American History

The Jungle is a novel by an American socialist and author Upton Sinclair published in 1906. It describes a family of Lithuanian immigrants who worked in the Union Stock Yards in Chicago at the end of the 19th century. The author exposes the poverty, lack social security, appalling living and working conditions, poor hygiene, and despair of the poor people working in the meatpacking factories. These conditions were caused by corrupt acts of the rich people. Sinclair describes the poor status of labor and he shows the need for change in the labor sector. He gives a description of workers falling into meat processing tanks and getting milled together with the parts of animals. The author reveals the exploitation of women and children in the factories, which attracted public attention.

The description of meatpacking factories as unclean places led to a decrease by half in meat sales to foreign markets. Consequently, main meatpacking factories wanted the government to pass legislation on food handling so as to cool down the public indignation and to show that their products of good quality. Thus, they wanted regulations to be passed for further meat inspection and to certify that the meat packed in American factories was clean. Together with the uproar from the public, the factories pushed for legislation and this led to the passing of Meat Inspection Act as well as the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 (Sinclair, Lee  Degrave, 2003). Additionally, this resulted in the establishment of Food and Drug Administration. Even though the factories demanded for the legislation from the government, they were essentially against government regulation of their products.

Sinclair and President Roosevelt were the central figures in the passage of legislation of the food handling acts. The President had received copies of The Jungle, which made him made to send investigators to the factories. After investigations were carried out, the working conditions and the state of hygiene in the factories were found to be very horrifying. This instigated the need for food handling acts to deal with meat inspection and cleanliness of the meatpacking factories. Therefore, Sinclairs work exposed the mismanagement of meat in the packing factories and this led to the passage of legislation on food handling.