Through the window of the bus, when we’d left the city behind, I saw big red barns and little white houses. Cattle grazed in pastures. Lambs frolicked in meadows of wildflowers. When we reached our destination, the tour guide ushered us into the visitors entrance. He directed our attention to a wall of glass, through which we could observe the process.
A steer was locked into a holding pen. A worker swung the heavy stunning bolt down on its head, then took a long sharp knife and made a deep arcing cut across the animal’s throat. The steer collapsed, bled out, and died. The worker grabbed a meat hook, suspended on a chain from the overhead conveyor rail, and dug it deep into steer’s hind quarters. The conveyor took up the slack in the chain, lifted the dripping beast, and carried it to another worker.
This worker took a long chainsaw and ripped the steer’s abdomen open from throat to tail. A mist of gasses and steam rose and expanded in the cold tile room as organs, bowels and entrails flopped wetly to the concrete floor. The steer’s gaping body, still bloody but no longer bleeding, was conveyed to the next worker who used knives and tongs to tear off its hide, then used a hose to rinse the raw flesh inside and out. The steer lurched and swayed as the overhead conveyor pulled it along to where other workers with knives and power saws dismembered the carcass.
Our guide brought us back outside, then through a door at the far end of the building, to observe the packing process. Dozens of workers, wearing clean white coveralls and rubber gloves, worked at a long stainless steel table. They took neatly processed cuts of meat from a conveyor belt, wrapped them in plastic bags, then packed the bags in cardboard boxes. They put the boxes on another conveyor belt. At the end of the line other workers stacked the boxes on pallets. Forklifts drove the loaded pallets out to a loading dock and onto refrigerated trucks.
Our guide explained, the trucks were headed for multiple distribution facilities. From there the product would be sent to markets and restaurants. Some would go to butchers who would further process the meat for specialized uses.
On the way back to the city, I looked out again at the big red barns and the little white houses. Cattle still grazed in pastures. Lambs still frolicked in meadows of wildflowers. I got off the bus where our field trip had begun. On the walk home I passed a steak house and three burger joints.
E J Barron
E J Barron 