Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food (Yale Agrarian Studies)

Book Description:

From a vivid account of working as the "flour boy" breading chicken on the line to a detailed expose of the human rights abuses of "Big Chicken," Striffler's concise text offers a perspective fans of Fast Food Nation will appreciate. Though aimed at a scholarly audience (parts of the book were presented at a conference on chicken at Yale), Striffler's fast-paced narrative, rich with personal detail, will be enjoyed by readers outside of the university setting. Striffler, an associate professor of Anthropology of the University of Arkansas, worked for two summers at a Tyson plant. "Look, we're all Mexican here. Screwed-over Mexicans," explains a co-worker as Striffler eats fried chicken with a group of diverse line workers, many (but not all) of whom emigrated from Mexico to work in processing plants. Rural southern communities have responded to the shifting racial makeup of their towns in often reactionary ways (Siler City, the town where Striffler worked, was the site of a KKK rally in 1999), yet the factory provides both a quasi-family for workers as well as an exploitive work environment. Striffler expands upon the current arguments for organic or sustainable chicken production to include human-friendly chicken with strict production guidelines, but he seems to have just scratched the surface with this slim volume.