Millions of people each day go to the store and purchase meat, produce, and medicine, without worrying if it’s safe, or whether it may be contaminated with things like paint stripper or cocaine. Prior to 1906, there was no organization to monitor whether or not any food or drug contained what it said, let alone if it was safe to be consumed. Even though legislation wouldn’t come for many more years, research into food safety dates all the way back to 1862 when scientist Charles M. Wetherill, who worked for the Department of Agriculture, began testing samples of food for purity. Wetherill’s first project focused on the alcohol content in wine but later led to him and other scientists focusing on problems such as contaminated milk from cows with …show more content…
One book, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, comprehensively exposed the horrors of meat packing plants. What he wrote was so startling, it caught the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt. Sinclair detailed how diseased animal carcasses were mishandled in filthy factories, and the meat was often left lying around for days in vats contaminated with rat feces and poison. When they finally got around to packing the meat, it was treated with a plethora of chemicals, canned, and often mislabeled. After the public saw through Sinclair, how atrocious these slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants were, most started avoiding meat altogether. The public then proceeded to bombard the white house with an overwhelming amount of letters and phone calls, urging the government to put an end to what was happening in the industry, which prompted Roosevelt to read Sinclair’s book. After Roosevelt read the book, he appointed a commission to investigate the Chicago slaughterhouses. When the commission came back to Roosevelt to report their findings, they confirmed everything Sinclair had previously written about. By letter, Roosevelt urged congress to pass laws that would allow inspection from “hoof to can.” Roosevelt’s plea lead to the creation of the Meat Inspection Act, which allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to inspect meat and decide whether or not it was suitable for consumption. While Dr. Wiley and his team were happy to finally see a change, they weren’t satisfied with the amount of change. That further led to the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act, which was signed into law on June 30th, 1906, at the same time as the Meat Inspection Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act finally called for proper labeling of drugs and food and banned misleading labels, and some dangerous additives. The Bureau of Chemistry was tasked with enforcing the laws of the Pure Food and Drug act, until 1927 when it became the
After reading “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, Theodore Roosevelt passed a few acts to ensure a safer and sanitary environment where livestock is slaughtered and processed. “The Jungle” shows the working class and their lack of social support, the loss of hope among the workers and unsanitary working and living conditions, for example, working environments were covered in blood, meat scraps, and dirty water. The book follows a man as he observes the meat industry as its horrific faults. He noticed the workers lost their fingers in the meat and the workers used bathrooms next to where the meat was processed occasionally doing their business on the floor. There was a chapter describing the meat being piled on the floor carrying sawdust, dead rats,
This eventually led to the creation of the federal department of Food and Drug Administration which lays out laws for what is safe for inclusion in the food and medicine consumed by the
On the beginning of the XX century, the meatpacking industry was unregulated and incredibly dangerous. Simple habits, such as washing the hands and the use of hairnets were unknown. This, together with other unhealthy practices, contaminated the resultant meat with dirt, human hair and sweat. However, this was not the only issue concerning that industry. In the end, the meat appropriate for intake would be mixed with ruined meat and chemicals, as the author illustrates, “There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was mouldy and white—it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption” (Sinclair
The disgust and horror, associated with hot dogs, can be traced to the controversial meat packaging industry of the 1930’s. American Author and Activist Upton Sinclair recorded the horrors of the meat packaging in his novel, The Jungle. Graphically, Sinclair described: This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shovelled into carts, and the man who did the shovelling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one - there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. There was no place for the men to wash their hands
The slaughtering process emotionally disturbs Jurgis’ family and all the people who had accompanied them on their tour. In the slaughterhouse, pigs squealed in pain to the point that visitors could no longer be comfortable. On his observation, Sinclair believes that the slaughterhouse has promoted inhumane behavior in people. It could be true because the capitalist society does not teach people to care for others, as opposed to socialism where everyone has a role to care for another member in the society. What is more, the tears from the visitors and the squeals of the animals in the slaughterhouse could not change anything
Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle originally to draw the public's attention to abuse of children and immigrants in factories along with v the effected that big businesses had on the economy. Worth his purpose fulfilled he also drew attention to a much more controversial attention to a much more controversial concern, being the meat packing industry. Many who read the book when it was first published were mortified by the stories. Some questioned the authenticity of Sinclair's writings.
