#Labor

At a glance across the country: Meatpacking plants closed at an unprecedented rate this year, accelerated by a number of factors such as rising livestock costs, workforce shortages, food safety violations and foodborne illnesses, and ongoing industry consolidation. Here are some examples: of

Gleissner P, Kashdan HE, eds.  Resilient Kitchens: American Immigrant Cooking in a Time of Crisis.  Rutgers University Press, 2023.    I enjoyed reading this book and did a blurb for it: Resilient Kitchens collects the deeply personal accounts of immigrant chefs, writers, and scholars of how

TODAY on Zoom: 11:00 a.m.  Register here. ******* I’m always fascinated by the food industry’s rationale for massive layoffs. PepsiCo, for example. It is planning to lay off hundreds of workers (see Washington Post announcement, and Food Navigator discussion). The Wall Street Journal

Here’s a report worth reading: For reasons of history—and, alas, racism—laws requiring minimum wages do not apply to restaurant workers, farm workers, and home employment workers, all mostly people of color. This report focuses on restaurant workers who depend on tips: Unique among pay

The Immigrant Council has issued this report.  It’s a useful introduction to the role of immigrants in animal agriculture and issues related to the entire system. The Key Findings: Even before the pandemic, the meat and dairy industries struggled to hire enough workers: The current national