Unsafe Food and Medicine
The Problem
Before the Progressive Movement, food and medicine were not always safe. For example, there were no rules about medicine. Medicines did not have to list their ingredients, so nobody knew what was in them or if they would work. Companies made medicine that included addictive things like morphine or alcohol. People would take these medicines and it would not help them get better. The medicine was actually dangerous.
Food was not always safe either. Like medicine, food did not have to have the ingredients on the label. People did know what they were eating. Food could contain harmful, unnatural things like chemicals and preservatives. Meatpacking plants, where cows and pigs were slaughtered for meat, were terribly dirty places. Rotten, spoiled meat would get put into cans and sent out to the public. There were no expiration dates or inspections. People would get sick, and some even died, from eating the unsafe food. |
|
Left: An example of the dangerous medicine before the Progressive Movement. Heroin is an addictive, harmful drug that was sold as medicine.
Right: An unsanitary, dirty meatpacking plant where rotten, spoiled meat was sent out to the public.
Right: An unsanitary, dirty meatpacking plant where rotten, spoiled meat was sent out to the public.
People, Groups, Movement
Upton Sinclair wrote a book named The Jungle in 1906. The book was about the cruelties of the stockyards and the meat packing industry. Because of that book, laws were passed to make meat products cleaner and to protect consumers and workers alike. Millions of readers learned from these people just how bad things were in the meatpacking plants.
Theodore Roosevelt was the president who read Sinclair’s book. Soon after, he made a law to check the meat before it was sold so that none of the people will get sick. After that, food was checked to make sure that it was safe to eat and there was nothing that can poison the people who ate the food.
This is a picture of a packing meat. They are splitting the backbones. The place is not clean. They just hang pigs in there. They just leave the pigs hanging.
Reform
The reforms!
When Ida Tarbell, Sam, and the other Muckrakers helped on the problems like passing the food inspection law, and did the Drug Act, things became better.
Since the Progressive Era there have been many laws introduced, such as the food inspection law and the Drug Act. The food inspection law says that before meat or animals go on sale, they have to be inspected, so people that buy it know it’s clean. If the meat is dirty like how it was before these laws, the company that sells the meat can get sued because of the health risks.
Another issue before these laws was that fruit was colored with poisonous red dye and liquor that had been distilled with chemical fillers. James Mann made a strong expression on members when he spoke about how dangerous the fruit could be.
The Drug Act was introduced by Weldon Heyburn as one of the many reforms during the Progressive Era. The Drug Act was about the sale and transportation of the poisonous medicines that was sold by a lot of people. Before reform, these kinds of medicines was okay to purchase until the Drug Act was introduced, Now, before people get medicines, they need a prescription from a doctor to make sure the medicine is not dangerous for them
When Ida Tarbell, Sam, and the other Muckrakers helped on the problems like passing the food inspection law, and did the Drug Act, things became better.
Since the Progressive Era there have been many laws introduced, such as the food inspection law and the Drug Act. The food inspection law says that before meat or animals go on sale, they have to be inspected, so people that buy it know it’s clean. If the meat is dirty like how it was before these laws, the company that sells the meat can get sued because of the health risks.
Another issue before these laws was that fruit was colored with poisonous red dye and liquor that had been distilled with chemical fillers. James Mann made a strong expression on members when he spoke about how dangerous the fruit could be.
The Drug Act was introduced by Weldon Heyburn as one of the many reforms during the Progressive Era. The Drug Act was about the sale and transportation of the poisonous medicines that was sold by a lot of people. Before reform, these kinds of medicines was okay to purchase until the Drug Act was introduced, Now, before people get medicines, they need a prescription from a doctor to make sure the medicine is not dangerous for them
Left picture is the poisonous red dye that they used to colored the fruit. The middle picture is the patent and illegal medicines. The last picture is the dirty meat or animals