The Meat Inspection Regime

House of Representatives.” (History, Art and Archives) This federal law provided federal inspection of meat products and stopped the manufacture, sale, or transportation poisonous patent medicines. “Muckraking journalists had long reported on the appallingly unsanitary conditions of the country’s manufacturing plants, especially those in Chicago’s meat-packing industry.”( History, Art and Archives).

Do you really know what is in your meat? What about what happens to the meat after it is slaughtered? Fortunately, the conditions have gotten much better throughout the years. But many years ago, in the early 1900s meat consumers bought spoiled and rat infested hams that were produced by the meat industries. Nowadays, the meat industry has improved to a certain extent. Today, about 80% of all U.S. feedlots are injected with hormones (Lerner). Americans should know what they are eating. This is important in the meat industry because they are the producers of all the meat that we eat. The meat industry has improved and is much better than the 1900s, but still not at as ideal as everyone thinks it really is.

It is hard to imagine that there was once a time when meat and meat-like products were butchered and processed in unsanitary conditions, but there was such a time and it was so bad that Congress had to pass the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 to stop these unsanitary conditions. In this paper I will argue why the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was such a good idea.

The government did this through the Pure Food and Drug Act was one reform which helped public health by stopping the manufacturing of spoiled or misbranded items. Another successful reform which expanded consumer protection was the Meat Inspection Act passed in 1906. This act increased public health greatly and was passed due to Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle. The book brought forth the hidden secrets of how meat was processed and kept. Neill Reynolds Report shows how really bad the meat processing business was. The meat was usually rotten and was just placed on the dirty floor, where it was barely washed. (Document 2) His report tried to get the attention of the public and the government. It showed the horrors of how the meat packing industry was. The Meat Inspection Act was successful because it forced the meat packing industry to change its ways to meet the health conditions of the

The problems in the meatpacking industry is that it was very unsanitary. They were packing filthy meat for human consumption. Workers that fell into the rendering tanks were being grounded ninto "Durhams Pure Beef Lard". Jurgis finds that the unions are trying to lobby to get the factory to slow down the rate of production. He also had to have explained to him that the men were banned together for the purpose of fighting for their rights. The results from the brutality and the unsanitary conditions led to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food Drug Act of 1906. It established the Bureau of Chemistry that would the Food and Drug Administration in 1930. Muckraking journalist had reported the unsanitary and the public outcry lead to the

Laborers were forced to work in filthy facilities that had no lighting or place to wash their hands and materials. The dangers of the consumption of food and the unsafe and disease-ridden procedures the meatpacking and food agencies were performing needed to be addressed to the public. Likewise, muckrakers and journalists were people who reinforced public awareness on the food scam and heightened the ideals they were accompanying to. Finally, after the ongoing scandal, the public’s outcry sought Congress’s attention and the Pure Food and Drug Act along with the Meat Inspection Act were considered to prevent the sale, manufacture, and transportation of misbranded goods that were harmful to the human health and welfare. After months of debate between the Senate and the House, the act was signed by Roosevelt to protect the public and ensure that natural food was being processed to purchasers. In consequence to the new act passed, meat and food industries were required to provide hygienic and practicable conditions for their employees, regulate the standards of the products, and inspect the processing plants and food before

Meatpacking pertains to the raising, slaughtering, packaging and processing of livestock such as pigs, cows, and chickens. Prior to slaughter, animals are grown and fed. Food borne illness and pathogens still plague the meatpacking industry since the creation of meatpacking. The government plays a huge role in providing legislation and ensuring the safety of meat products and business. Although the government is meant to inspect and guarantee safety, many unlawful practices appear overlooked pertaining to the safety of meat for consumers. Meatpacking commenced thousands of years ago, and the safety of the meatpacking industry has been evaluated greatly since the industrial revolution in America. The history of the meatpacking

The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was an attempt to regulate the meatpacking industry and to assure consumers that the meat they were eating was safe. In brief, this act made compulsory the careful inspection of meat before its consummation, established sanitary standards for slaughterhouses and processing plants, and required continuous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection of meat processing and packaging. Yet, the most important objectives set by the law are the prevention of adulterated or misbranded livestock and products from being commercialized and sold as food, and the making sure that meat and all its products are processed and prepared in the adequate sanitary and hygienic conditions (Reeves 35). Imported meat and its various

