Owners and operates of the meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado, for generations before eventually selling it to a massive agribusiness. The Monfort family, as Schlosser describes, were good but “paternalistic” bosses for their workers—paying sufficiently and allowing unions in the plant. The Monfort Family’s practices stand in contrast to later, larger companies, like IBF, whose meatpacking plants allow no unions and pay miniscule wages to workers for their dangerous labor.
The Monfort Family Quotes in Fast Food Nation
The Fast Food Nation quotes below are all either spoken by The Monfort Family or refer to The Monfort Family. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Mariner edition of Fast Food Nation published in 2012.
Chapter 7: Cogs in the Great Machine
Quotes
Greeley became a company town, dominated by the Monfort family and ruled with a compassionate paternalism. Ken Monfort was a familiar presence at the slaughterhouse. Workers felt comfortable approaching him with suggestions and complaints.
Related Characters:
Eric Schlosser (speaker), The Monfort Family
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Monfort Family Character Timeline in Fast Food Nation
The timeline below shows where the character The Monfort Family appears in Fast Food Nation. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7: Cogs in the Great Machine
...Greeley, the meatpacking plant was originally worked as a small business and controlled by the Monfort family with “compassionate paternalism.” The Monforts negotiated with meatpackers who were in a union, and...
(full context)
Schlosser then tracks the changes in meatpacking during the 1970s and 1980s—the Monfort plant in Greeley was purchased by ConAgra, one of the largest agribusinesses in the US....
(full context)