IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/jlaare/93220.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is It a Jungle Out There? Meat Packing, Immigrants, and Rural Communities

Author

Listed:
  • Artz, Georgeanne M.
  • Jackson, Rebecca
  • Orazem, Peter F.

Abstract

The shift of the U.S. meat packing industry from urban to rural areas has generated controversy regarding potential social and economic costs of meat packing plants on their host communities. This study uses media comments to identify the most prominent controversies regarding meat packing, its largely immigrant workforce, and rural communities. We find that the industry has impacted the demographic composition of rural communities and their schools, but find no evidence that the industry increases per capita government expenditures. Our results suggest rural communities trade off the economic benefits of hosting these large employers against the costs of accommodating needs of new residents.

Suggested Citation

  • Artz, Georgeanne M. & Jackson, Rebecca & Orazem, Peter F., 2010. "Is It a Jungle Out There? Meat Packing, Immigrants, and Rural Communities," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 1-17, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:93220
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.93220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/93220/files/JARE_Aug2010__08_pp299-315.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.93220?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wallace HUFFMAN & John A. MIRANOWSKI, 1996. "Immigration, Meat Packing, And Trade: Implications For Iowa," Staff Papers 285, Iowa State University Department of Economics.
    2. Leistritz, F. Larry & Sell, Randall S., 2001. "Socioeconomic Impacts of Agricultural Processing Plants," Rural America/ Rural Development Perspectives, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 16(01), May.
    3. Orazem, Peter F. & Wohlgemuth, Darin & Huang, Tzu-Ling, 2002. "The Causes And Consequences Of Rural Immigrant Population Growth, 1950-1990," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19750, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Georgeanne M. Artz & Peter F. Orazem & Daniel M. Otto, 2007. "Measuring the Impact of Meat Packing and Processing Facilities in Nonmetropolitan Counties: A Difference-in-Differences Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(3), pages 557-570.
    5. McGranahan, David A., 1998. "Can Manufacturing Reverse Rural Great Plains Depopulation?," Rural America/ Rural Development Perspectives, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 13(01), February.
    6. Artz, Georgeanne M. & Orazem, Peter F. & Otto, Daniel M., 2005. "Measuring the Impact of Meat Packing and Processing Facilities in the Nonmetropolitan Midwest: A Difference-in-Differences Approach," Working Papers 18219, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    7. James M. MacDonald & Michael E. Ollinger, 2005. "Technology, Labor Wars, and Producer Dynamics: Explaining Consolidation in Beefpacking," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(4), pages 1020-1033.
    8. Edward L. Glaeser & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2009. "The Wealth of Cities: Agglomeration Economies and Spatial Equilibrium in the United States," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(4), pages 983-1028, December.
    9. Milton Madison, 2005. "Technological Change and Economies of Scale in U.S. Poultry Processing," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(1), pages 116-129.
    10. Milton Madison & James MacDonald & Michael Ollinger, 2000. "Technological Change and Economies of Scale in U.S. Poultry Slaughter," Working Papers 00-05, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Roback, Jennifer, 1982. "Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1257-1278, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Grace Melo & Gregory Colson & Octavio A. Ramirez, 2014. "Hispanic American Opinions toward Immigration and Immigration Policy Reform Proposals," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 36(4), pages 604-622.
    2. Krumel, Thomas & Goodrich, Corey, 2021. "COVID-19 Working Paper: Meatpacking Working Conditions and the Spread of COVID-19," Administrative Publications 327343, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Cho, Seung Jin & Lee, Jun Yeong & Winters, John V., 2020. "COVID-19 Employment Status Impacts on Food Sector Workers," ISU General Staff Papers 202006080700001107, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Sneeringer, Stacy E. & Hertz, Thomas, 2010. "Local Effects of Hog Production on Farm and Non-Farm Economic Outcomes," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61463, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. A. Ford Ramsey & Barry Goodwin & Mildred Haley, 2021. "Labor Dynamics and Supply Chain Disruption in Food Manufacturing," NBER Chapters, in: Risks in Agricultural Supply Chains, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saitone, Tina L. & Aleks Schaefer, K. & Scheitrum, Daniel P., 2021. "COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in U.S. meatpacking counties," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    2. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2020. "Housing, urban growth and inequalities: The limits to deregulation and upzoning in reducing economic and spatial inequality," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(2), pages 223-248, February.
    3. Lenzi, Camilla, 2016. "Co-invention networks and inventive productivity in US citiesAuthor-Name: Breschi, Stefano," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 66-75.
    4. Patricia Beeson & Lara Shore-Sheppard & Tara Watson, 2010. "Local Fiscal Policies and Urban Wage Structures," Public Finance Review, , vol. 38(5), pages 540-584, September.
    5. Patricia C Melo & Daniel J Graham & David Levinson & Sarah Aarabi, 2017. "Agglomeration, accessibility and productivity: Evidence for large metropolitan areas in the US," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 179-195, January.
    6. Lee, Sanghoon & Li, Qiang, 2013. "Uneven landscapes and city size distributions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 19-29.
    7. Ioulia Ossokina & Coen Teulings & Henri de Groot, 2014. "Welfare Benefits of Agglomeration and Worker Heterogeneity," CPB Discussion Paper 289, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    8. Nicola Gennaioli & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2013. "Human Capital and Regional Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(1), pages 105-164.
    9. Ritashree Chakrabarti & Junfu Zhang, 2015. "Unaffordable housing and local employment growth: Evidence from California municipalities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(6), pages 1134-1151, May.
    10. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Schöni, Olivier, 2020. "On the economic impacts of constraining second home investments," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    11. Abhradeep Maiti & Debarshi Indra, 2016. "Regional Variations In Labor Demand Elasticity: Evidence From U.S. Counties," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 635-658, September.
    12. Alexandre Rands Barros, 2011. "The Regional Question in Brazil: Nature, Causes and Policies," Chapters, in: Werner Baer & David Fleischer (ed.), The Economies of Argentina and Brazil, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Albouy, David & Behrens, Kristian & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric & Seegert, Nathan, 2019. "The optimal distribution of population across cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 102-113.
    14. Yong Chen & David J. Lewis & Bruce Weber, 2021. "Natural amenities and skill sorting in rural communities: a case study of land conservation policy," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 67(3), pages 649-669, December.
    15. Xin DONG & Weihua ZHOU, 2016. "Housing Affordability and Permanent Migration Intention of Rural-Urban Migrants," Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(02), pages 1-12, June.
    16. Serafinelli, Michel, 2013. "Good Firms, Worker Flows and Productivity," MPRA Paper 47508, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Mingshu Wang, 2021. "Polycentric urban development and urban amenities: Evidence from Chinese cities," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(3), pages 400-416, March.
    18. Patricia C. Melo & Daniel J. Graham, 2018. "Transport‐induced agglomeration effects: Evidence for US metropolitan areas," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 37-47, March.
    19. Jedwab, Remi & Vollrath, Dietrich, 2015. "Urbanization without growth in historical perspective," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-21.
    20. Gollin, Douglas & Lagakos, David & Kirchberger, Martina, 2017. "In Search of a Spatial Equilibrium in the Developing World," CEPR Discussion Papers 12114, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Community/Rural/Urban Development; Livestock Production/Industries;

    JEL classification:

    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:93220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/waeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.