click. And when it does it, they're worried that it's gonna decimate, uh, the animal killing business. And, and they wanna get in there as much as they can and try to keep that from happening. And that's my theory. Lots of theories today. I can't say I hope my theories come true, but just watch, just watch.

And that's it for this week's rising anxieties. And don't forget to tune in Wednesday, we'll be doing The Hen Report. And Friday we have an interview. Oh, we have a really exciting interview with Kudo, the unbelievable animal rescuer who's working a lot in Florida in These illegal slaughter facil, uh, this is gonna be a great interview remember to subscribe especially on YouTube because we really try to increase our numbers on YouTube. And YouTube is a really, really, you know, what do they call it? Uh, it's based. The more clicks you get, the more clicks you get. That's my synopsis of how YouTube works. So if you can subscribe, even if you don't wanna watch, that would be real big help. And that's it for this week.