meat packing industry problems in the early 1900s
She has a PhD in Media, Art and Text from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BA in film production from Marlboro College. And, if you had the misfortune of dining on cholera infected meat, (massive infection of the intestines), your chances of survival were slim. Calamuci writes that as early as the 1960s, the industry began moving to more rural areasa shift made possible by transporting meat in refrigerated trucks instead of trains. Arguably, the job with the highest risk of death belonged to the men working in the massive carcass coolers. (February 22, 2023). It would take at least two months or more to heal; and, that was if they were allowed to work in another department so the infection could heal. The era of the cattle barons emerged as massive ranches sprung up in the West, where enormous herds could be grazed on endless open prairies before being ushered to market by cowboys on epic cross-country cattle drives. Food was produced in plants that were ridden with diseases and vermin, while workers were exposed to unsafe labor conditions and horrible treatment. "Men who used knives on the sped-up assembly lines frequently lost fingers. As the scale and size of their facilities increased, so did the dangers. Most common jobs in America 100 years ago, Americas first shipment of cattle by railroad, The most liberal public colleges in America, Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, 12 original companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (and what happened to them), poultry became the first factory-farmed animal, Where America sends its planes and 25 other manufacturing exports, The beef industry struggled during World War II, The most conservative public colleges in America, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Farm Animal and Field Crop and Research Facilities Protection Act, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/?ref=chooser-v1. This district, owned by several railroad companies, soon became the meatpacking center of Chicago. Originally founded as an agrarian society, the early U.S. was made up largely of small- and medium-sized farms where animals roamed freelythat all changed when farmers and ranchers began fencing in their animals with barbed wire in the late 19th century. 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. Working conditions in the new urban industrial zones were wretched, and a progressive reform movement soon grew out of the need to address the health and welfare of the American worker. In doing so, youre agreeing to the below guidelines. After making surprise inspections to major plants across the country, the Neill-Reynolds report confirmed Sinclairs assessment of the horrors of the American meat industry. The answer, of course, was that the industry needed regulation. restrictions, which you can review below. Muckraking articles and novels helped to call the publics attention to the industrys horrific practices; Upton Sinclairs novel The Jungle (1906) was particularly pivotal. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. SOURCE: Sinclair, Upton. Meat wasn't properly refrigerated, inspected or tested, and consumers often got sick or died as a result of the bacteria-infested food. Required fields are marked *. Jurgis finds that the unions are trying to lobby to get the factory to slow down the rate of production. as well as image rights, data visualizations, forward planning tools, The meatpacking industry during the early 1900's was unsanitary, unregulated and incredibly dangerous work. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. This technological change brought railroads, factories, and new machines. These so-called dis-assembly lines allowed for fast, consistent, and efficient processing. Significantly, Calamuci writes, the unions interracial organizing meant the largely black workforce in slaughterhouses kill room were union members. In 2010, the USDA and U.S. Justice Department heard testimony about a massive and widespread consolidation in the meat industrydetractors called it a conspiratorial monopolizationthat witnessed countless small farms and ranches gobbled up by just a few industry giants. One of the most prolific and important writers in American history, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906. 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. Stemming directly from the environment, workers had no choice but to endure these conditions. The University of Minnesota unveiled the first meat laboratory around 1900, and in the first two decades of the 20th century, dozens of major colleges and universities across the country began adding courses dealing with livestock and meat. At the centre of public outrage was the Beef Trusta collaborative group made up of the five largest meatpacking companiesand its base of packinghouses in Chicagos Packingtown area. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). . Congress was pressured to pass the act, which Roosevelt then signed into law. Sometimes as many as seven familes used one outdoor bathroom. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste-barrels. Where was the Meat Inspection Act passed? In addition to being handled by unclean workers in an unsanitary environment, large volumes of meat were not always refrigerated. It dramatically shortened the time it took to bring meat to market; old-school cattle drives took months to complete and often resulted in huge losses of herds. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. See also Food and Cuisines ; Jungle, The ; Meatpacking . The working conditions in the meat packing industry during the early 1900's was primal and barbaric. Sinclair wrote The Jungle to inform the world about how not only the meat packing industry was flawed, but also how the working conditions of that time were flawed. You may also like: Best value big colleges in America. 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. It might seem like this workoften done largely by immigrant, black, and Latinx workers with few job opportunitiesis simply doomed to be bad. He sent Neill and Reynolds to investigate the Beef Trusts meatpacking practices. In 1779, the Spanisheager to drive their British rivals out of the New Worldjoined the American Revolution. The law also applied to imported products, which were treated under similarly rigorous foreign inspection standards. Also like The Jungle, the article sparked widespread outrage, raised mainstream awareness of animal cruelty at factory farms, and sparked boycotts of fast-food companies driving much of the demand. In 1865, the Chicago stockyards became the U.S. biggest livestock market, and Cincinnati Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City, Kansas emerged as major meatpacking hubs. The meat had been packed in tins along with a visible layer of boric acid, which was thought to act as a preservative and was used to mask the stench of the rotten meat. Also contributing significantly to the broad public response was the larger movement made by muckraking journalists and Progressive activists who called for reform in government regulation of industry. Today, the Oscar Mayer company does more than $5 billion in annual sales and represents one of the most famous names in American meat. President Benjamin Harrison signed a bill that mandated a final inspection of all meat products before they left for markets on foreign shores. The Commanding General of New Spain authorized the transfer of 2,000 head of cattle from Texas to the Louisiana territoryit was the first official Texas cattle drive in history. 