Editor’s Desk: Trouble on the packing line

By Theodore Ross

JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, had a problem at its plant in Greeley, Colorado, in late 2023: It was short on workers, with openings for about 60 people to do the arduous work of cutting meat for American consumption. The story of how two men cooked up a scheme to solve that problem is the focus of our latest audio collaboration, with the Reveal podcast. Reported by FERN senior editor Ted Genoways, “Immigrants on the Line,” is a harrowing and contemporary tale:

There were sixty openings at the plant, and more than a thousand Haitians ultimately showed up. The free lodging, paid for by JBS, turned out to be five or more to a room, with no kitchen, in a rundown motor lodge. That, coupled with the brutal and dangerous work on the packing line, left many of the migrants—who had been told only to expect “hard work”—feeling duped. They told the union representing workers at the plant that they felt trapped. One told Ted Genoways, who reported this piece in Greeley, that he was treated “like a slave.”

This podcast episode is the newest installment of a longer-running FERN project to produce stories in multiple formats. The reporting from Genoways, and his audio field producer Mary Anne Andrei, has appeared in a shorter version for radio, in a collaboration with Harvest Public Media. The issues of what the Trump administration might do with workers, like the Haitians in Greeley and throughout the food system, also underpins this article from Genoways and FERN senior reporter Teresa Cotsirilos, which we co-published with Politico in late January. And there is much more from this place and this story that we have coming in the near future that I can’t tell you about just yet.

What I can describe is the thinking behind this process. The ways in which people find news that inspires them is always changing. At FERN, we believe it is our responsibility to change along with it. What I’ve described above is one story in three different forms — radio, longform podcast, and a short, text-based article, with more on the way. Each of these forms is attuned to different audiences who seek out information in different ways. If you want your journalism to have impact, you have to go to your audience. It won’t come to you.

So, you’re going to see more of this in the coming months FERN — new forms, new approaches, and more ambitious projects. The goal remains the same: to help make the food system more sustainable and equitable through powerful journalism and storytelling. 

This new, multi-format impact strategy at FERN costs money. We cannot do this without the support of smart, caring, concerned people like you. I hope you will consider making a donation to FERN to help support our important work.