"The Fine
Print", by M.H. Schrader
DEAD MEN MAKE LOUSY
WORKERS
(Published in the Neighborhood
Journal 22 April 1998. Preface and
Epilogue written 6 March 2003. Posted 6
March 2003.)
PREFACE: After this article was published, Mrs.
Schrader called the office and asked me who Archie Shafer was, because he had
called the house and really wanted to talk to me. I told her he was the PR man for Tyson Chicken. Her reply:
“What did you write now?”
About a decade or so ago, there was a heated controversy
between the states of Tennessee and North Carolina about what to do about the
Pigeon River. (Let me take a moment
here to preface my comments by stating that when this controversy was brewing,
Vice-President Al Gore was Senator Al Gore from Tennessee.) The Pigeon River flows from the mountains of
North Carolina into Tennessee. During
the time of the controversy, the upper reaches of the river were as pristine as
any river shown in a Coors commercial could ever hope to be. When the river crossed into Tennessee, it
was the color of coffee, smelled, and was, for all practical purposes, lifeless. Between the pristine river and the coffee
colored river was the Champion paper mill.
Coincidentally, it was at the paper mill that the river changed color,
odor, and life.
It was about this time that doctors noticed a disturbing
medical trend along the Tennessee section of the river: the men were dying young, and dying young of
cancer. This discovery led to further
investigations, which uncovered a link between the pollutants dumped into the
river by the paper mill and the cancer in the male population.
As there were existing laws against such toxic pollutants
already on the books, Tennessee asked North Carolina for help. North Carolina refused, because the paper
mill brought jobs, and the mill owner had stated that if he were made to comply
with pollution laws, he would shut down the mill.
Tennessee then went to the federal government for
help. In response, some of the North
Carolina politicos called for an embargo on all Tennessee goods. There were whiskey-smashing publicity stunts
(Jack Daniels is a Tennessee brew); there were Tennessee motorists whose cars
were vandalized because they had Tennessee plates.
The state of North Carolina was thoroughly dissed in the
Tennessee press because of its response.
The argument made on the Tennessee side was that it does not do a lot of
good to have jobs if all of your workforce is dead from the pollution created
by the industry with the jobs. (A
"Catch-22", isn't it?)
Fast forward to Waldron, Arkansas, 1998. The Tyson chicken plant in Waldron has been
cited for thousands of safety violations in the past two years. It has now been shut down, twice, by the
United States Department of Agriculture in 1998 for health and safety
violations. Sadly, the reaction of our
politicians has not been much different than those in North Carolina a decade
ago. The "Honorable" Asa
Hutchinson, Congressman for the district in which the plant is located, has
gone on record as saying that the USDA inspectors are overzealous and need to
chill out about things. After, all, he
argues, the Tyson plant means jobs.
That opinion was bad enough, but Hutchinson went even
further. According to Hutchinson, if
the USDA had not shut down the Hudson Foods plant in Nebraska, you know, the
one that was selling tainted meat to Burger Kings throughout the land,
resulting in numerous sicknesses and preventable medical expenses (after all,
the people would not have need medical treatment if they had not eaten the
tainted beef that Burger King trusted was not tainted), then Hudson Foods would
never gone out of business. Now I know
why I really don't care for Republicans!
What a callous attitude!
Let me restate Congressman Hutchinson's position--It is okay to poison
the American public if it is good for business.
I am sorry, I have a real problem with this. When I buy a slab of meat or chicken or
whatever, I don't want to have to worry about whether I not I will die as a
result of eating it. I trust that the
government is doing its job in protecting my life. I want the government to do its job and inspect zealously. If it means a loss of jobs, so be it! Having a job doesn't do me any good if I am
dead from eating bad meat!
My father-in-law in Missouri back in 1995 told me he
would not buy Tyson chicken because he had heard that they were compromising
safety. He was right, wasn't he? Is there some reason this information has
been suppressed from the people of Arkansas?
Can you say, "conspiracy"?
Well, I guess I'm going to grab a bite to eat. But, let
me assure you, it won't be Tyson chicken.
EPILOGUE: To this day, I will not knowingly eat Tyson
chicken, or IBP meats. (IBP is owned by
Tyson.)