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. Largest of all was the meat-packing industry in Chicago. Elisha Mills in 1818 started the first large-scale pork-packing plant in Cincinnati, where pigs were slaughtered and their meat was preserved in brine-filled barrels to meet the growing demand for salted pork. Upton Sinclair recognized the issues surrounding these conditions. Sometimes, children worked as long as their parents, usually 10 to 15 hours a day. There also was growing support within the industry for regulation in response to heightened public awareness. The Meat Inspection Act was passed in the United States in 1906. Americas many >stockyards were known to be filthy, and a breeding ground for diseased meat. 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. Omissions? Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. Today, unsafe conditions continue in the meatpacking industry. Today, the USDA recognizes eight grades of meat, with the three most common and highest quality being U.S. Prime, U.S. Today many big agriculture states enforce strict ag-gag laws, many of which come with severe penalties and are even considered eco-terrorism under the law. Force was also an option: the police often came to the aid of the industrialists. This new industry centralized in the Midwestern states of Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, and Indiana. The Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (an organization Wiley founded in 1884) began lobbying for federal legislation governing the packing and purity of food products. But, as union researcher Daniel Calamuci wrote in 2008, it wasnt always like this. Dictionary of American History. A century, and more, has passed since these dark days of the meatpacking industry. One passage read, In a word, we saw meat shoveled from filthy wooden floors, piled on tables rarely washed, pushed from room to room in rotten box carts, in all of which processes it was in the way of gathering dirt, splinters, floor filth, and the expectoration of tuberculosis, and other diseased workers., You may also like: 12 original companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (and what happened to them). English colonist and fur trader William Pynchon was the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts. Packingtown was notorious for their awful living conditions and working conditions. 70 lessons. New York: Doubleday, 1906. By the 1870s, meatpacking plants were using technology like steam power, monorail trolleys, and mechanical mixers, choppers, and stuffers in factory settings where stationary workers doing individual jobs broke down and processed animal carcasses that continuously passed by them. In the days before health inspections, notwithstanding any regulations related to the quality control of both animals and the processing of meat, a number of different bacterias infected the meat. Create an account to start this course today. Between the 1960s and 1980s, the wages of meat-slaughter and -processing workers remained significantly higher than the average in nondurable manufacturing. Cowboys became hired gunmen as bloody Range Wars raged between cattlemen and the new arrivalsthe meatpacking industry was about to be transformed forever. You may also like: The top 50 party schools in America. Encyclopedia.com. Workers had few, if any, or no guidelines regarding the quality control of their products. The Industrial Revolution influenced nearly every part of the economy, including agriculture and the food industry. Poor sanitation and dangerous conditions hurt workers and consumers. 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.. It also determined that at least one quarter of meatpackers suffered serious injury or illness in their careers. Box 515 Meatpacking plants have become distinct hotspots for coronavirus outbreaks, putting a spotlight on the generally awful conditions and low wages that these plants have offered workers, even before the virus. In 1905, Upton Sinclair (18781968), a young socialist journalist and novelist, received a $500 advance to write a novel about abuses in the meat processing industry and spent seven weeks investigating the subject in Chicago. "The Jungle shows the effects of economic hardship on an immigrant family in the early 1900 's. That is all . The 1919 FTC report led to the Packers and Stockyards Act, anti-trust legislation designed to regulate the industry and dilute the enormous power wielded by the Big Five. The story of John Panzezyk serves as just one example of the realities that Upton Sinclair was trying to express. What happened to the workers? The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 applied the same standards to foods and drugs, notably banning the unsafe preservatives used to keep meat looking fresh. . The law reformed the meatpacking industry, mandating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspect all cattle, swine, sheep, goats, and horses both before and after they were slaughtered and processed for human consumption. And, in the 1990s and 2000s, meatpacking companies began aggressively recruiting Latin American immigrants, using the unequal legal status of these workers as a point of leverage. It led more workers to organize with Amalgamated. 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. Since they first opened nearly a century earlier in 1865, the 475 acres of land known as the Chicago stockyards helped give birth to one of Americas great cities and positioned Chicago as the meat-processing capital of the world. Virtually every animal on Earth either kills other animals to sustain itself or is unfortunate enough to play the opposite role, being devoured by another animal for the same purpose. Since many ate the meat produced in these factories, unsanitary conditions brought illness to consumers. 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. This fact means employers have leverage over their workers, who fear being reported to the police. By 1916, new data had led to the discovery that food contained vitamins, and the lack of "vital amines" could cause disease. 22 Feb. 2023
