I remember how my grandmother used to say how she would get an orange in her Christmas stocking and how it was such a big deal. Today it is nothing special. Sure, there are still 'seasonal' fruits and vegetables, but it really just means when they are cheaper than normal. We are now able to get any product at any time of the year, except egg nog (but its back!).
Mostly gone are the times when your food was locally grown. (there has been a movement for this in the past decade or so though)Technological advancement has allowed quicker shipping and longer preservatives. Where their food has come from is something most people don't think about. People want it now, and they want it cheap - so companies have done so. But it has come with a price; to the animals, to the environment or to the workers. Some corporations have done things so unethical it is amazing how they get away with it time and time again.
What I have put together is a list of my top 6 evil and unethical food companies. I dare say even all this stuff I am about to list is probably not all of the horrible things that have been done by these businesses.
Evil Food Corporations
#6: Smithfield Foods
It all runs into an open air holding pond that is full of this highly toxic chemical and hog waste. So now what do they do with it? Well, they have big misters that just spray it up into the air so it isn’t their problem anymore! The residents of the nearby town have reported a long list of health problems they say is because of this company.
The company has also sued and harassed workers for trying to unionize.
#5: Tyson Foods
A few years back they were in a scandal when the Humane Society secretly filmed the way pigs raised for Tyson were treated. Breeding sows would be kept in ‘gestation cages’ their whole lives, cages so tight a pig cannot turn around.
When the sow had piglets, how those babies were treated were as such:
They kicked piglets like soccer balls, whipped them around by their hind legs, smashed them into concrete floors, and threw them high into the air. A few even threw piglets’ testicles at each other and fed them back to the mother pigs for “fun.” – Humane Society
Being a huge poultry producer they follow the standard practice of throwing live male chicks into shredders to be torn apart, or thrown into plastic bags to be suffocated. Male chickens don't lay eggs so are worthless. But like I said, this is standard throughout the industry.
Tyson also dumped more than 18 million pounds of toxic chemicals into waterways each year. In 2003 they pled guilty to 20 felonies of the clean water act and paid $7.5 million dollars in fines.
As late as 2005 it was shown that a plant in Alabama was practicing segregation. A bathroom had a “whites-only” sign and locked – only white workers were given a key. When they complained the plant manager said it was because the black workers were "nasty, dirty [and] behaved like children". In one of the break rooms a noose was hung and attached to it was a picture of monkeys with the black workers names written on it.
In 2004 it was discovered that a Mexican plant had been paying the wives of two veterinarians a wage of $2,700 per month - the thing was they didn't work there. It was a bribe to keep them quiet about the horrible conditions the animals were in.
They also sold chicken as antibiotic free, when it was later found out to be not exactly true.
#4: Coca Cola
The company also has a long history of violence in its Central American operations. Guatemalan workers attempting to unionize have said they were shot at, threatened, kidnapped and tortured. Jose Chavez, union leader, stated that he was away in Guatemala City and when he returned home his son and nephew were murdered in front of him and his daughter was gang-raped. He said it was by paramilitaries paid to do so by Coca Cola because of his union ties.
In 2001 it was sued by union workers in Columbia for violence and intimidation in which 10 union leaders were killed, Coca Cola won. "They have the money to keep fucking us" – A union plaintiff.
The same sort of tactics have been reported in Turkey, China and Mexico. There is even a website for it: http://killercoke.org/
In 1999 a case was settled with 2,000 African-American workers over racial bias in which Coca Cola paid $136 million dollars. They claimed they earned, on average, $26,000 less per year each than white workers. There were still racial bias claims even in 2012 in bottling plants in New York.
Oxfam has uncovered that Coca Cola (and Pepsi) has been taking land from indigenous people around the globe. The stolen land is turned into sugar plantations and mills. Nearly 33 million hectares have been seized since 2000.
#3: Chiquita/United Fruit
In 1928 they were called United Fruit and they had a Colombian plantation strike on their hands. The workers wanted better conditions and the company was not about to give in to the demands. So they asked the Colombian army to help out. The army set up machine guns and opened fire on the workers.
In 1954 they were instrumental in starting the 36 year Guatemalan civil war in which at least 250,000 died.
The company was notorious for bribing government officials to get free reign in a country. They barely paid taxes and exploited their workers. In Latin America they were known by a nickname el pulpo – “the octopus” because they had so many hands everywhere. It can be said that this company was a reason communist influences prospered in countries where they operated.
