Tyson Gambles On Lives
There are unmistakable, undeniable overlaps in atrocities in industrial animal agriculture.
One example hit the news this last week.
A Tyson plant in Iowa has become the subject of a court case filed on behalf of Isidro Fernandez who worked there before he died from Covid-19 in April. The details coming out about working conditions are horrifying (local law enforcement begging for the plant to be closed, workers vomiting on the production line, management demanding that sick workers stay in the plant saying “we all have symptoms—you have a job to do”).
But the news-worthy item is that management made bets in a cash pot “winner take all” game on how many employees would catch the virus.
Tyson “produces” 20% of the bodies of cows, chickens, and pigs that are sold in the United States. They are also a family owned busines—making the Tysons one of the richest families in the country. There has never been any true accountability for the horrific animal abuse and suffering that happens because of Tyson; nor has there been any significant accountability for the environmental destruction caused by Tyson; and if there is accountability from this court case, it’ll be minimal and won’t impact the Tyson family at all. They have set up a corporation build on exploitation and hellish treatment of animals and who are making more money than you or I could possibly imagine.
Tyson’s management may have been literally gambling on their workers’ lives but Tyson the company gambles on far more every day. They are gambling on public health (the next pandemic will likely come from an industrial farm), ecosystems (industrial farming destroys local ecosystems), and the very lives of billions of sentient beings who are just seen as products to be bred, grown, and destroyed for profit. It isn’t shocking that their workers’ wellbeing is also being disregarded in such a cruel and callous way.
And the game is rigged in their favor because of lack of regulation, government complicity, and the public’s ignorant support of modern animal farming in spite of the overwhelming evidence of its harm.
We have to stop supporting animal agriculture and boycott and regulate it into extinction. What can you do right now? Share this story far and wide. Stop purchasing and consuming animal products.
Rachel McCrystal
Executive Director
Cover photo courtesy of We Animals Media.