Cardinal Richelieu famously said that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” These words have been ingrained in most children’s minds as they progressed through their education. There have been many examples of this in our past. Society will look back at the wars it has waged to look for guidance in what not to do, but then another war comes and the same mistakes are made. But, taking a closer look at the literature that has changed the world, the message is able to ring true to today. Shakespeare has taught the generations how to love, Mark Twain brought a sense of adventure with an unlikely friend, and Einstein brought some of the greatest ideas known to mankind. All of these men used their words to influence society and their influences …show more content…
The acts created by the book gave the American public peace of mind, but operating under these century old laws today still causes meat that is contaminated to be distributed to the public, even with inspection of carcasses (Hinderliter). The argument involved in this problem is that it is impossible to inspect every single piece of meat, so spot checking is the only method considered necessary. Despite this fact, Patrick J. Boyle, President and Chief Executive of the American Meat Institute, believes otherwise, as stated in the New York Times. “Meat supply is the safest, most and abundant, and certainly the most affordable in the world,” he proclaims (Boyle). Boyle then goes on to explain bacteria levels and e-coli outbreaks have dramatically decreased, and how thorough and persistent inspectors are in factories. Despite this supposed good news, there are many drawbacks to the meat market. Though packing has evolved due to technological advancement and greater understanding of pathogens, bacteria, and contamination, monetary issues are holding Americans back from the opportunity for to receive the highest quality meat (Hinderliter). Mandatory labeling of meat and all of today’s modern equipment for inspecting meat drives up prices, as does organically grown food. Over the past decade, organically raised food has become increasingly popular due to the fact that it is both …show more content…
Those in charge of the acts created by the story have had their funding slashed dramatically over the past century, to the point that their work is almost obsolete compared to that of the USDA. The 1960’s and 70’s also saw a radical change in the American belief in business. Private business became America’s choice, and emphasis on big business saw a decline (Andrews). With this decline, there was no longer strict enforcement or monitoring of large-scale business activity. For these reasons, laws involving the meat industry were no longer strictly enforced until the creation of the USDA (“Food Safety Regulation”). Despite even the creation of a multi-dimensional federal service that covers all food of the United States; budgets have still been cut concerning food safety. Outbreaks involving diseased food, even if it is not necessarily meat, are still common with all of the technology utilized today. Though The Jungle may have a had a large impact on business right after its publication, that positive impact has faded away over time, and the only reason for change within the meat industry is due to innovations in health and science
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.
McCoy, J. J. How Safe Is Our Food Supply? New York: F. Watts, 1990. Print.
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.
Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” gave the most in-depth description of the horrid truths about the way America’s food companies, “the only source of food for people living in the city,” are preparing the food they sell. “The Jungle” describes the terrible
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.
Regulating what the government should control and what they should not was one of the main arguments our founding fathers had to deal with when creating our nation, and to this day this regulation is one of the biggest issues in society. Yet, I doubt our founding fathers thought about the idea that the food industry could one day somewhat control our government, which is what we are now facing. Marion Nestles’ arguments in the book Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health deal with how large food companies and government intertwine with one another. She uses many logical appeals and credible sources to make the audience understand the problem with this intermingling. In The Politics of Food author Geoffrey Cannon further discusses this fault but with more emotional appeals, by use of personal narratives. Together these writers make it dramatically understandable why this combination of the food industry and politics is such a lethal ordeal. However, in The Food Lobbyists, Harold D. Guither makes a different viewpoint on the food industry/government argument. In his text Guither speaks from a median unbiased standpoint, which allows the reader to determine his or her own opinions of the food industries impact on government, and vise versa.
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.
The most significant event in the emergence of the twentieth century is the diversity and struggle of society's classes. The novel, The Jungle penned by Upton Sinclair attempts to display the social and economic challenges of the lower class by demonstrating the difficulties of a Lithuanian immigrant family.The predicament situation of Jurgis and his family reveals the dark side of the capitalism, therefore, it also revealed dominance and the exploitation of the bourgeoisie from the proletariat class.Throughout the novel, Jurgis and his family encounter varied difficulties from being unable to find a proper job to several deaths followed one after another due to the harsh life conditions consequently followed by the separation of the family
“The Jungle,” written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, describes how the life and challenges of immigrants in the United States affected their emotional and physical state, as well as relationships with others. The working class was contrasted to wealthy and powerful individuals who controlled numerous industries and activities in the community. The world was always divided into these two categories of people, those controlling the world and holding the majority of the power, and those being subjected to them. Sinclair succeeded to show this social gap by using the example of the meatpacking industry. He explained the terrible and unsafe working conditions workers in the US were subjected to and the increasing rate of corruption, which created the feeling of hopelessness among the working class.
Death can be described in different ways. Some are more gruesome than others. However, all of them have one thing in common; death will happen to everyone eventually. In a wide variety of American literary movements, authors mainly use death as a means to show that it is going to happen, just in different ways.
In conclusion it is obvious to see that rights and responsibilities were not carried out by the meatpacking industry. They were greed driven business men who “poisoned for profit” as president Roosevelt said. The meatpackers had a right to make their product but did not take the responsibility to do it in a manner that was safe to the consumer. Thanks to people like Upton Sinclair and Theodore Roosevelt, the meat industry today takes the responsibility to make a safe quality product of the public.
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...
What the American culture is used to is eating three meals with a few snacks in between a day, and two out of the three meals usually involve eating meat. Most people don’t realize the risks of eating meat. Today’s medical experts say that avoiding meat helps you avoid saturated fat. They have found out from studies that women who eat meat daily have a fifty percent greater risk of developing heart disease than vegetarian women and a sixty-eight percent greater risk in men (staff writer). People may not know about serious diseases meat can obtain such as, mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease. In the September 1999 issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases, approximately 76 million food borne illnesses- resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths occur in the United States each year from improperly cooked or diseased meat (Licher). That is a lot! You can also get salmonella poisoning from meat. People think that the problems come from eating red meat and are opting for fish over steak, but new evidence proves that fish can cause health problems too, risks that can’t be cooked away. This is a growing problem called histamine poisoning (Peck). Children are learning at a younger age that they don’t like meat, maybe because they don’t like the taste, or maybe it’s because they have a fear of eating their favorite cartoon or movie hero. For example, the pig from the movie “babe”.
Have you ever went into a grocery store a seen a sign that read “Fresh Produce”? And as you walked down the aisles scanning the depressing sight of premature fruits and ancient vegetables, wondered what the stores definition of fresh was. But as a only option snatched up the best looking item from the shelf thinking that in some way the crop before you had to be of a certain quality; because the store wouldn’t sell it to you otherwise, nor would the government allow them too…Or would they? Although there is supposed to be strict food regulations put intact to inform and protect the consumer, our food is often unhealthy and we are commonly unaware of it. Our food is an abomination to our health and way of life as a result of poor regulations. Food regulations don’t ensure the safe handling or preparation of our food or animals, no...