Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. 

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

LAURA SCHINAGLE

EDITOR IN CHIEF

MELISSA SCHOLKE

EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

DEREK WOLFE

MANAGING EDITOR

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@umich.edu

Edited and managed by students at 

the University of Michigan since 1890.

4

Thursday, June 4, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

W

e still had 30 minutes left 
before making the trek 
to Charley’s on the eve 

of my friend’s 21st 
birthday. To pass 
time, we watched 
that night’s epi-
sode of “Last Week 
Tonight with John 
Oliver,” 
guaran-

teeing a laugh and 
a lesson.

Two weeks later, 

I can only think 
about the lesson.

In May 17’s epi-

sode, Oliver dissected the contract 
farming of chickens. While the show 
snarkily mentioned the horrible 
reality chickens face before becom-
ing our food, it mainly focused on 
the treatment and conditions of 
chicken farmers by Big Agriculture. 
In one specific instance, Oliver com-
pared the lives of chicken farmers to 
that of indentured servants.

Currently, chicken is the most 

consumed meat in the United States. 
Consumption has nearly doubled 
in the last 25 years, from 80 million 
to 160 million chickens per week. 
However, merely four companies — 
Tyson, Perdue, Pilgrim’s and Sander-
son Farms — control the majority of 
the poultry market. This monopoli-
zation of the meat market has effec-
tively created a system where most 

chicken farmers live near or below 
the federal poverty line.

Contract farming is disturbing-

ly popular in our nation’s poultry 
industry, with 97 percent of chickens 
raised by contract in 2011. In theory, 
contract farming sounds like a good 
practice, but in reality, it’s a manipu-
lative, greedy system. Poultry com-
panies own the birds, the grain fed 
to the birds and the meat processing 
companies. They dictate the arbi-
trary requirements farmers must 
comply with, such as the number of 
fans or the brightness of the light 
bulbs in a chicken coop. They rate 
the chicken farmers produce against 
others in their area, creating a gladi-
ator-like system, as Oliver dubbed it.

Meanwhile, poultry farmers put 

all of their resources, money and 
lives into their farms, believing they 
will make the sums of money that 
companies imply is normal. How-
ever, after a decent first year, the 
income of most chicken farmers 
declines as they are pushed further 
into debt after being forced to make 
inexplicable upgrades. Many chicken 
farmers refuse to publicly speak out 
against the deplorable conditions 
they endure in fear of retribution. 
While poultry companies claim arbi-
trary penalties don’t exist, the fact 
that most farmers are completely 
unwilling to speak against their con-
ditions suggests otherwise.

T

aking the venue into 
full 
consideration, 

attending 
the 
2015 

Mackinac 
Policy Con-
ference last 
Wednesday 
undoubt-
edly 
posi-

tioned 
me 

in the midst 
of 
some 

unexpected 
grandeur. 
Dressed in 
an ill-fitting 
pencil skirt 
and an over-sized black car-
digan — two articles of cloth-
ing from my sparse selection 
of professional business attire 
— it didn’t take long for me to 
begin feeling slightly out of 
place within the historic and 
elaborate rooms of the Grand 
Hotel on Mackinac Island. 
The surrounding atmosphere 
was 
extraordinarily 
lavish 

as politicians, entrepreneurs 
and committee members con-
gregated to discuss strategies 
and solutions for some of the 
state’s most pressing issues.

The issues addressed were 

serious and important, and 
those expressing their view-
points did so poignantly and 
passionately. 
However, 
as 

much as I tried to, I couldn’t 
bypass the elitist tone perme-
ating the conference. In fact, I 
only felt the air of exclusivity 
lift during discussions of revi-
talizing skilled trades in Mich-
igan, and it wasn’t even until I 
was in a different environment 
completely that I realized the 
full impact of these speeches.

While policymakers con-

tinued to navigate between 
various avenues of action, 
I found myself navigating 
across the Straits back to my 
hometown in the Upper Pen-
insula. I, in a matter of days, 
had gone from the role of a 
well-dressed member of the 
media covering a conference 
with an expensive admission 
fee to wearing tattered, holey 
jeans and assisting my father 
with custodial work at his 
workplace. Some may easily 
view this transition as a social 
and professional downgrade. 
Numerous times in the past, 
I’ve seen and heard belittling 
statements about the work-
ing class levied at my family, 
friends and neighbors. Even 
in an area like my hometown 
— where a large portion of the 
available employment options 
are found within the service 
industry or in the skilled 
trades — arrogant, demeaning 
views about the working class 
are far too prevalent.

