Summary Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle in 1906 to encourage reform of the treatment of immigrants in Chicago. Due to its graphic descriptions of the meat packing plants, the novel brought reform in the food industry instead. The Pure Food and Drug Act required industries to label their food and to cease using chemicals and poisonous substances in their products. However, since the nineteenth century, the food industries have become worse with national monopolies and meat contaminated with e-coli, though they are still more sanitary because they must label their products. Since the nineteenth century, the food industry has worsened due to the presence of national monopolies with ties to the government. In The Jungle, Jurgis loses his job at Durhams, and other employers refuse to hire him because of Durhams local monopoly. Later in the novel, Jurgis learns that the police and the mayor formed agreements with large corporations their executives’ transgressions were forgiven. In the twentieth century, according to Food Inc., national monopolies replaced the local monopolies, so that only five companies control 90% of the meat packing plants. Now, too,

Sinclair’s novel depicts several deaths, including that of Kristoforas, possibly the result of “tubular pork that was condemned as unfit for export” (The Jungle). The contaminated food came from the meat of the downers, or lame and sickly animals, and the unsanitary conditions in the packing plants. Food Inc. revealed that the industries today still use meat from downers. Yet, the source of more deaths today results from e-coli poisoning coming from cattle who are corn. Though e-coli contamination could be prevented by feeding cows grass, industries refrain to do so in order to save money. The food industry grew more dangerous in the twentieth century because of the sale of e-coli contaminated