Food Reform By: Ellie Milligan

The food companies were causing people to get starved and diseased and the conservationists weren't helping to stop the meat packing industry, start to sanitize foods and Upton Sinclair led the reform movement to protect the United States food as shown in the changes made in food laws, conservation and production.

In 1906, Upton Sinclair went undercover to identify what went on in these meat factories that were causing people to get diseases and how these sicknesses got into the meat in the process and packaging of these meats.

  • “Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water-- and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat.” (Sinclair, 99)
  • “The original Food and Drugs Act is passed by Congress on June 30 and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. It prohibits interstate commerce in mis-branded and adulterated foods, drinks and drugs.” (U.S. Food and Drug)
  • "The health horrors described in The Jungle cut the sale of meat products almost in half. The push for regulation thus came not only from the public, but also from some meat-packing companies that believed food quality regulation was necessary to restore public confidence in processed meat products." (Meat Inspection Laws, Gale)

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Created with images by Monrovia Public Library - Monrovia, California - "The Jungle by Upton Sinclair"

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