See also Food and Cuisines ; Jungle, The ; Meatpacking . Explore how Upton Sinclair exposed abuses and poor working conditions in the industry. 1 (Spring, 2008), pp. In a 1999 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, meatpacking was determined to be the most dangerous occupation in America. The Industrial Revolution fundamentally changed meat processing. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. Strapped for cash, Lambeaua worker at a meatpacking plantasked his employer, the Indian Packing Company, for funds to pay for equipment and uniforms. As early as 1880, American ranchers were exporting their beef to England, which had long been considered the home of the finest beef in the world; now, that title was now squarely in the hands of the American rancher. Why did David Clark lead a successful campaign to keep kids working in the early 20th century? . He advertised heavily and offered a good price to ranchers who would deliver their cattle to his railyard in Abileneand he delivered on his promise, entering the phrase the real McCoy into the American lexicon. By the turn of the 20th century, meatpacking was Americas biggest industry by far. Hair, Dirt, Dust, OH MY If you cant understand them, make them work harder! History of America's meat-processing industry, 1742: Boston emerges as Americas meatpacking hub, Universal History Archive // Getty Images, 1884: Arthur forms the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), 1890: Harrison signs first meat inspection law, Minnesota Historical Society // Getty Images, 1898: National Live Stock Growers Association, 1906: Upton Sinclair publishes 'The Jungle', 1920s: The mass production of chickens begins, Wisconsin Historical Society // Getty Images, H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images, 25 Black businesspeople who helped shape America, States with the cheapest in-state public colleges, 20 businesses that can be run by one person, States cutting back most on college funding, 100 best films of the 21st century, according to critics. With World War I in the history books, President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 ordered the FTC to conduct a thorough investigation of the meatpacking industry. Stacker believes in making the worlds data more accessible through Small- and medium-sized family farms tasked with feeding a few thousand colonists transformed over the centuries into a juggernaut of billion-dollar corporations that wring profits out of factory farms that farmers a few generations ago wouldnt even recognize as being farms at all. Some infected workers just continued handling and contaminating the meat despite their hands essentially being pickled, and, as long as they could stand it. Workers had few, if any, or no guidelines regarding the quality control of their products. Chicago 1900 became the central home of the American industry and small companies began merging with one another. The working conditions in the meat packing industry during the early 1900's was primal and barbaric. ." That year, the Spanish governor of Louisiana asked neighboring Texas to send cattle to feed his troops fighting on the front. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. So, while the meatpacking industry has seen some progress since 1900, significant issues remain. Recent science would suggest that there was a lot more going on than just cholera and pneumonia. These concerns were in addition to the health problems posed by the packaging of substandard or condemned meat products. Omissions? idk the answer. According to historian Eric Schlosser, the meatpacking industry has a well-documented history of discouraging injury reports, falsifying injury data, and putting injured workers back on the job quickly to minimize the reporting of lost workdays. Beginning in the 1880s, American chemist Harvey W. Wiley, chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of the USDA, issued reports noting the health hazards posed by the adulteration of processed foods such as canned meat and by chemicals used as preservatives and colouring agents. The answer, of course, was that the industry needed regulation. The conditions of the meatpacking industry gained the attention of socialist journalist Upton Sinclair. In early 1900, specifically, 1906, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was written. She also has a certificate in teaching online from UMGC and non-profit marketing and fundraising from UC Davis. Create your account. By 1800, Smithonce considered a friend of the poor and an enemy of the privileges of the richwas already being refashioned into a icon of conservatism. In 1887, meatpacking was the second largest business in Cincinnati, behind only iron production. Meatpacking workers carrying their product to unrefrigerated and most likely rat infested storage areas. Roosevelt, who served in Cuba as a colonel, testified in 1899 that he would have eaten his old hat as soon as eat what he called embalmed beef.. By the turn of the last century there were only five or six mammoth meatpacking companies, and they controlled the majority of meatpacking in America. For example, workers are pressured not to report injuries so as not to slow down processing. Not only did the people in the factories suffered, the people outside of the factory also suffered. After you look at these images of meat-packing facilities from early last century, you'll understand why social reformer Upton Sinclair wrote his great 1906 novel The Jungle about workers'. 