When fast food companies grew larger, they looked for faster and cheaper ways to obtain the food they would sell. They began to buy less of local farmers supplies, as they would ask for prices too high for them. Instead, they relied on companies who used pesticides on their crops, and hormones on their animals. These businesses produced more resources faster than the all natural local farmers. In their pursuit to be fast and efficient, some meat processing plants go too fast, and they accidentally do things like leave fecal matter in the digestive organs, which can contaminate the meat. To prevent and improve the status of the processed food that leaves meat processing facilities, Schlosser said, ¨Congress could create a single food safety agency that has sufficient authority to protect the public health¨, and I agree with this statement. When America has two government agencies who observe very similar fields, merging the two is a wonderful idea. Not only would it decrease inconsistency of data interpretation, but with better communication, this single agency could focus more on bettering the health of the food going to Americans and

Officials recognized the problems, and after several years of work, they instituted two acts; the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the Meat Inspection Act. The purpose of this essay is to explore one question; To what extent were the short and long term effects of the Pure Food and Drug Act beneficial or detrimental to society? To fully answer this question, the act itself is not all that needs to be looked at. The plethora of legislation, stretching nearly a century after the original act, but especially in the 40 years after the original, must be examined. The Act does not give the full picture, for its progeny must also be appraised.

The meat industry today is not what it was nearly a century ago. While improvements are thought to have been made, an ever changing society has brought upon new problems that have been piled on to the previously existing ones. While these problems are not like those found in The Jungle, they do parallel how by exposing what is going on in the meat industry; new regulations would be the answer to the noted problems. The increased demand for meat has made it a rushed mutated production instead of a means to raise livestock for consumers. Taking into consideration the demand for cheap meat that will be used for in quick and high demanded products such as frozen and fast food, this demand of meat has greatly skyrocketed. Animals whose sole

Our initial purpose of researching this topic has been inspired by the growing concern for the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease and it's various forms. We believe that it is imperative that we take our research and implement it to others along with facts in order to generate concern for other countries regulations, United States regulations, health concerns and economical awareness.

People today believe that the government is supposed to eliminate any possible danger from the food they consume, but that is not the case. In the book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of The All-American Meal written by Eric Schlosser, he discusses numerous problems with food production. Some of these issues are discussed in the “Epilogue”, “What’s In Meat”, and “Most Dangerous Job” chapters where Schlosser elaborates on the government’s role and how workers are mistreated. In the article, “U.S. Meatpacking Under Fire: Human Rights Group Calls for Line Speed Reduction, ERGO Standards,” it explains how the working conditions in the meat packaging industry are hazardous and are violations of basic human rights. Although workers are affected by the government’s role in the food industry, consumers are affected as well. The consequences of the lack of governmental oversight, like food contamination and others, are discussed in the film Food Inc. “Escaping the Regulatory Net: Why Regulatory Reform Can Fail Consumers”, an academic journal written by Henry Rothstein, explains how “putting consumers first” is difficult for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to accomplish because with consumer’s interests that means regulatory reforms are most likely going to fail.

Corn is the number one grain used to feed animals for slaughter. Feeding cows corn instead of their natural diet lead to the unintentional creation of 157H7 E. coli, a deadly bacteria that can kill. The film reveals how food standards have dropped, with only 9,164 safety inspections from the FDA each year as compared to over 50,000 in 1972. The food industry has become consolidated to the point of a few companies having a great deal of power and influence via the government. The USDA is no longer able to shutdown plants with contaminated meat. A bill titled “Kevin’s Law” had the intent of changing that, but, after 6 years, the bill still has not been passed. Food companies have made some attempts to reduce E. coli by cleaning their meats in an ammonia solution. However, unhealthy food is being subsidized and contributing to American obesity and the rise of type 2 diabetes in adolescents.

The new FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 (FSMA) was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it rather than relying primarily on reacting to problems after they occur. Everyone play a role in ensuring safe food from field to fork. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is the major inspection and reorganize of United State food safety practice since 1938. This is a big change to US food system, since the new regulations are not just for farms, but facilities that process food for people to eat. These new regulations are important for the food and Drug Administration to get these regulations right, thus that they improve food safety.