Similarities Between Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: The Pure Food And Drug Law

The 1900’s were a revolutionary century for American Agriculture thanks to the improvement of industrial technology and other advances in the field. The industrial technology ranged from many things, but machines had now given way for a decrease in manpower on the farms. (Farias, 2012) In 1906, in response to Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, The Pure Food and Drug Law was created, which required the USDA to inspect the sanitation of agricultural businesses. Not only were laws now being created for agriculture for the first time ever, but machines specifically made for agriculture were being popularized. One example of this is the mechanical tomato harvester. (Rasmussen, 1968). During World War 1, European countries struggled daily to

Early tractors in the 1920s would cost a farmer around $785. Just two years later in 1922, you could purchase a tractor for less than half of that price at $395. Now tractors were an affordable piece of agricultural machinery for just about every single farmer. (Dimitri, 2005) That eventually led to The Great Depression that lasted until 1940. During the depression, agricultural product prices continued to drop. When Roosevelt became president, one of the first issues he addressed was the “farm problem.” He would go and visit these poor farmers and promise some type of change. Roosevelt created the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which brought immediate change and provided crop reduction. This Act paid farmers not to plant, in exchange for cash payments. (Farias, 2012) Congress passed its second Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1938, along with another agriculture act. This legislation resulted in the USDA building four new research labs across the United States to create and improve products for the farmers. Some of the supports that the USDA contributed were the Food Stamps program, and School Lunch programs that used the excess surplus to feed low-income families. (Ganzel,

In 1954 TV dinners were introduced, which became an instant phenomenon that is still prevalent to this day. One year later, McDonalds open their doors officially creating the new “fast food” trend. The concept of fast food became a huge success and in its wake created an extremely successful frozen food industry. Thanks to the frozen food industry, meals became easy and convenient. However, improvements were now needed in terms of refrigeration, transportation and food processing. USDA scientists continued developing new products like washable woolens, cotton fabrics, and DEET, a very strong insect repellant. (Farias, 2012) The American Agriculture Revolution reached its peak in the late 1950s, when the Food for Peace program that used surplus food to be given to struggling countries throughout the world was created. Throughout 1956-1959 large agricultural legislation advances were made, like Legislation for Great Plains Conservation program, Poultry Inspection Act, Humane Slaughter Act, and the mechanical Tomato Harvester to name a