We'll start at the time period right after the Civil War. The war resulted in the rebuilding of private small farms where yeomen farmers would grow crops and raise livestock for themselves and their family's as well as for the local marketplace. In 1869 we see meat begin to be regulated in Louisiana after years of unsanitary distribution of butchered livestock. The sloppiness of these butchers actually resulted in outbreaks of cholera, an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, that was spread through contaminated drinking water. The water literally carried traces of offal (animal entrails), animal feces and urine, and blood.
As a result, the people were not happy. They took to the Slaughterhouse Act of 1869 which aimed to end the sale of rotten meat and turn the meat business into a clean, efficient, large-scale industry. They did this by transporting livestock to one large, central state-supervised meatpacking plant. There, the animals were inspected to ensure that they were free of disease and passed on to licensed butchers that would then slaughter, dress, and package the meat where it would proceed to be inspected a second time. The slaughterhouse would also be frequently inspected for cleanliness by physicians. The new location prevented any waste products from interfering with drinking water, however, the runoff into the ocean would eventually result in the depletion of some marine life. 😕
Throughout the industrial revolution, the mass production of meat was actually the first large-scale industry. The railroads made it convenient to transport livestock and packaged meat to slaughterhouses across the country. By the 1870's, the meatpacking industry in Chicago was booming! With the transporting of meats, local butchers and slaughterhouses were being run out of business. People stopped buying locally produced foods. According to our textbook, by 1900, manufactured food accounted for one-third of all commodities produced in the United States.
Let's fast forward a few years. During the Progressive Era, mass urbanization transformed the country. Millions flooded the cities in search of employment, new experiences, and the ready abundance of consumer goods. Farm life was replaced by city life as cities began to grow. With the meatpacking industry at an all-time high and the jobs involved with meatpacking being set up as an assembly line, the workers were cheap and disposable. Usually, the workers in the slaughterhouses consisted of recent immigrants and migrants who were overworked, underpaid, and exposed to dangerous and unhealthy conditions. These conditions often went unnoticed until Upton Sinclair released his novel, The Jungle. Below is a video that explains the severity of the poor working conditions and how the release of the book aided in resolving a few key issues.
Roosevelt actually responded to Sinclair's novel by ordering an investigation on the slaughterhouses! Even though he didn't agree with the socialistic message being preached, he did agree that "radical action must be taken to do away with the efforts of arrogant and selfish greed on the part of the capitalist." Shortly after, the Pure Food and Drug Act, as well as the Meat Inspection Act were passed in an attempt to ensure better regulations as far as meatpacking went and better treatment towards workers.
This is important today because of the impact that these laws have had on the industry as a whole. I'm thankful every day that I was born in a time period where I could enjoy an In N Out burger without worrying about where the meat comes from. 😉 (even though after that short clip from Food Inc we watched, I'm not too sure about anything)
Side note: If the fifteen minutes of Food Inc we had watched wasn't enough to freak you out about eating Tyson, their Wikipedia page alone is full of controversies towards the end that really bring home the bacon... it's also shocking to see how much of the industry is controlled by Tyson.
Today the meatpacking industry isn't as valuable an industry, however, it is still significant. In a way, these recent documentaries on the industry that attempt to expose the dominating companies and their unethical practices resemble Sinclair's The Jungle. I just got finished watching Cowspiracy which is another documentary that focused on the massive impact of animal agriculture on the environment that even took a few jabs at major environmental protection agencies for not opening up about the subject (totally recommend watching it if you haven't already). It'll be interesting to see the way we handle all of this new information. I look forward to seeing what will change over the next few years especially now that becoming vegetarian or even a vegan doesn't sound so bad. 😜
Sources Used:
Becoming America Volume II: From Reconstruction by David Henkin and Rebecca McLennan
Sinclair, Upton (1878-1968)
