Meatpacking America

Whether valorized as the heartland or derided as flyover country the Midwest became instantly notorious when COVID-19 infections skyrocketed among workers in meatpacking plants—and Americans feared for their meat supply. But the Midwest is not simply the place where animals are fed corn and then butchered. Native midwesterner Kristy Nabhan-Warren spent years interviewing Iowans who work in the meatpacking industry both native-born residents and recent migrants from Latin America Africa and Asia. In <i>Meatpacking America</i> she digs deep below the stereotype and reveals the grit and grace of a heartland that is a major global hub of migration and food production—and also it turns out of religion.<br/><br/>Across the flatlands Protestants Catholics and Muslims share space every day as worshippers employees and employers. On the bloody floors of meatpacking plants in bustling places of worship and in modest family homes longtime and newly arrived Iowans spoke to Nabhan-Warren about their passion for religious faith and desire to work hard for their families. Their stories expose how faith-based aspirations for mutual understanding blend uneasily with rampant economic exploitation and racial biases. Still these new and old midwesterners say that a mutual language of faith and morals brings them together more than any of them would have ever expected.