Meat dishes, that is, chicken, pork, and beef, is definitely up there in the list of things that complete the holidays. Who could say no to a Thanksgiving turkey or a Christmas ham or roast beef? However, meat lovers are somewhat in for a hard time this upcoming Christmas because a meat shortage has been predicted to happen. Alright, vegans, you win this year.
According to the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), the problem is not with the meat supplies, but rather with slaughterhouses. Apparently, more and more workers in slaughterhouses are refusing to kill animals for meat, hence they might struggle to fill in Christmas orders. Additionally, the meat industry is also facing a recruitment crisis right now with as much as 10,000 posts remaining unfilled.
That number is around 10 to 15 percent of all the jobs in the meat industry, at least in the UK. Of course, when slaughterhouses are failing to meet their quotas, then supermarket will definitely come undersupplied with meat. By comparison, last year’s meat industry recruitment crisis only had around 5 percent unfilled job posts.
The problem for slaughterhouse workers is also a lot deeper than just refusing to kill animals. In fact, slaughterhouse work has actually been linked to mental and psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and even drug addiction. A criminology professor from the University of Windsor in Canada even found out that towns with big slaughterhouses had higher crime rates than those that don’t.
Might have to settle for tofurkey this Christmas in the meantime while safer and less traumatic alternatives to slaughterhouses are yet to be implemented.
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