Greenup FFA presents to fiscal court
May 10—GREENUP — Four Greenup County students presented a Future Farmers of America project in front of the county fiscal court on Tuesday on the third floor of the courthouse.
Introduced by FFA Advisor Carrie Davis, the four — Allison Wireman, Brooklyn Greene, Sierra Miller and Raini Hall — will compete in the State Agriculture Issues Contest in June.
"Part of the requirement is they had to present this to five different groups in the community," Davis said.
Their topic is meat processing — specifically, work conditions in the industry.
While unions have been formed and policies made, the industry is still filled with quite a few issues.
Some of the problems slaughterhouse workers have faced over the years are depression, anxiety, dangerous conditions, health care issues and systemic racism, said the four FFA students.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, they were considered essential workers. When sickness eventually hit on a widespread level, there was a nationwide meat shortage as a result.
Wireman, Greene, Miller and Hall talked about mental health and social behaviors among meat processing plant workers.
They said on the local level, these issues aren't nearly as amplified.
For instance, they visited AW Meat House in Argillite for six hours recently, and they had favorable observations.
"Six or seven cows were being processed, and they were short on staff that day so they were working a little slowly," Wireman said. "They were safe, and provided PPE. The employees were treated with respect and there was a sense of community."
They said in larger corporations, employees have little bargaining power. They noted that there are lots of dangerous equipment and a lack of PPE.
Wireman donned a leather apron and special gloves that many of these workers wear. Others put on goggles, hardhats and hairnets to demonstrate safety.
"Special gloves are worn as a first line of defense in a slaughterhouse," she said. She added that if one nicks themselves with a knife — which is inevitable — those gloves serve as a shield to serious wounds.
But, at the high rate of speed in which they do their job, danger is imminent.
One statistic they shared is that 500,000 workers are in the slaughterhouse sector, and 65% of these workers experience injuries on the job, according to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration).
As for the racism aspect, they mentioned that more than 38% of slaughterhouse workers are born outside of the United States.
They shared some positive statistics as well, noting that "America has the safest food supply."
The average person consumes 252 pounds of meat per year, they said.
The first meat inspection law was in the books in 1890, they said. And reforms have been put in place to protect, consumer and corporations.
There is considerable room for improvement, though, especially regarding higher standards of living for all workers and overall equity within the workplace.
(606) 326-2664 — asnyder@dailyindependent.com
