The Southern Model Revisited: The Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, Immigration, and Health and Safety in Poultry Processing

Abstract

This research combines a sociology of agrifood conceptual framework with a commodity systems analysis methodology to investigate the nexus of race, ethnicity, immigration, and health and safety in the US poultry processing industry. The poultry industry was the first agricultural sector to industrialize. Through vertical and horizontal integration, the industry is dominated by a few powerful firms. The industry has been criticized for multiple ethical failures regarding contract growers, processing plant workers, and communities. Meat and poultry processing is one of the most dangerous manufacturing jobs in the United States. Poultry processing is especially reliant on a non-union, minority, and immigrant labor force. This “Southern Model” is the preferred model of agrifood globalization. The COVID pandemic brought renewed attention to precarious work in poultry processing and exposed the lack of resilience in the agrifood system in general, and the poultry industry in particular.