The Jungle: Exposures of Meat-Packing Lies

Individual Website

Scott Moua - House M

When The Jungle was published, it not only exposed the unsanitary meat processing practices, but also led the government to take responsibility to ensure that everything we consume is safe by creating the Pure Food and Drug Act; this improved the food production environment and recognized the rights of employees to have safe working conditions which ensures us that everything we consume is safe. After watching the documentary, Food Inc., I realized that our nations food industry often put profit ahead of our health along with the safety of many workers. This me think that in America today we are still struggling to enforce the responsibility of making sure that food on our plates is safe for consumption. When NHD came around, I knew that The Jungle would be the perfect topic for me. Once I selected The Jungle as my project, I went to the school, local, and University of Wisconsin-La Crosse libraries. I gathered books, newspapers, videos, and magazines. On the Internet, I found additional primary and secondary sources that led to further research. The most helpful resource was the federal report, written by President Theodore Roosevelt. It gave me a personal view of the conditions in the Chicago stockyards and its impact that pressured the Congress in urgent needs of immediate actions of providing a thorough examination to all U.S. meat-packing industry. During my research, I couldnt help focusing on the intriguing effects of The Jungle. This was something that my audience needed to see. For this reason, I chose to present my NHD project in the form of a website. I selected a series of video clips and photographs that would point out the traumatizing, behind the scenes of The Jungle. The highlight of these materials served as visuals, primary source documents, and quotes.

The Jungle was published at the turn of the Twentieth century when the United States was approaching the era of progressivism. The repugnant images and reporter-like descriptions in The Jungle made it the ideal tipping point for the creation of new regulations by provoking public outrage that reached Washington. Eventually, our nation needed to weigh the rights of corporate powers that manipulate its consumers against the rights of promoting public health. As the incredible public outcry over The Jungle quickly became effective, President Theodore Roosevelt made the decision of passing the Pure Food and Drug Act, later established as the Food and Drug Administration. The decision-making to create the FDA also caused Americans to re-evaluate our responsibilities for protecting and promoting public health through guidelines and supervisions of food safety and medication usage. By creating the FDA, our nation created new policies to prevent misbranded meat and meat products from being sold as food and ensure that they are slaughtered under sanitary conditions. The responsibilities taken on the FDA continue to certify that the U.S. meat industry will remain to process and slaughtered animals under the certification system for American meat and will guarantee the safe manufacturing of food and medicines nationwide.