Chapter 6

I didn't know that farmers would kill themselves because a crop failed or they weren't getting as much money anymore. I didn't realize how severe it was either. Eric Schosser says that the suicide rate among ranchers and farmers in the United States is now about three times higher than the national average. This issue started in the 1980s but has been ignored. When ranchers start to have problems working and how they traditional work, they sometimes will think its better to take there life with them.

Now many ranchers fear that the beef industry is being restructured along the lines of the poultry industry. They didn't want to end up like poultry farmers, who are powerless and trapped by debt and contracts written by long processors. I would think for chains like Chick-Fil-A, Wendy's and McDonald's who have tons of chicken items on the menu, the poultry farmers would have substantial wages. But it seems like the big corporations aren't helping out the farmers much.

I remember when the McNuggets weren't all 100% white meat and instead had different fillers. They made me sick as a child, though I still ate them. Turns out the McNuggets have fatty acids resembling beef. These nuggets were originally cooked in beef tallow. Eventually the company switched to vegetable oil, but they still add beef extract to maintain that same taste. I thought chicken would be better for you than red meat, which it is, but these McNuggets contain twice as much fat per ounce than a hamburger. I knew there was a reason I don't eat those anymore.

These McNuggets turned Tyson Foods into the world's largest chicken processor. I didn't know Tyson was the one who made McNuggets. They also manufacture at least half of all McNuggets and sell chicken to 90 percent of the worlds largest restaurant chains.

I was also surprised that the McNuggets changed the packaging of chicken. Twenty years ago, chickens were sold whole. Nowadays about 90% of the chicken sold in the US has been cut into nuggets, cutlets, or pieces. And in 1992 chicken passed beef consumption.