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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Unhealthy Meat Market, NYTimes op-ed
Even if Tyson did not produce a given piece of meat, the consumer is really only picking between different versions of the same commoditized beef, chicken, and pork that is produced through a system Tyson pioneered, says Christopher Leonard, a longtime agribusiness journalist, in his new book about Tyson called The Meat Racket.
Leonards book argues that a handful of companies, led by Tyson, control our meat industry in ways that raise concerns about the impact on animals and humans alike, while tearing at the fabric of rural America. Many chicken farmers dont even own the chickens they raise or know whats in the feed. They just raise the poultry on contract for Tyson, and many struggle to make a living.
Concerned by the meat oligopolys dominance of rural America, President Obama undertook a push beginning in 2010 to strengthen antitrust oversight of the meat industry and make it easier for farmers to sue meatpackers. The aim was grand: to create a new rural economy to empower individual farmers.
Big Meats lobbyists used its friends in Congress to crush the Obama administrations regulatory effort, which collapsed in spectacular failure, Leonard writes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/opinion/kristof-the-unhealthy-meat-market.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
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Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)villager
(26,001 posts)But many here are very well conditioned, indeed.
Niceguy1
(2,467 posts)Sell quality meat....
Sacrament
Safeway/Vons
and Costco are good places to get it.
Berlum
(7,044 posts)fadedrose
(10,044 posts)because it was too salty.
I buy the store brand chicken and so far, it's fairly good, not dripping in salty brine, without the taste of chicken no matter what parts you buy - drums, thighs, breasts, etc.
I always ask the butcher if the chicken is Tyson. They usually know when they see where it came from.
Perdue was always my favorite, but the owner died and it seems that only some of his family is still in the business....still better than Tyson ..
Rockingham is another we bought...it's gone too...