Cattle growers are always trying to find ways to counteract these problems. Antibiotics are used as means to kill the residual harmful bacteria in the rumen. Antibiotics have yet another advantage for the cattle ranchers. Small doses of antibiotics have allowed the cattle to make more efficient use of its ' food as it can boost protein synthesis, metabolic rate, and nutrient absorption. In a 2001 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, it was concluded that 70 percent of antibiotics used for cattle in the United States were used for the sole purpose of improving the growth and performance of healthy cattle. This may seem all well and good, but giving cattle antibiotics has a major disadvantage. Antibiotics cause a small amount of bacteria …show more content…
Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle in 1906 which highlighted the horrors of working in meat packing plants and the insanitary way the meat was handles. And in that same year, congress stated that all of the livestock that was shipped to foreign markets and across state lines would subject to inspection. But this was relevant to about sixty percent of the meat processed and many of those inspectors were paid off to look the other way. In 1967 another stride was made with the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967. This act required meat packers to follow the regulations set by the federal government for meat standards. However, federal standards for meat production were still loose. The most substantial improvement for meat inspection happened in 1981 when the USDA was formed. This federal organization tests for ninety-eight percent of the meat in the United States. Even though the USDA is a federal institution, it still is swayed by cattle industry lobbyist with donation money to head UDSA members. ("Meat-Packing Industry") In 2008 the United States enacted a farm bill. This however, did not solve the huge subsidies large farm companies are given. In fact, it gave large farms a number of ways to can receive government payments. Just as spouses can put all of their investments into on members name, farm owners can do the same. As a result, the spouse with the lower income can receive these farm subsidies. It is estimated that 40 percent of the land lords, who lease the land to small farmers, will lose subsidies based on income. These landlords still have the option to raise the lease on the farmland and thereby enacting these subsidy losses indirectly onto the farm tenants. Lastly, it allows large farmers who near the income limit to purchase more land to incur federal and state deductions.
However, that was not the case. When The Jungle was presented to the public, readers were astonished by the disgusting and unsanitary state in which the meat was being processed in. The community was more concerned with the meat conditions than they were with the horrific conditions the workers were faced with. So while the popularity of Sinclair’s work was not his original intentions, it still accomplished stages of reform. It can be assumed that Roosevelts initial reluctance to accept Sinclair’s novel was in part, directly connected to his disbelief that the Federal government had become so disconnected and oblivious to American industry and the complete lack of Federal oversight. This “disconnect” did not last long as The Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as, the Meat Inspection Act were both directly set in to place mere months after Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle was published. This type of reform supported progressive philosophy by preventing corporate owners from remaining above government regulation and started a trend in the way government regulators began to deal with corporate monopolies and trusts. The Jungle, along with other “muckrakers” began a series of Federal oversight reforms and regulatory guidance that soon began to take hold in other industries. Big industry would soon realize that they were not above the
Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was the first of the legislation of the federal government in that time. The act made meat consumption healthier, and it saved numerous lives. It even made working conditions more tolerable in the plants. Kolko wrote about reality, what really happened in that time and the readers could understand comprehensively about American history, especially Progressive Era.
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.
In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.
During the Progressive era, consumer safety was a hot issue. In Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle, there were many disturbing things the American people learned about the meat packing industry. After people saw that their meat had dead rats and tuberculosis many did not want to buy any meat. People were disgusted by the things that they could buy without knowing what it was. This brought about stricter health codes and made the consumers have a little more peace of mind.
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.
A growing issue in the world today is the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in the animal production industry. However, for over sixty years, Americans have been exposed to hormones on a regular basis when they consume beef. Organic Consumer Association: On average, eighty percent of all feedlot cattle are given hormones to help them grow at an increased rate. (Communication Foundation) “In 1988 the European Union banned the use of all hormone growth promoters.” (Organic Consumer Association)
The Jungle appeared in January of 1906. It is completely understandable to me that the reading public responded to details on meat production and plant sanitation instead of the conditions of workingmen or Sinclair’s Socialist message. In turn, The Jungle helped to do something completely different than what the book’s author meant for it to do. The Jungle helped to push the Pure Food and Drug Bill out of a House committee and force president Teddy Roosevelt to jump into action. Roosevelt quickly requested the Department of Agriculture to send an investigating committee and through additional pressure, including Sinclair’s personal appeal, Roosevelt sent in an additional committee (Neill-Reynolds Commission). Also, at the same time a Beef Inspection Act was submitted in the Senate, all of this with Roosevelt’s complete approval.
“Upton Sinclair's the Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry.” Constitutional Rights Foundation 24, no. 1 (2008): 1. Accessed May 15, 2014. http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-1-b-upton-sinclairs-the-jungle-muckraking-the-meat-packing-industry.html.
One the key pieces of legislation that was a prime example of the progressive era, was the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This law came about due to muckraking, and also because of public and political interests. Muckraking, such as Upton Sinclair’s piece, “The Jungle”, helped in the timing of the adoption of this legislature. This piece of legislature, allowed for the regulation of processed food items in United States food markets. The Pure Food and Drug Act was assigned to the Department of Agriculture under the Bureau of Chemistry (Law, 2004).
In 1906, Upton Sinclair's Book The Jungle was published in book form; it had previously been published as a newspaper serial in 1905. Few works of literature have changed history in the United States so much as The Jungle did when it was published. It has been said that the book led to the direct passage of the "Pure Food and Drug Act" of 1906 (Dickstein) and that it lead to a decades long decline in meat consumption is the United States.
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.
When bacteria are frequently exposed to antibiotics it can become resistant to the drug so that it is no longer effective in treating a specific illness (Visser). To compensate for unhygienic environments and to accelerate growth, antibiotics are often given to food animals in the U.S. In 2011, 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics were sold in America for meat and poultry production ("Record"). Many of the types of antibiotics used in food animal production is also used in human medicine, and according to the WHO, “widespread use of antim...
However, health concerned organizations want to ban the use of these products due to the increasing fears that they can cause harm to the consumers. For over 50 years, antibiotics have been added to the food of animals such as poultry, cattle and pigs. The main purpose for doing so is to lower the risk of disease in animals. Farm animals are housed together in overcrowded areas, which are very dirty. The hygiene level can get to such a poor state that they are often in contact with their own excreta as well as excreta of the other animals they are housed with and because of tight single air space they share, the likelihood of catching diseases from one another is further increased and very often a whole heard can be infected at one time.
Farmers should be banned from mixing their livestock’s food with antibiotics because antibiotics are bad to the humans, antibiotics are unnecessarily or used right, and antibiotics are dangerous. If farmers were banned from mixing their livestock food with antibiotics, would the consumers really be losing. There would be a lot less deaths, if farmers were banned from using