Donald Trump recently gave huge tax breaks to America’s corporations. They were unnecessary and will reduce the funds our government has at its disposal for other programs. Eventually they will be responsible for increasing the deficit by trillions of dollars. Do they deserve this gift? Are they helping America become a better place to live for the majority? Or, are they harming the American worker, and treating their employees like slaves?

Sadly, the truth is that the latter is fact.

Trickle down economics has and will always fail. Giving the rich more money to place in offshore accounts has never increased the number of good-paying jobs in America. Here are some facts about how several large companies contract ‘sweat shops’ to produce their food supplies. This will also inform you about the reasons why millions of Americans are becoming vegetarians and even vegans each year.

An independent agency called ‘Oxfam’ released a report Wednesday. Walmart, Costco, and Whole Foods were among the large American institutions that use the services of companies which produce seafood, produce, coffee and tea, along with other consumables. These companies pay their employees low wages, often without breaks during their shifts.

“I think no consumer wants human suffering in their food,” Irit Tamir, director of Oxfam America’s private sector department, said in a phone interview. “Consumers just aren’t aware of what’s happening — what the working conditions are like for people in these supply chains. When we talk with consumers, we find that they are not interested in having workers rights exploited for the purpose of getting cheap fruit.”

Overtime pay is non-existent, however, being one minute late results in a deduction on their paychecks. Charging just a few cents more for items produced by these immoral companies could end the situation.

“The hidden workforce in supply chains is a scandal,” Sharan Burrow, general secretary for the International Trade Union Confederation wrote in the foreword of the report. “These are the workers on whom multinational companies — like the supermarkets exposed in this report — rely for their profits. Multinational companies knowingly outsource responsibility for the violence, oppression, low wages, insecure and often unsafe work that drives their profits.”

I must point out the fact that the Trump klan approves of slave labor. All of their clothing is manufactured in China. Human rights organizations have described the conditions in their factories as ‘deplorable.’

Now let’s discuss corporate farms. If you choose to consume beef, pork, chicken, or lamb, you are eating the flesh of animals which existed in tortured conditions their entire lives until they were slaughtered. Overcrowded pens allow for little or no physical movement, while they are fed food injected with hormones to increase their size and speed growth.

In the minds of most Americans is the image of family farms where the cattle, sheep, chickens, and pigs ran free. Although they were eventually slaughtered for consumption, they were not tortured and abused on a daily basis. Corporate farms have no concern for the animals. Once again money is their god, and they will do anything to increase profits.

Sorry if I ruined your next visit to Walmart, but you need to know the truth about what you eat. I have watched several documentaries, and I refuse to eat a meal made from an animal who walked on its feet. I continue to eat fish, but someday I hope to become a true vegan.

Then again, I am fully aware that many of you don’t care. Your idol is Donald Trump; otherwise known as the ‘junkfood king.’

Op-ed by James Turnage

SOURCE

Photo courtesy of Laura Bernhardt

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