During the policy confer-

ence, Mike Rowe, founder of 
the mikeroweWORKS Foun-
dation and former television 
host, addressed this stigma 
and advocated for the recon-
ceptualization 
of 
society’s 

definition of “a good job.” 
Rowe, in particular, humbly 
and knowledgeably empha-
sized the idea that a four-year 
degree from a university isn’t 
necessarily crucial to a suc-
cessful, sustainable career. To 
further stress this to the pop-
ulation of the state at large, 
the conference served as the 
venue to show one of a set of 
videos, created as collabora-
tive effort between the state 

and Rowe’s foundation, which 
will be shown to students to 
pique their interest in the 
skilled trades.

Rowe, as he called atten-

tion to high unemployment 
and a widening skills gap 
throughout 
the 
country, 

stressed that society needs 
to “stop demonizing a whole 
category 
of 
good 
jobs.” 

Across the country, the indi-
viduals that comprise the 
skilled labor force are aging, 
leaving available employment 
positions for the next gen-
eration. Michigan Governor 
Rick Snyder, as he discussed 
the pillars upon which the 
conference intended to focus 
on, described how cultivat-
ing 
talent 
and 
garnering 

more interest in the skilled 
trades and STEM programs 
was a priority. According to a 
statement from Snyder, 8,300 
jobs in fields such as welding, 
electrical work and computer 
drafting are currently open 
right now.

These spots, however, are 

left vacant due to the degrad-
ed status with which society 
views this type of work. Uti-
lizing a poster as a visual aid, 
Rowe described how its slo-
gan “Work Smart, Not Hard” 
was “the single worst piece of 
advice the country has ever 
taken.” The poster, displaying 
a college graduate juxtaposed 
against a depressing image of a 
blue-collar worker, presented 
a dichotomy between success 
and failure and between a ful-
filling career and drudgery. 
Rowe analyzed the image and 
discussed his inability to asso-
ciate the miserable tradesman 

A poultry dilemma

The policy paradox

figure portrayed with the real-life 
conception of a tradesman he saw in 
his grandfather.

This point resonated with me the 

most. Skilled trades — though the 
actual definition and examples of 
work may have admittedly changed 
over time — provided the backbone 
for not only generations of my family, 
but for the area in which I grew up. 
Whether it was construction, mining 
or work as a self-employed barber, 
members of my family worked hard 
and performed honest, dignified, 
necessary blue-collar work to sup-
port their families and themselves. 
As career options, technology and 
society are continually evolving, the 
nature of skilled trades changes. Our 
perceptions of these fields need to be 
modified then as well.

For me, my siblings and many oth-

ers, college may be the most suitable 
avenue to foster our own unique sets 
of talents and abilities to achieve our 
particular aspirations. Yet, it’s the 
diversity of skill sets in our society 
that necessitates the reforms sug-
gested at the policy conference to 

strenghten the skilled trades indus-
tries. Without generations of fam-
ily 
working 
these 
“undesirable” 

blue-collar jobs, I wouldn’t have been 
provided with the opportunity or the 
means to choose to attend a univer-
sity or to choose one path over anoth-
er. Giving individuals the ability to 
choose and the awareness of oppor-
tunities is crucial. While the videos 
are certainly a good start, more atten-
tion needs to be directed at dispelling 
the stigma that skilled trades jobs 
are lacking in worth by emphasizing 
the importance of funding vocational 
and STEM training in our education 
 

system.

Although the initiatives to bolster 

the skilled trades were proposed in 
a particularly expensive and exclu-
sive setting, the actions taken and 
the goals set at the conference were 
admirable and need to be followed 
through with in order to make signif-
icant changes in both the economic 
and societal landscapes.

— Melissa Scholke can be 

reached at melikaye@umich.edu

ANNA
POLUMBO-
LEVY

AARICA 
MARSH

MELISSA 
SCHOLKE