In 1984 they renamed themselves Chiquita.
#2: Nestle
The big negative thing that Nestle is remembered for is their aggressive push in third world countries to sell infant formula starting in the 1970’s. They dressed up sales representatives in nurses uniforms and convinced many people that their formula was better than breast milk. The formula was expensive and cost the family much of their wages. In addition many of these mothers didn’t have access to clean water to mix it with. Malnutrition increased as well, because to extend the life of the expensive formula they used less. In the end it was said infant death rates increased due to malnutrition and diseases from the water to a rate of 5-10 times as much as before Nestle pushed the formula.
In 2000 Nestle pushed to change water from a right to a need. The CEO stated "Access to water should not be a public right".
They also drain any aquifers with complete disregard to sustainability. In Pakistan the Nestle water bottling plant dug a deep well and drained the water source the nearby people had been using for centuries. The water level sank from 100ft down to 300-400ft down and the remaining water is filthy and makes the people sick. And guess who they have to buy their water from now?
Nestle had child slaves harvesting cocoa in its supply chain. In 2001 it was reported that young children were being trafficked from Mali to the Ivory Coast to be slaves in the cocoa plantations there. The children being bought for about $30 each. The Fair Labor Association blew the whistle on these actions. Nestle had never checked to see if child labor was being used, but the FLA reported that Nestle knew very well what was going on so never was going to check.
In 2013 Nestle, along with Cadbury, Mars and Hershey, were accused of fixing the price of chocolate in Canada. They settled a class action suit for $23.2 million.
#1: Monsanto
No surprise here, the leader in GMO research and production is known as the world’s most hated company with plenty of reasons. They have just been bought/merged with Bayer, a company which has its own dirty history. I can’t even list all the unethical things they have done in their past, but let me give it a shot.
Manufacturer of both Agent Orange and PCB’s which are linked to birth defects and cancer.
Convicted in 2002 of poisoning the water around Anniston, Alabama with an enormous amount of PCB’s from 1930-1970. The town had to be relocated due to the toxic chemical waste.
Created rBGH which was injected into cows to increase milk production, but is linked to a multitude of problems in those cows and people who drank the milk.
Created Roundup and genetically modified ‘roundup ready’ ‘terminator’ seeds. Which means that the GMO plant is the only thing that will survive the pesticide and herbicide, that is until superweeds have become resistant to it.
They have been linked to the disappearances of bees due to colony collapse syndrome and acute paralysis virus due to their pesticides and herbicides. So they bought the company researching the disappearances, Beeologics. Now they control the research, so I am sure they will be showing the world great insights.
They have taken small farmers to court at an average rate of once every 3 weeks for the last 16 years. Their GMO crops will blow over to nearby fields owned by other farmers and then Monsanto will sue them for growing their seeds. Some say that Monsanto agents will sneak into the fields to plant seeds so they can then sue the farmer out of business.
When Monsanto started selling their GMO cotton seeds in India they quickly became a monopoly. Farmers that didn’t use the GMO seeds couldn’t get loans, and so were forced to use them too. The royalties that Monsanto extracts is prohibitive, which makes it extremely difficult to make a living. After paying the royalty, and buying seeds again from Monsanto, they barely make anything and this has led to a huge number of farmer suicides, they say about 290,000 in the last 20 years.
High ranking Monsanto employees are routinely given government jobs in places such as the FDA, USDA, and Department of Justice. George Poste even became the head of the bioterrorism department of Homeland Security after being a Monsanto animal specialist, quite fitting.
Monsanto claims they just want to feed the world, but they show they just want to own the food supply.
Got anymore reasons to hate these companies? This listing is not conclusive, so add in anything I missed in the comments below!
Sources:
- Mali's children in chocolate slavery
- Monsanto buys leading bee research firm after being implicated in bee colony collapse
- Banana massacre
- United Fruit Company
- Why Nestle is one of the most hated companies in the world
- Oxfam accuses Coke and Pepsi of taking land from the poor
- Unethical Companies: Coca-Cola
- When Pigs Fly: That Fine Mist You’re Breathing Might Be Hog Waste
- Tyson Foods and Piglet Abuse: Is Ethical Behavior Profitable?
- Bribery, but Nobody Was Charged
