Throughout the early 1900’s, the government offered very little protection when it came to the regulation of certain products, especially meats. During Jurgis’s employment at the meat packing industry, he witnessed many horrific things and heard many stories (from his family and coworkers) about how meat was processed and sold. On his first day of his first job, which consisted of sweeping the leftovers of slaughtered animals through the trap door, he noticed that the inspector, who was supposed to check the meat and either pass or reject it, let dozens of pigs go by unchecked for tuberculosis because he was conversing with another person nearby (Sinclair 31). Jurgis also found out from Dede Antanas, his father, that all of the beef that had …show more content…
“It took them a couple of hours to get them out of the way, and in the end Jurgis saw them go into the chilling rooms with the rest of the meat, being carefully scattered here and there so that they could not be identified” (Sinclair 53). In addition, dishonest meat companies labeled cans that were just scraps or leftover bits from any kind of slaughtered animal as “deviled” or “potted” meat (Sinclair 81). As a result of these nonexistent regulations, Jurgis and his family became very ill, both mentally and physically. Because of the horrible working conditions and lack of regulation, Jurgis lost hope, causing him to grow apart with his wife, …show more content…
In Chapter 13, Teta Elzbieta’s son unexpectedly died after consuming bad meat. Jurgis’s father, Dede Antanas, passed away because he had developed a cough and was too old, ill, and weak to work. Later on, when Jurgis returned to his family (after spending 30 days in jail for attacking Phil Connor), who was in a boarding house since they got evicted from the house they attempted to buy, Jurgis found Ona going into premature labor and slowly dying. Jurgis went to a saloon and got drunk, which began his journey into alcoholism, and when he returned, the baby was dead, and he witnessed Ona die (Sinclair 158). He was devastated, but found a way to keep going, because of his son, Antanas. Soon after, Antanas, died after drowning in the streets (Sinclair 175). This tragedy was the last string for him, and was the event that just made him lose all hope. After the death of his son, he left for the countryside and went into full on alcoholism because of his depression. His conscience became “the ghost that would not down. It would come upon him in the most unexpected places – sometimes it fairly drove him to drink” (Sinclair 183). He found several jobs, but all the money he made went towards either alcohol or women. When he returned to Packingtown, almost a year later, he found out that Stanislovas had died from being eaten by rats when he was passed
In 1900, there were over 1.6 million people living in Chicago, the country's second largest city. Of those 1.6 million, nearly 30% were immigrants. Most immigrants came to the United States with little or no money at all, in hope of making a better life for themselves. A city like Chicago offered these people jobs that required no skill. However, the working and living conditions were hazardous and the pay was barely enough to survive on. This is the bases for Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle.
After the clean-up, U. S. meat is imported by many countries, opening fresh markets for the packers. Upton Sinclair is supposed to be. to have said that he aimed at the public's heart, and by. accident. He hit it in the stomach.
The beginning of Meat Inspection Act seemed to be at 1904, after “The Jungle” of Sinclair published. In fact, it started twenty years earlier, the regular law, used to satisfy Europe, the largest meat export market, but in 1865 Congress passed an act to prevent the importation of diseased cattle and pigs. Because of disease, European like Italian, French, and English restricted or banned the importation meat, and they turned to another supplier. Some bills were introduced but they failed to gather sufficient support. May 1884, Bureau of Animal Industry was established, it was doing good job in fighting Europe restrictions, helping the packers, but not helping the domestic consumers. March 1891, the first major meat inspection law was passed; some country removed the prohibitions on importing American pork. It distressed the European packing industry as well. So, they imposed more standards. Government had to do more action; major percent meat slaughtered was inspected. Some of companies exploited the law, but most of them, especially big companies agreed with the committee in 1902. In 1904, Smith, who was a great information aid to Sinclair, published a series of articles in The Lancet...
These were only some of many examples in The Jungle about deceit and corruption exhibited in the meat packing industry. Nonetheless, plants had government inspectors to check for tubercular animals, but Sinclair explains that these inspectors were usually the kind of people who would be easily distracted by those passing, and would not regret missing dozens of other animals. Therefore, people’s faith in those government inspectors had been betrayed, and their health needs were relentlessly ignored. However, Sinclair’s exposing of the scheming meat packing industry increased the awareness of such practices occurring daily.
Although an investigation of the Bureau of Animal Industry, which provided the inspectors of the packaging plants, was ongoing, Roosevelt felt the need to have unbiased investigators look into the matter. Roosevelt and Agriculture Secretary James Wilson “asked Commissioner of Labor Charles P. Neill and New York...
