Intro: When people eat food they do not think about what is in it, or how it is made. The only thing people care about is what the food tastes like and how much they get. During the 1900’s the meat packing industry had not regulations of any kind. All that mattered to the industry was that they made as much money as possible with as little expenditure as possible. During this times people were often made sick and died either from working conditions or poor food quality. Although it may seem that the meat packing industry is still in turmoil because of their unwillingness to make known what foods have Genetically Modified organisms present, the meat packing industry was much worse during the 1900’s because of the unsafe working conditions, and uncleanliness of the food. Body 1: The meat packing industry’s working conditions were much worse in the 1900’s than they are today. In the novel The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, working conditions were horrible for immigrants who were employed in these factories. People in these factories were worked very hard and used up till they could not work anymore. In the novel Jurgis broke his ankle because of the unsafe …show more content…
In the movie Food Inc., company representatives were asked to make known the products that Genetically Modified Organisms are present in, and the food companies were not willing to give up that information. Because people are not allowed to know the full extent of what is in their food the consumer does not have full control of what they are eating. Food during the 1900’s did not have things such as Genetically Modified Organisms added into their food so they did not need to be worried about extra things added to their food. The meat packing industry during the 1900’s was better at making known what was in the food they were producing because they did not have the different things added in like industries do
There was a kind of labors in the U.S. food industry stood on the floor with half an inch deep blood, and put up with the stench. But not only that, they worked faster, but earned less. In fact, they were immigrant labors, and this horrible treatment of them truly happened in the beginning of twenty centuries. The Jungle which was written by Upton Sinclair documented this inhuman treatment. However, a hundred years later, immigrants still suffer the harsh treatment in the modern food industry.
Sinclair worked undercover in a meatpacking plant to gather information firsthand, before he began writing the book. Its influence on the labor practices and regulations governing the food industry cannot be understated. It tackles subjects as varied as the poor living conditions of the immigrants, exploitation of cheap labor by industrialists, and the unsanitary conditions of the meatpacking plants and stockyards of Chicago. The descriptions of the disgusting processes that were conducted in the meatpacking plants made for shocking reading and turned the book into a bestseller. The President Teddy Roosevelt ordered an investigation into the lack of sanitation in meatpacking plants and caused the creation of legislation governing the food industry in the form of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906.
The Meatpacking District became a very dangerous area once the automobile was invented because it interfered with the elevated freight trains. Because the trains carried merchandises essential to the lives of most New Yorkers, freight trains were given the right of way to stop wherever they please just to make a delivery. Thus, a ten-car train would be blocking traffic just to deliver the goods. It most likely took longer than 30 minutes to unload the train of the goods to whichever business it delivered to, so the traffic gets overbearingly crowded. Besides the terrible congestion, regular New Yorkers would be in this area because most markets would be located there, so that they could get fresh produce from the local slaughterhouses.
“- And while we are on the topic of horrible and unethical practices of the rich man taking advantage of the poor, lets discuss the conditions of the working man in the meat industry.” He continued to discuss the gruesome, shocking, and awful treatments that the men had to deal with on a daily, reading an excerpt from his article, “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by
Upton Sinclair, a novelist, writer, journalist, political activist, and politician, was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1878. Sinclair began college at the age of 14 at the City College of New York. Sinclair aspired to be a poet, but eventually followed a different route. He began working on literary works that would cause major reforms in society. In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks in disguise in Chicago’s meat packing district to research his novel, The Jungle.
Around seventy percent of Americans claim to hate their job, but The Jungle by Upton Sinclair puts into perspective how fortunate they really are (Adeline). This novel goes into detail about what was actually happening in the meat packing plants of 1906 and how it affected the employees’ mental and physical health. The workers in the meat packing plants had it much worse than those seventy percent today. They described their job with many negative words such as “agony”. The use of the word “agony” in The Jungle proves that the so-called employees were actually just slaves.
The 19th century was the era of the Gilded Age, where the economy was booming, bringing great changes that affected the lives of workers and entrepreneurs. During this period, there was a large influx of immigrants that were coming to America to look for job opportunities. The migration of immigrants proved useful as a source for cheap labor, allowing an even higher rise in the U.S. economy. While American industrialization may have benefited the upper class of the American society, the effects were opposite to the workers of the lower classes. This problem was especially worse for immigrant workers as their belief in the so-called American dream has been worn down due to the misery they had to endure.
Some troubles that surface during this time in the meat packing plants are the use of spoiled, dirty or rotten meat, poor wages for the workers there and the conditions of the working area. In the meat packing plants, there were no laws or rules to abide by for the cleanliness of the food. This caused several businesses to overlook what they thought was adequate for the consumers and sold them perished or rotting meat. In Upton Sinclair’s
During the 1900’s working conditions were undeniably horrible. In Packingtown everyday got more difficult as the days went on. In the meat packing business things were supposed to be done quick. Inside the factories packing, chopping, inspecting and people actions didn’t mix. Not only did the people in the factories suffered, the people outside of the factory also suffered.
Upton Sinclair portrays the economic tension in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through his novel “The Jungle”. He used the story of a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, to show the harsh situation that immigrants had to face in the United States, the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions in the meatpacking plants, as well as the tension between the capitalism and socialism in the United States during the early 1900s. In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, there were massive immigrants move into the United States, and most of them were from Europe. The protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, like many other immigrants, have the “America Dream” which they believe America is heaven to them, where they can
The Meatpacking Industry was one of the most prominent and powerful industries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was responsible for processing and distributing large amounts of meat to consumers across the United States. The industry was plagued with numerous problems, including poor working conditions, exploitation of workers, and unsanitary practices. In 1906, Upton Sinclair published his novel, "The Jungle," which exposed the brutal realities of the meatpacking industry.
According to Upton Sinclair’s, “The Jungle,”numerous types of meats were mixed together with no discretion. There were meats that were sold even after rotting, the meat covered in white mold. Meats were injected with toxic preservatives and chemicals. Meat was left on the ground, trampled and spit on and still sold. Rats, poop, dust, leaky roof water were all things that came into contact with the produced meat.
Revealing the harsh treatment of meatpacking workers and showing the reality of the disgusting conditions found in butchery shops to the public, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle became an enduring classic by American readers throughout the early twentieth century the prompted the later creation of the Federal Drug Administration. In the early 1900s, America was explosively transitioning from an agricultural society to a thriving manufacturing-based nation. As production demand in factories grew throughout the country, the work force needed to run those factories also expanded. A new type of demanding and dangerous work became prevalent throughout the nation, as immigrants coming into the “Land of Opportunity” found themselves desperate
In this research paper introduction, it will consist of the twentieth century and the cause and effect of the book. The Jungle, which exposed of the meatpacking industry, became an enormous bestseller translated into seventeen languages within weeks of its publication in 1906. But while The Jungle has long been associated with food production and its disgustingness, the book is actually a much smaller part of an early twentieth-century business, labor practices in rapidly growing cities in the United States. During the early 20th century, contributing a public outcry which led to reform the Meat Inspection Act. Sinclair said the public reaction "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident, I hit it in the stomach."
Genetically modified foods, also known as genetically modified organisms are biologically altered foods. Scientists put a desired gene from one plant, animal, or organism into another plant, in the hope that more crops are grown and have resistance to disease, drought, and pesticides. You likely have several items in your kitchen that are genetically modified that you don’t even know about. According to Livestrong.com, more than 88% of all soy, corn, squash, and cotton plants grown in the U.S. are genetically modified. Animal products like eggs, meat, and milk contain genetically modified foods, because the food fed to livestock is usually genetically modified.