8 chapters | The meatpacking industry skyrocketed alongside the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution influenced nearly every part of the economy, including agriculture and the food industry. It was convenient, and the great majority of the workers lived in this dismal, loud, and overcrowded area. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. By the time Calamuci was writing, meatpacking work had once again become far lower paid than manufacturing jobs, as it still is twelve years later. Those who lived returned to a land overrun by cattleleft to their own devices, cattle herds multiplied exponentially and by the wars end in 1865, roughly 5 million longhorn cattle were roaming wild in Texas. You may also like: Quiz: Do you know these 50 famous companies by their logos? Kolko argued that the federal legislation that the big meatpackers were pushing for was easily affordable to them, but the cost would put the little companies out of business. Where was the Meat Inspection Act passed? Poultry is generally not included. It was also an extension of the control the meat packers had over their workers. In Chicago 1900 the Chicago meatpacking industry, along with other industries, began to expand and grow. It called for animals to be quickly and effectively stunned through mechanical, chemical, or electrical means before they were killed. The rise of fast-food culture would forever change the way animals were raised, killed, and processed, giving rise to the modern factory farm. The corporate titans whose fortunes their labor creates are now and have always been among the wealthiest and most politically influential powerbrokers in the country. In the three decades between 1980 and 2010, the number of hog farms dropped from 660,000 to 71,000 for an incredible decline of 89%cattle ranches decreased by 40%. A federal agency called the Bureau of Chemistry was charged with enforcing the sweeping reforms that came with the landmark 1906 Federal Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act. In your opinion, which details in this excerpt most convincingly highlight problems in the meatpacking industry in the early 1900s? Working at meatpacking houses was dangerous because of accidents, as well as potential worker diseases. Your email address will not be published. This drove the government to pass the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, which forced meatpackers to increase sanitation, and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which applied higher standards to the food and drug industry. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. It doesnt take a big stretch of the imagination to realize that these workers would suffer, and did, a much higher rate of cardiovascular, respiratory, and many other illnesses. These immigrants founded Packingtown, a neighborhood in Chicago. Although most of the infections described were ghastly, they generally did not lead to death. I feel like its a lifeline. Where craft unions like Amalgamated gained power partly by limiting who could get a joboften along racial linesthe UPWA tried to reduce the companys ability to divide workers by race. Workplace accidents, like John Panzezyks, were all too common. A combination of both pleurisy and pneumonia, the nasty respiratory infection only caused vomiting, diarrhea, sometimes bloody diarrhea, chills, sweats, and intense pain in the abdomen. As the scale and size of their facilities increased, so did the dangers. The Senate then formed the Pure-Food Investigating Committee, which held hearings in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City from 1899 to 1900. His boss agreed and gave the pair $500 on the condition that the team would be named for the sponsorthe result was the Green Bay Packers, one of the oldest, most storied, and most successful NFL franchises in football history. Meat Inspection Act of 1906, U.S. legislation, signed by Pres. For one thing, child labor benefited his interests. By the early 1960s, 95 percent of meatpacking workers outside the South were unionized, and wages were comparable to those in auto and steel production. Meatpacking is physical, hands-on work conducted indoors in close quarters, conditions that put meat processing workerswho are mostly immigrants and African-Americansat risk more than virtually any population other than nursing home residents and prisoners. In response to the public outcry in the wake of The Jungle, President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned Charles P. Neill and James Bronson Reynolds to investigate the claims made by Sinclair, which Roosevelt suspected the author might have embellished to advance his socialist agenda. By the early 1960s, 95 percent of meatpacking workers outside the South were unionized, and wages were comparable to those in auto and steel production. It might seem like this workoften done largely by immigrant, black, and Latinx workers with few job opportunitiesis simply doomed to be bad. 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