Just to clarify, I am not a vegetarian or a vegan. I do eat meat. Just not cheap, processed meat. So do not mistake this article for some sort of fueled, anti-meat protest, because it's not.
On to the goods here...
Mass produced, processed meat is almost never a good idea. It's the type of cheap crap that's commonly served at fast food restaurants, bars and that retails on the cheap. It's the kind of meat that comes from birds that are packed into cages like sardines, mistreated, poorly fed and precariously slaughtered.
But it's not just the birds that are mistreated. The workers are also grossly mistreated, too, as it turns out.
According to recent reports, poultry workers are under such tight quotas and deadlines that most can't even take a bathroom break. This has resulted in many workers wearing diapers when they are on the production line.
Not only are the birds treated terrible, but chances are good that the person that trimmed that bird you are about to cook was defecating or urinating into a diaper whilst they were doing it.
Hardly fair for anyone. Assuredly disgusting. And very illegal.
Worst yet, this is being done in the U.S.
According to an Oxfam American study, over 250,000 workers in this industry risk losing their jobs if they need to take a bathroom break.
"Workers struggle to cope with this denial of a basic human need. They urinate and defecate while standing on the line; they wear diapers to work," the study explained.
The study cited several companies with questions practices. These include: Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, Pilgrim's Pride and Sanderson Farms.
Combined they represent 60% of the workforce.
In the Oxfam study, 80% of workers said they are not allowed to use the restroom when at work because such breaks are not permitted.
"A recent survey in Minnesota revealed that 86 percent of workers interviewed said they get fewer than two bathroom breaks in a week," the publication stated.
Only unionized plants had normal rules for employees that were fair, and those represent just 33% of the plants.
"While the poultry industry today enjoys record profits and pumps out billions of chickens, the reality of life inside the processing plant remains grim and dangerous," the report blasted. "Workers earn low wages, suffer elevated rates of injury and illness, toil in difficult conditions, and have little voice in the workplace."
So before you eat a piece of processed chicken again, just remember that it was probably made in a sweatshop in America by an adult who was wearing a dirty diaper.
That's what's in your bucket of KFC.