ipl-logo

Meat Inspection Act Of 1906: The United States Army Beef Scandal

504 Words3 Pages

Meat Inspection Act of 1906
The United States Army Beef Scandal, happened during the Spanish American war in 1886. Soldiers were supplied with toxic, rotten meats that they claimed smelled like an “embalmed dead body.” Nelson Miles, the commanding general of the U.S. army, spread word of the soldiers who died from food poisoning and the newspapers spread the term “embalmed beef.” Soldiers of the United States army usually would prepare their own food and supplies, but due to fighting in the Phillipines and Cuba they had to rely on food provided by the government. Cold, canned beef was all the soldiers were provided to eat and of course they complained over the quality of it. President Roosevelt called his troops babies for complaining about the meat, but after trying it himself he was repulsed. Some cans had been reported to contain maggots, pieces of rope, and toxic preservatives. …show more content…

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. And workers were dying from diseases spread from the rotting meats and rat refuse. After Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle,” many American citizens were disgusted and angered by the quality of the meat they were consuming. This led citizens to demand congress to consider a “Pure food and drug bill.” This bill however, did not contain rules for keeping the meat packing history clean and free of disease. So Roosevelt, disgusted by the factory conditions eventually passed the “Meat Inspection Act of 1906,” which forced meat packing factories to have higher standards of meat that are not spoiled and/or diseased by rats and

Show More
Related
1184 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1317 Words | 6 Pages

It also qualified to manufactured goods that were being distributed by factories in which were described in novel. Besides the Pure Food and Drug Act there had also been the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. This action lead to the inspection of the animals in which if they were to consist of any epidemic or infection, it would be unapproved to manufacture. This brought a vast significance to United States for their was a change in the manufacturing and distribution of meats and

Read More
537 Words | 3 Pages

When I first read Chapter Ten of “After the Fact”, by James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle, I was shocked at the methods meat factories use in preparing their products. I was especially shocked seeing as now; we have so many food regulations that most people don’t think twice about the food that is going in their bodies. I am now thinking, do these things still appear in our lives today? It was nice to know that Theodore Roosevelt took action in an attempt to fix these major problems. He became aware of the poor conditions of the meat industry through the book “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair.

Read More
348 Words | 2 Pages

When Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle, a book about the terrible environment of the meat-packing factories in Chicago, he hoped to motivate reform in immigrant working conditions and promote socialism. Instead, what shocked readers the most was the sordid surroundings in which their future meals were prepared. Sinclair 's audience saw these conditions as a threat to themselves, and that energized reform in the meat-packing industry. What scared audiences the most was how real this threat was to their lives. As can be witnessed in the results of Sinclair 's crusade, the most effective propaganda is that which rouses the visceral survival instinct.

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

Sinclair exposed the problem of mutilated limbs and other horrors common to the workers. Sinclair also explained how even minor injuries could become fatal and how the labor intense work done at the factories caused workers to experience swollen joints (doc 1). Unfortunately, no laws were passed to protect workers from the awful conditions they faced. Although Sinclair’s attempt at reforming working conditions was fruitless, the public’s reaction to the truth about the meat they were purchasing sparked a nationwide attempt to enact consumer protection laws. The meat packing factories were doctoring their products with chemicals so they could profit from rotten meat.

Read More
1395 Words | 6 Pages

Upton Sinclair wrote a book called “The Jungle”. This book exposed the way meat was being packaged. As a

Read More
601 Words | 3 Pages

The Jungle was released to expose meatpacking industries’ ways of treating workers and meat. With this release, changes occurred. President Roosevelt urged Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. This act required the Department of Agriculture to inspect every hog and steer whose carcass state lines. In other words, it required companies to pay to get their facilities and practices checked by an inspector to assure everything was being done correctly.

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

The book, After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection describes how Upton Sinclair stated how he had hoped to draw his readers’ attention to “the conditions under which toilers get their bread,” and how there are, “corrupt federal meat inspectors, unsanitary slaughter houses, tubercular cattle, and the packers’ unscrupulous business practices”(Document 4). The authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle are expressing how meat factory workers are making terrible, unsanitary food. They’re pointing out that not even the meat inspectors care for the condition the meat is in. In other words, just as long as they’re making a profit, the inspectors could care less about the meat’s quality. However, consumer products soon took a turn for the better when the Meat Inspection Act was finally passed.

Read More
1060 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
665 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
1156 Words | 5 Pages

Upton Sinclair wrote in The Jungle, “There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about it.” The conditions in the meatpacking industry were unsanitary and needed to be changed. “Sinclair’s expose led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.” This is also known as the FDA. The FDA is in place to make sure that food is safe to

Read More
398 Words | 2 Pages

The meatpacking industry was not sanitary back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, many could have easily eaten poisoned rats to put things lightly. Upton Sinclair was a progressive who wrote a book called Into the Jungle. The book he wrote exposed much of the unsanitary surroundings in the meatpacking factory. This book opened the eyes to many on the filth they were eating and unaware of. As a

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

After I have read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, I have really believed that it time for us to change how the meat, especially sausage, is made. Why is it that the meat we eat can be made with animals, even rats, running over it? I believe that more regulation should be put on the owners so that the meat is clean, without “...meat that had tumbled out on the floor...where the workers had tramped and spit..and thousands of rats would race about it.” (Doc. D) This is not a job that people would want to work at just because of the disgust.

Read More
831 Words | 4 Pages

The Progressive Era was a period of time, from 1890 to 1920, that people start believing that the society problem could be faded by providing a safe environment, good education and an efficient workplace. The people who wanted changes in the society were called Progressives. Most of them were well educated, journalist, they went to college. There were a lot of problems that people tried to fix them or improve them, most of them were fixed but other we are still trying to fix them. During this period there were a lot of issues and problems but there were some prominent ones, like: Women Suffrage, Temperance or Food and Health.

Read More
423 Words | 2 Pages

Do you think that the meat industry still could be called “ The Jungle”? There are many animals such as cows, pigs, and chickens that are getting put in slaughterhouses. The animals that did get put in the slaughterhouses get tortured bad. They get hung and they go on conveyor belts and the get killed by the workers. All of these animals only get killed so us human can eat them.

Read More

More about Meat Inspection Act Of 1906: The United States Army Beef Scandal

Related Topics

Open Document