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Death world economy: Race, meat-processing plants, and COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Annie Isabel Fukushima
  • Marie Sarita Gaytán
  • Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez

Abstract

As COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths ravaged US meat-processing facilities, companies and officials supported production instead of people. Analyzing the content of newspaper articles, court records, press releases, and company websites, we argue that (1) despite their “essential†status, meat factory workers are a disposable labor force; and (2) factory worker dispensability is the result of a racialized historical process. The expendability of primarily immigrant and people of color laborers takes place in what we call a “death world economy†—a system through which corporations, together with the state, normalize the relegation of bodies to disease, injury, and death across time and space. Responding to the intensification of this violence during COVID-19, plant employees and their families advocate for their communities’ safety needs, highlight industry inaction, and demand accountability from companies and state officials.

Suggested Citation

  • Annie Isabel Fukushima & Marie Sarita Gaytán & Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez, 2024. "Death world economy: Race, meat-processing plants, and COVID-19," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 42(4), pages 597-617, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:42:y:2024:i:4:p:597-617
    DOI: 10.1177/23996544231208196
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mark Howard, 2021. "The Necropolice Economy: Mapping Biopolitical Priorities and Human Expendability in the Time of COVID-19," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
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