The Meat Packing Industry In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

In 1906 a book by Upton Sinclair was published, that book was called The Jungle. The Jungle, was supposed to portray the harsh working conditions of immigrants in the meat packing industries during the early 20th century. However when most people read this book they look right past the actual problem that Sinclair was trying to solve, and turn to the horrors of the meat packing industry. One of those people was Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. President at the time, set out to clean up this industry by establishing the FDA, as well as other administrations. Well it is 2016 now, the world population is 7.4 million people, and those people are hungry for meat. With this massive population, and the high demand for food, the meat packing industry has been forced to mass produce driving down the quality of meat.

Furthermore, food safety is a major issue in the United States. Foodborne illness has caused an estimated 1 and 6 Americans to be sickened, 128,000 hospitalizations, and cause 3,000 deaths each year (http://www.sustainabletable.org/). These numbers may seem shocking, but they are all too real. All of the high levels

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the injury and illness rates for the meat packing industry is two and a half times higher than the national average (https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/meatpacking/). Similar to the reaction of the jungle, the working conditions of these workers are often overlooked for health concerns of the meat. Some of the working hazards include: exposure to high noise levels, dangerous equipment, slippery floors, musculoskeletal disorders, and hazardous chemicals (https://www.osha.gov). Most of this can be avoided through simple solutions, for example on site medical evaluations for workers that are exposed to chemicals. To first insure the safety of our food we must better the working conditions of the factories which they are produced, then the quality of the food will