Slaughterhouse (Gail A. Eisnitz)

A lot of people have asked me why I refuse to eat US meat, whatever its origin (i.e. including US organic meat) – the answer is very simple. It lies between the pages of Ms Eisnitz’ excellent book, and a few others I have previously reviewed here.

It is no coincidence if the book bears the same name as a (famous?) horror movie. Or that a horror movie producer would want to name its latest release after one of these grisly places. Reading on, one forgets which of the book or the movie came first... I have read quite a few books and articles, and seen quite a few documentaries, on the dire state of the US cattle, swine and poultry farming businesses and other related industries, but I would say that nothing can quite prepare you to the appallingly long list of absolute horrors and abhorrent practices Ms Eisnitz describes in her book. The writing is compassionate enough so that one clearly feels that she is not trying to report her findings in too much gory detail, but what she recounts in this book is beyond imagination and will make your toes curl on more than one occasion. Yet it is a very necessary book, as the delegation of the killing process in our modern societies allows us to comfortably distance ourselves from the square pieces of raw flesh in these impeccably white, almost medical, cellophaned packs that line up the refrigerated shelves of our supermarkets. The (ex)employees of some major US slaughtering and rendering plants that she interviewed all report the same facts, which they have individually witnessed hundreds, if not thousands of times: cattle improperly stunned, stuck, de-hooved and sometimes skinned alive while suspended on meat hooks, hogs drowning in their own blood, or drowning in a scalding tank they should never have reached alive in the first place, and the absolute indignity of the treatment reserved to rabbits and poultry which, under current USDA standards, are exempt from the application of the Humane Slaughtering Act (which, as Ms Eisnitz demonstrates, is not enforced actively by USDA inspectors anyway). The book presents factual and incriminating evidence on the role of the said USDA, its collusion with the industry it is supposed to regulate and its failure to protect the public from its excesses. Not only is the treatment of these animals abhorrent and unethical, but the handling of the meat, and the widespread various contaminants found on it, make it unsafe and unfit for human consumption. The statistics on e-coli and other foodborne illnesses in the US are properly astonishing; that no one seems to be able (or willing) to fix this major public health issue is even more. As for the workers themselves, they do not fare better in terms of treatment; bullied into submission, exploited and humiliated, those unskilled, often immigrant labourers have a risk of workplace injury six times that of a coal miner. To quote Jonathan Safran Foer in his excellent book Eating Animals [on slaughterhouse work] “It’s the most perfect workplace alienation in the world right now”, and a significant number of these workers resort to alcoholism or domestic violence to express the immense distress caused by their jobs. Having just turned the last page of the book, it leaves me filled with disgust. As a result of demographic pressures and economic growth in emerging countries, the world demand for meat is expected to double by 2020 - is this the growth model the developing world is supposed to emulate? Or is there an elephant in the room? Your USDA 35-day dry-aged NY strip will never taste the same after reading this book… if you can still stomach it at all.