The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food - Hardcover

Genoways, Ted

3.86

454 ratings by Goodreads

9780062288752: The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006228875X ISBN 13: 9780062288752

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2014

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A powerful and important work of investigative journalism that explores the runaway growth of the American meatpacking industry and its dangerous consequences.

On the production line in American packinghouses, there is one cardinal rule: the chain never slows. Every year, the chain conveyors that set the pace of slaughter have continually accelerated to keep up with America's growing appetite for processed meat. Acclaimed journalist Ted Genoways uses the story of Hormel Foods and soaring recession-era demand for its most famous product, Spam, to probe the state of the meatpacking industry, including the expansion of agribusiness and the effects of immigrant labor on Middle America.

Genoways interviewed scores of industry line workers, union leaders, hog farmers, and local politicians and activists. He reveals an industry pushed to its breaking point and exposes alarming new trends: sick or permanently disabled workers, abused animals, water and soil pollution, and mounting conflict between small towns and immigrant workers.

The narrative moves across the heartland, from Minnesota, to witness the cut-and-kill operation; to Iowa, to observe breeding and farrowing in massive hog barns; to Nebraska, to see the tense town hall meetings and broken windows caused by the arrival of Hispanic workers; and back to Minnesota, where political refugees from Burma give the workforce the power it needs to fight back.

A work of brilliant reporting, The Chain is a mesmerizing story and an urgent warning about the hidden cost of the food we eat.

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Product Description:

Title: The Chain( Farm Factory and the Fate of Our Food) <>Binding: Hardcover <>Author: TedGenoways <>Publisher: Harper

Review:

"Formidably researched and vividly told, "The Chain" is the definitive story of American pork. Ted Genoways intercuts intimate portraits of towns and factories with longer views of labor, business, and immigration history, making painfully clear the true cost of the 'other white meat.'"--Ted Conover, author of "The Routes of Man"

"Comparable to Sinclair's classic expose, "The Jungle," Genoways's blistering account of the meatpacking industry makes the case for tighter monitoring of this powerful sector of American agribusiness."--Publishers Weekly

"A disturbing expos? . . . Genoways makes a compelling case that the meatpacking industry's relentless drive for higher output poses a threat to food safety."--"Minneapolis Star Tribune"

..".a worthy update to Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" and a chilling indicator of how little has changed since that 1906 muckraking classic."--"Mother Jones"

""The Chain"[is an] important [book], well worth reading, full of compelling stories, genuine outrage and the careful exposure of corporate lies."--"New York Times" Book Review

A muckraker for our times, Ted Genoways goes behind the scenes in the meatpacking industry and shows us how the sausage is really made... An insightful chronicle of a changing American heartland, and of lives trampled in the headlong rush to industrialize the food system. Upton Sinclair would surely approve. --Dan Fagin, Pulitzer-prize winning author of "Toms River""

An exhaustive examination of this industry. . . . Readers curious about meatpacking and agriculture as well as the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the food industry will find Genoways s nonfiction debut a valuable and stimulating read. --Library Journal (starred review)"

A searing indictment . . . [Genoways] writes with passion and a sense of mission . . . He should get people thinking about the trade-offs that the public makes in return for low-cost meat. --"Associated Press""

Formidably researched and vividly told, "The Chain" is the definitive story of American pork. Ted Genoways intercuts intimate portraits of towns and factories with longer views of labor, business, and immigration history, making painfully clear the true cost of the other white meat. --Ted Conover, author of "The Routes of Man""

Comparable to Sinclair s classic expose, "The Jungle," Genoways s blistering account of the meatpacking industry makes the case for tighter monitoring of this powerful sector of American agribusiness. --Publishers Weekly"

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