Wilson Warren has written an excellent book that is a must read for those interested in how the meatpacking industry works, how it got to be that way, and what the industry's history reveals about our society. Heavily influenced by growing up in livestock-laden Iowa and by Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1906), Warren investigates how the industry has changed since that groundbreaking book. He follows the meatpacking industry from various standpoints, from the nineteenth century's disassembly lines that inspired Ford to today's global markets.

The book is divided into three sections that study economic, cultural, and environmental aspects of the meatpacking industry. In the economics section, Warren traces the development of the industry, starting with the drover days of the early nineteenth century when farmers slaughtered their own animals for meat or drove them to the nearby city for processing. The industry first flourished in Cincinnati, and then, following the progression of transportation, concentrated in Chicago from which the meat would be shipped to cities “in the East,” far from the prairie ranges. Today's “Big Four” meatpacking companies emerged in this period. For the century after the Civil War, the meatpackers remained on the fringes of Midwestern cities, with Chicago remaining the world's leading butcher. Industry standards were set early in this period and remained in place until the 1960s, with the largest technical change being the refrigerated railcar. In the 1960s the advent of “boxed beef” (wholesale cuts of meat shipped in vacuum packages) reshaped the industry and strongly affected the workforce (e.g., displacing skilled butchers in retail outlets). Meanwhile on the cutting floor, the labor source was the same as it ever was: immigrants. Indeed this is one of Warren's messages—that some aspects of the meat industry have not changed all that much since The Jungle.

Part two considers the cultural and social aspects of packing, including workers' well-being and animal rights. Warren notes that after publication of The Jungle, working conditions improved somewhat, but he argues that the introduction of boxed beef led to a deterioration in conditions. Animals fared little better. Despite efforts of reformers and antimeat advocates (starting in the nineteenth century), animals are of course still led to the slaughterhouse and treated as commodities. The process is so removed from the public eye that many people fail to see the direct relation between a pig or cow in a field and a chop or steak on their plate. Warren writes about the state of humanitarianism toward animals from 1558 to the present, and notes that Sinclair and The Jungle were influenced by the writings of vegetarian John Harvey Kellogg who railed against the inhumanity of the abattoir. The movement eventually led to a more humane slaughter and even a humane scoring system based on the connection between slaughter and stress—because it improved the quality of the meat. Ultimately though, Warren points out that Americans may be more concerned in a sentimental way for the condition of the animals than they are about the laborers, and he suggests that caring more for the workers might improve the quality of the meat, too.

After a discussion about the ever-growing consumption of meat by Americans, Warren discusses the environmental aspects of slaughter in the last third of the book. From the stench of the rendering plant or waste lagoon to the pollution of ground-water, livestock meatpacking has been hard on the natural resources of the areas in which it takes place. Characters in The Jungle complained about the odor, and today people complain across the Midwest and onto the plains as gargantuan feedlots and hog farms sully the landscape and contaminate the air. But of course it is not only the local folk who are affected, but everyone who eats meat, as reflected in the microbial count of pathogens today. In the last chapter Warren examines backward linkages of meat (the feed) and forward linkages (the byproducts). Regarding the backward linkages, he discusses the production efficiencies that hogs, like chickens, now endure, and how beef is transformed from its natural ruminant self to a corn-fed meat. Never mind that the conditions may not be right for either the pig or the cow, or that it might also infect us.

Warren addresses the future of meatpacking in the last chapter, and he concludes that things are not going to change much. Meat safety and bioterrorism are chief concerns, but the worker in today's Jungle is still laboring in abysmal conditions, and pathogens and pain insinuate every morsel of lean meat we eat. During the late twentieth century, meatpacking shifted from urban to rural locales, but the social status of the industry remained the same and only the nationality of the workers changed. Reading about meatpacking may seem esoteric to some, but a deeper look sheds light on the zeitgeist of our times.