Did they have a good quality of life before the death that turned them into someone’s dinner?” (Steiner 845). With these questions the author tries to hook up his audience and make them think about how and where does everyday meat comes from.
The first of the legislation of the federal government in this time was the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. The Meat Inspection Act required the federal inspection of meats that were headed for interstate commerce and this gave much power to the big bosses of the Agriculture Department. The powers that this act endowed to the big bosses of the Department of Agriculture was to set the standards or the sanitary conditions. This Act basically gives the government the power to say what is sanitary and safe and what is vile and rank. The Meat Inspection Act was brought to the attention of the political hierarchy in great part to the novel written by Upton Sinclair. Upton portrayed the meat packing industry of Chicago as vile and disgusting. He expressed hideous images of rats and feces and other things very unfit for the food that they were eating. President Roosevelt read the book, The Jungle, and was totally convinced and he acted very quickly. In this, he sent a few federal agent to go investigate this convincing claim to see if it existed, they reiterated his disgusting results. Thus the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was passed by the Congress and by Roosevelt on its way to becoming a part of the incredible regulations of the Progressive Era.
In the essay “Against Meat”, Jonathan Foer talks about how factory farmed animals is treated and how they make a meat by killing them brutally. They don't care about the animals they just killed them and make their eat to sell them because they just want to make money. As Michael pollan balme fast food industry about making food which is unhealthy for people and for making more processed food to make money. So Jonathan Foer and Michael pollan both blames fast food companies. Michael pollan is not telling people to stop eating meat but just warning them to not eat more processed food which can make them sick. So Jonathan Foer agree with Michael Pollan for some reasons.
Canada’s beef industry in the early 2000’s. “It makes a lot of sense to work with the
Businesses did whatever they could do to food to produce as much of it as cheaply as possible, adding chemicals to make it taste or look better. Sinclair described how every part of the animal was used, saying that companies used “everything of the pig except the squeal.” This included using the rotten meats, selling them to the public as “Number Three Grade” meats.10 Those who were unfortunate enough to eat the meat were poisoned, including one of the immigrant children in the novel, Kristoforas, who died from a poisoned sausage. Sausage was probably the most dangerous of the meats, because they were the moldy cuts Europe had sold to America, because no one there wanted them, and they were “doused with borax and glycerine” to remove any odor or foul taste. The meats would be in piles on the floor where the dirt laid, the roof leaked, the workers spit, and the rats crawled.12 Workers put poisoned bread by the meat piles to kill off the rats, so in the pile there were the dead rats and their dung.12 All of this including the poisoned bread would become part of the sausages. Not only were the meats bad, but the other foods the immigrant family would buy were doctored with chemicals. Sinclair described the pale-blue milk the immigrant family bought was watered down and was "doctored with formaldehyde,” and that other foods such as tea, coffee, sugar and flour had also been altered. The canned peas they
The public’s reaction created unintended consequences from the author’s original intent. Sinclair himself writes "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." Publishing the novel led to new federal food safety laws such as the Pure Food and Drug act and the Meat Inspection Act. During his job Jurgis noticed the meat factory was a place “...where men welcomed tuberculosis in the cattle they were feeding...”(112). As it would fatten them up and the factory could sell disease ridden meat. Moreover, on the killing floor, they would butcher “slunk calves” for meat. Slunk calves are born prematurely and is against the law to process this cow meat for
At the turn of the twentieth century “Muckraking” had become a very popular practice. This was where “muckrakers” would bring major problems to the publics attention. One of the most powerful pieces done by a muckraker was the book “The Jungle”, by Upton Sinclair. The book was written to show the horrible working and living conditions in the packing towns of Chicago, but what caused a major controversy was the filth that was going into Americas meat. As Sinclair later said in an interview about the book “I aimed at the publics heart and by accident hit them in the stomach.”# The meat packing industry took no responsibility for producing safe and sanitary meat.
The Jungle caused such an outcry that President Roosevelt tried to mandate government enforcement of sanitary and health standards in the food industry. After Congress wouldn’t pass a meat inspection bill, Roosevelt released the findings of the Neill-Reynolds report. The Neill-Reynolds’s report found that the meat packing industry was as horrendous as Sinclair claime...
few ideas on the following subject. For many years, the meat packing industry of this
During the time of the movement west, food played an important role in the pioneers day to day life. Food played an important role during the 1800s because it kept people alive during hard times. The pioneers stored their food in many different ways, and they ate, prepared, and made their own food.