The Gilded Age was a period in history categorized by the immense amount of change that the United States of America underwent. It was a time of unexpected industrial and technological growth after the Civil War. And it was a period of repair and transformation for the country. The after-effects of the Civil War had left the country in shambles (mostly in the South). But due to new innovations in communication, electricity, and mechanization, the country became the most dominant industrial power in the world. During this time, “Captains of Industry” emerged as corporate titans and ruled the economy. They founded “trusts” and ruled their corporations with iron fists, crushing smaller competition and remaining unrelenting in their torturing labor practices. These monopolists took advantage of the lack of regulations to …show more content…
These acts were enacted after President Theodore Roosevelt’s concerns after he read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. The first act was the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. This act prevented the production, sale, or transportation of low-quality foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors. This act was significant because it established federal authority in the realm of the food packing industry and it made sure that people were receiving and intaking quality food, which helped the overall health of the population. Next, the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 mandated that all animals were to be inspected before and after they were slaughtered to become meat. This act ensured that the meat was of high quality and not left over meat shipped from Britain. Again, this act was significant because it introduced a federal authority to this industry and helped the meat industry become safe again. These acts were both significant in the context of the thesis because they altered corrupt/unsafe business
The Meat Inspection Act and The Pure Food and Drug Act were created. The Pure Food and Drug Act led to the development of the federal Food and Drug Administration. Ida Tarbell, “The History and the Standard Oil Company,” after written it in serial form for Mcclure's Magazine. The expose was composed after she spent several years investigating the business practices of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. Her investigative reporting led to the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911.
He investigated the meatpacking industry and decided to pass the Meat Inspection Act in 1906. This act required meatpackers to pass a federal meat inspection in order to sell meat. This act soon proved ineffective because the government had to pay for the inspections and the companies still did not have to label their goods honestly. Later that year in 1906, congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act to fix these problems. This act proved much more effective.
Such passages disgusted civilians who demanded that similarly to the Standard Oil Company, meatpacking facilities needed more government regulation. By informing the public with facts people didn’t want to hear, Sinclair effectively shaped public opinion against meat packing plants and created concern for the sanitation of food and the process to make it. Meat sales went down drastically following the publishing of this novel. The uproar caught the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt who then ordered an investigation of the meat packing plants. After getting a report back, Roosevelt decided it was necessary to pass regulatory laws.
The first food adulteration was brought to the attention of the people during the Spanish American War of 1898. The press reported that there were large amounts of rotten meat that was being shipped to the American troops with the smell of boracic acid, causing many soldiers to get sick and disable the soldiers from fighting. For every one man who fought and died in battle, seven soldiers died from illness and diseases. The death rate from the soldiers with diseases was 110 thousand soldiers per year. Because of this, Harvey Wiley decided to begin his own investigation with the goal of “clearing the good name of American meats” (qtd. 1, 44).
§ 301 et seq.), which superseded the provisions of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. President Theodore Roosevelt began the process by ensuring the passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which was followed by the Pure Food and Drug Act, passed in 1906 to become effective at the start of 1907. It was to be applied to goods shipped in foreign or interstate commerce. The purpose was to prevent adulteration or misbranding. Adulteration was defined in various ways.
Roosevelt caught a hold of this book and demanded that Congress mend to these conditions in which they passed the Meat Inspection Act and The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. As a result of the passing of the acts, Americans felt safe once again that their food was fine for consumption. Moreover, this lead to
One of the most famous muckrakers that protested against the problems in food and health was, Upton Sinclair. He wrote a very famous book, “The Jungle”, that exposed the corruption and awful living conditions of the stockyards workers and the unclean handling of spoiled meat, and unsanitary conditions of the meat. They mixed rotten meat with raw meat and without any sanitary instrument. His book was an inspirational piece that drew public 's attention of the huge issue of unsanitary meat processing plants. When the people were complaining about the issue, T. Roosevelt, signed the Pure Food and Drug Act that prevented the manufacture, sale or transportation of misbranded or poisonous or adulterated foods, drugs, liquors and medicines, also it regulated the traffic.
These acts regulated the cleanliness that the meatpacking and regulating how food produced and labeled. (Cherny) Since this time there are countless acts that have been passed that are similar to these, yet foodborne illness is still a significant issue in the United States. Foodborne illnesses occur when a person eats something that was contaminated
In June 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. This act stated that all livestock must be inspected prior to slaughter, mandatory autopsies of the carcass of the animals, and sanitary standards for all meat processing facilities. The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 affected the producers of the meat packing companies, because it required them to pay a large fee for sanitary inspections, as well as laying off their workers. Consumers were affected due to the fact that they were eating extremely unsanitary meat products from these companies.
"(Upton Sinclair, The Jungle). Once people started to learn about the conditions of their food, a shock of wave passed through them. By exposing them, Upton Sinclair's book impacted for an act. That's how the Meat Inspection Act was created.
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.
World News Saad Zafar 4A 10/12/2015 Food/Impurities/Meat Packing Meat is an essential part of everyone’s daily nutritions. Is meat really safe to eat ? Theodore Roosevelt has passed the Meat Inspection act of 1906. The meat industry is corrupted still way other companies try to out do other meat companies ,so they can have the bigger reputation in the country. Through the meat inspection act companies have to insure they can pass otherwise they’ll be out of business.
The Meat Inspection Act required livestock to be inspected prior to slaughter, carcasses to be inspected postmortem, sanitary standards to be established in slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be allowed routine inspections of slaughter and processing operations. More than 1300 inspectors were hired by the Bureau of Animal Industries’ Meat Inspection Division to execute inspections in 163 institutions. Consumers benefitted from the enhanced quality of meats and knowledge of the foods they were purchasing. Very soon after it’s publication, The Jungle began to make impacts on an international level.
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.
Roosevelt’s safety concerns were in the sale of food and medicine (Trexler, 2011, pg. 313). The actions Roosevelt took to ensure safe sales of food and medicine were The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Meat Inspection Act set rules for sanitary meatpacking and government inspection of meat products and the Pure Food and Drug Act required manufacturers to list certain ingredients on the label (Divine, Breen, Williams, Gross, & Brands, 2012, p. 757). Because of these acts, Roosevelt regulated how the sale of food and medicine would be done in