Upton Sinclair wrote a book called “The Jungle”. This book exposed the way meat was being packaged. As a
The Pure Food and Drug act of 1906 stopped the sale, manufacturing, and transportation of poisonous and harmful foods and drugs. Historians agree that the Act came about from many people and organizations who had an interest in ratifying it. Many see Dr. Harvey Wiley, as the one who became the Chief Chemist at the Bureau of Chemistry and the sole creator of the law. There were other factors that lead to the pushing of the Pure Food and Drug Act, like the Women’s Christian Union, but Wiley and his attempts were the primary cause of the creation of these laws. In the eighteenth century, many Americans were concerned about the state of their food supply.
The Jungle is one of the best-known pieces of the muckraker movement. The novel is responsible for bringing the working and sanitary conditions of Chicago's slaughterhouses to light. The jungle a brilliant story that bring to light a lot of the trues people didn't consider. It show that the working conditions for the immigrants and their living condition to ;as well as the condition of the food the people are eating. Americans were horrified to learn about the terrible conditions which their meat products were packed and were disgusted that rotten and diseased meat was sold without consideration for public health.
When I first read Chapter Ten of “After the Fact”, by James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle, I was shocked at the methods meat factories use in preparing their products. I was especially shocked seeing as now; we have so many food regulations that most people don’t think twice about the food that is going in their bodies. I am now thinking, do these things still appear in our lives today? It was nice to know that Theodore Roosevelt took action in an attempt to fix these major problems. He became aware of the poor conditions of the meat industry through the book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair.
Although it may seem that the meat packing industry is still in turmoil because of their unwillingness to make known what foods have Genetically Modified organisms present, the meat packing industry was much worse during the 1900’s because of the unsafe working conditions, and uncleanliness of the food. Body 1: The meat packing industry’s working conditions were much worse in the 1900’s than they are today. In the novel The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, working conditions were horrible for immigrants who were employed in these factories. People in these factories were worked very hard and used up till they could not work anymore. In the novel Jurgis broke his ankle because of the unsafe
The Jungle became a massive best seller, and was translated into 17 languages within months of its release. Among its readers was President Theodore Roosevelt, who—despite his aversion to Sinclair’s politics—invited Sinclair to the White House and ordered an inspection of the meatpacking industry. As a result, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were both passed in 1906. From Politics to
Citizens were outraged with the whole thing as Sinclair continued to tell what he saw happening. This story is told through his book The Jungle in a fictional account of the experience. Meatpacking grew rapidly much like the rest of the industries during this time without regulations. Sinclair got the attention of the people and they demanded action by the government. The reaction of the public led to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
The Pure Food and Drug act of 1906 was the 1st consumer protection law by the Federal Government, this act was passed by President Theodore Roosevelt. The main purpose of the Pure Food and Drug act was to prohibit transportation of contaminated, poisonous, and misbranded foods, drugs, medicines and liquors. Without the pure food and drug act our food, medication, and other product would be filled with dangerous chemicals that would have harm in our health and potentially cause death. Before the 20th century, there were no laws or regulations that protected Americans from hazardous foods and medicines. This meant that there were no restrictions of what chemicals could be put in one’s food or medicine, leaving the open to mass deaths of contaminated or poisonous products.
Chicago was the most popular city to build base operations. Since Chicago’s economy was mostly supported by meat packing factories, many workers in Chicago did not complain about or quite due to the appalling work conditions because they knew that getting another job somewhere else was almost impossible. Not only did Sinclair’s description of the disease-ridden and unhealthy process of making meat was true, it also had enormous impacts on the way the public viewed products of the meat industry and largely affected the sales of these giant