The meatpacking industry’s corporate exceptionalism

Racialized logics of food chain worker disposability during the Covid-19 crisis

Bibliographic Data

ID8070786
AuthorsSarah E Dempsey (0000-0002-2040-6425, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, corresponding author), Heather M Zoller (0000-0002-2967-7061, University of Cincinnati), Kathleen P Hunt (0000-0003-2625-6429, SUNY New Paltz)
Year2022
Volume26
Issue3
Pages571-590
Publication date2022-02-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFood Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1552-8014 • E-ISSN: 1751-7443
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15528014.2021.2022916
OpenAlexW4210806775
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited19

Building on theories of biopower and necropolitics, we detail how the meatpacking industry expanded corporate exceptionalism amidst the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis argues that the industry utilized three strategies to assert exceptionalism and secure increased production and profitability despite significant risks for meatpacking workers. First, the industry constructed COVID-19 as an urgent threat to the nation’s meat supply, casting themselves as a critical economic linchpin. Second, the industry aligned themselves with heroic portrayals of meatpacking workers, deflecting criticism of their handling of the crisis. Third, the industry promoted images of themselves as competent stewards, meriting unfettered autonomy to manage workers’ health risks. Detailing these strategies sheds light on how corporate exceptionalism functions within late capitalist food systems to further racialized logics of worker disposability

American exceptionalism · Autonomy · Biopower · Capitalism · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Criticism · Economics · Economy · Exceptionalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Profitability index · Sociology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law

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Open DOIOpen Access