‘This should not have happened,’ lawyer says of 16-year-old’s death at poultry plant

stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to News@lemmy.world – 341 points –
‘This should not have happened,’ lawyer says of 16-year-old’s death at poultry plant
mississippitoday.org

Family of 16-year-old worker killed cleaning a machine at Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg files lawsuit.

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There is a long rich tradition of underage children dying in meat processing plants. While this is absolutely tragic, anyone who has looked into this can tell you it's absolutely nothing new.

But, people want meat. So they look away, try not to think about it and nothing changes. Something to consider over your next cheeseburger.

There’s always an outraged vegan to make a bad faith argument in comments of stories like this.

Hey kid, do you think children have never died farming vegetables?

https://www.live5news.com/2023/12/20/community-mourns-teen-who-died-farming-accident/?outputType=amp

https://www.abc27.com/local-news/child-dies-in-lancaster-county-farm-equipment-accident/amp/

https://globalnews.ca/news/9727616/toddler-dies-grain-mixer-quebec/amp/

Something to consider over your next salad.

Two of those articles you linked are a 2 and 4 year old that were on the farm, not really the same thing as the 27 amputation per month of actual workers. I mean step back and look at the what aboutism you are doing. Of course people are injured in produce, but that doesn't change the fact that working in a meat packing plant is one of the most dangerous professions for humans.

Look, I'm not even here "as a vegan", just as someone who has recently read The Jungle and is horrorifed to see the same problems from a century ago still present today. I'm not talking about animal rights, I'm talking about human worker rights in an industry where those people are constantly injured in staggering numbers.

ROFL.

The only reason you know I'm vegan is from my username, but why would that fact somehow disqualify me from caring about workers being injured?

Idk. Sorta seems like you just wanna insult me but not actually contribute anything meaningful.

Oh trust me. I didn’t even see your username. I knew you were vegan because of your insufferable bad faith comment.

Well, I think comparing toddler accidents on a farm to century long systemic hiring of underage workers is bad faith but I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Still not entirely sure what I said that made you mad, concern for worker safety feels pretty universal. But it doesn't seem you want to actually talk about the issue. So whatever. You have a good one.

There's no point in conversing with these people, they accuse you of bad faith arguments from WORKING in the industry and rebute with arguments from VISITING the industry.

Smooth brains be smoothing

I honestly don’t care what you think.

There is a long rich tradition of underage children dying in meat processing plants.

Yeah, we need better child labor laws and meat processing plant regulations, and those keep being overturned.

While the easy concept of "what if no meat industry" is easy to imagine, and I am for it, it's not realistic and would simply move the industry to a 3rd world country and transfer through there. Why don't vegans ever consider a 90% approach: if you get people to consume something that is 90% not meat, that's the equivalent getting 90% of the group vegetarian. Then it's an easier sell for vegetarianism, and as we develop lab meats, less must replaced.

Also, jw, would you be willing to eat human meat if they consented before hand and were disease free. I have a 93% yes rate, and I usually ask friends of friends when I meet them.

Why don't vegans ever consider a 90% approach

It would still require animals that have been genetically engineered to produce as much mass as quickly as possible to exist. Less suffering is good, but the real goal is to end this cruel and unnecessary system.

And it's a noble goal, but it's also one that many (not by any means all) think could easily happen overnight as if adopting a vegan lifestyle were as easy and unproblematic as it gets. Humanity has been eating meat as a significant portion of our diet since long before homo sapiens evolved. Getting people to suddenly stop en masse is just not going to happen. You're fighting thousands of years of culture and genetics.

Weaning people off of meat is far more likely to work. Yes, it means more animal suffering in the mean time. But the fewer people you can convince to eat less meat, the more animals will be slaughtered.

How far along are you? I wish you the best on your journey.

Personally im pretty far. I eat far less meat than i used to growing up. I no longer eat veal, nor is meat the staple of my each and every meal. There are many many dishes i now make that do not feature meat at all. My meat intake is probably less than 50% of what it once was. For my SO, the change is less dramatic, but also noticeable.

For me, i noticed that simply the conscious effort to decrease how much meat i consume was an easy effort to expend, and it soon turned into a game id be playing with myself, trying to see where i can limit or cut out animal byproducts.

I don't eat meat, but I do have dairy and eggs and shellfish. It's as good as I can do for now.

It is not about the meat, it is about the safety regulations that should have been in place.

Capitalism will exploit unless there are reasons not do so. If the monetary risk is high enough, such as a % of total revenue in fines which should be more than the profit made, there is less of an inclination to perform such practices. Or death for the whole directive board, you know.