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Meat Packing Industry By Jill Kaufman Summary

485 Words2 Pages

In Jill Kaufman’s article “Meat Packing Industry,” Kaufman analyses the meat packing crisis and controversy that occurred during the Roosevelt administration in the early 1900’s. In 1906 Author Upton Sinclair released a novel title The Jungle, which sought to critic exploited meat packing workers of that time. While his novel did stir up some commotion, his ultimate goal remained unmet. Americans were appalled at the ways he described the unsanitary methods and procedures of the meat packing industry. This resulted in stricter policies and inspections being put in place; however, whether or not the industry was truly unhygienic and unsanitary remained disputed. One side of the controversy is the agreement that the meat industry was indeed unsanitary and a risk to an individual’s health. While Sinclair’s novel only gave a glimpse of the issue, it brought the problem to light with many critics speaking and commenting on the unethical methods used in slaughter houses. Kauffman explains how the issues may be “because… inspections program [were] underfunded, there [most likely was] not …show more content…

Some workers came out publicly and spoke addressing that the meat packing houses were sanitary and there need be no fear that the industry was corrupt. Kauffman explains one argument many used to validate their stand was that “there was already a system in place... If conditions were as bad as Sinclair claimed… Chicago packing houses would have reported them.” Kauffman also comments on how account may vary based on the workers that were observed, explaining “any unsanitary conditions… were isolated cases… even though packers might maintain the highest sanitary standards, employers could not control the actions of every single worker.” Being that there was already a system in place, many disputed the legitimacy of Sinclair’s accounts, therefore standing and defending the meat packing

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