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Meat For Consumption In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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From the time man invented fire, animal meat has been a main part of the human diet. Meat, a product we get from other animals, is a primary source of our daily diet. Over time, we progressed from hunting with our bare hands to using tools, and then to guns, yet in the last century, machines were created to mass produce and process consumable livestock. We don’t even touch the meat ourselves until we are preparing it as a meal. The most common livestock we eat includes poultry, cattle and pigs, according to an article in Business Insider (2014). Throughout history, there appears to be a correlation between population growth and technological advances as it relates to the acquisition of the meat for consumption. Currently, convenience and ease …show more content…

and proper care of the facilities. The FDA stemmed from the US Department of Agriculture’s creation of the Bureau of Chemistry that was tasked with devising procedural regulations for corporations. Although the world turned a blind eye to horrible stockyard conditions, writer Upton Sinclair enlightened his generation on the conditions and his opinions of them. In his book, The Jungle, he details how workers did not care if the meat was tainted by having a rat fall into the meat bins, the disgusting conditions, or mud, blood and sewage just lying on the floors (Sinclair, 1906). As a result of the disgusting conditions of the stockyards in Chicago the city council decided to redirect the flow of the Chicago river due to not wanting the polluted water from these yards to reach the Lake Michigan. As Sinclair’s words filled the air and became a topic of discussion the FDA took action and placed regulations in 1906 the Bureau passed the Federal Food and Drugs

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