The Food Factory

As the nation’s population expanded at the turn of the 20^th century, so did its appetite for convenient processed foods.  As factories mass-produced clothing, furniture, appliances, among other items, they also industrialized food production for the mass consumption.  The following excerpt offers a graphic description of the stockyards in Chicago’s Packingtown, the terminus where live animals would be slaughtered and processed.

“They climbed a long series of stairways outside of the building, to the top of its five or six stories.  Here was the chute, with its river of hogs, all patiently toiling upward; there was place for them to rest to cool off and then through another passageway they went into a room from which there is no returning for hogs...they had chains which they fastened about the leg of the nearest hog, and the other end of the chain they hooked into one of the rings upon the wheel.  So, as the wheel turned, a hog was suddenly jerked off his feet and borne aloft.  At the same instant the car was assailed by a most terrifying shriek...the shriek was followed by another, louder and yet more agonizing...once started upon that journey, the hog never came back; at the top of the wheel he was shunted off upon a trolley, and went sailing down the room.  And meantime another was swung up, and then another, and another, until there was a double line of them, each dangling by a foot and kicking in frenzy—and squealing...there would come a momentary lull, and then a fresh outburst, louder than ever, surging up to a deafening climax...one by one they hooked up the hogs, and one by one with a swift stroke they slit their throats.  There was a long line of hogs, with squeals and lifeblood ebbing away together; until at last each started again, and vanished with a splash into a huge vat of boiling water...it was porkmaking by machinery, porkmaking by applied mathematics...they were so innocent, they came so very trustingly; and they were so very human in their protests—and so perfectly within their rights!  They had done nothing to deserve it; and it was adding insult to injury, as the thing was done here, swinging them up in this cold-blooded, impersonal way...each one of these hogs was a separate creature.  Some were white hogs, some were black; some were brown, some were spotted; some were old, some young...each of them had an individuality of his own, a will of his own, a hope and a heart’s desire; each was full of self-confidence, of self-importance, and a sense of dignity.  And trusting and strong in faith he had gone about his business...while a black shadow hung over him and a horrid Fate waited in his pathway...relentless, remorseless, it was; all his protests, his screams, were nothing to it—it did its cruel will with him, as if his wishes, his feelings, had simply believe that there was nowhere a god of hogs, to whom this hog personality was precious, to whom these hog squeals and agonies had a meaning?  Who would take this hog into his arms and comfort him, regard him for his work well done, and show him the meaning of his sacrifice?”

The preceding text is from Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The Jungle; a realist dramatization of the “fate” of millions of animals slaughtered annually for human consumption (Sinclair).  It also provided a dramatic account of the plight of immigrant workers and their conditions of existence at the turn of the century.  While The Jungle realistically illustrated a dramatization of the dehumanization of immigrant factory workers who were viewed as disposable as the animals they murdered, the novel’s immense popularity raised public awareness of the unsanitary and unhealthy conditions of factory-produced meat products.  Critics countered that because Sinclair’s novel was a work of fiction, and that it was so extreme, they made attempts to discredit its validity.  However, Sinclair, in response to numerous inquiries and the scrutiny of industrialists, declared in a 1906 news publication that while the characters in The Jungle were fictitious, the conditions of the stockyards, meat factories, and laborers was “an exact and faithful picture of conditions as they exist[ed] in Packingtown, Chicago,” and stated that he spent “seven weeks in the stockyards district alone, living with the people,” substantiating workers claims through the labor bosses, doctors, lawyers, and merchants, all whom confirmed there was evidence that a system of graft was in place to keep the truth from the public and the federal government (Sinclair “Is The Jungle True?”).  

Though capitalist industrialists used every ounce of the hog “except the squeal,” for maximum profit, once journalists and writers of the early 20^th century grabbed the attention (and the stomach) of American citizens, the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt found itself compelled to act upon the atrocious accounts that came out of stockyards.  The public outcry over the learned usage of chemicals agents to mask the fact that much of the meat the nation consumed was spoiled and not fit for human consumption, led to a Department of Agriculture investigation to determine the purity of foodstuffs, and it was discovered that writers such as Upton Sinclair were correct (MindTap).  Toxic chemicals were used to process mass-produced meat (MindTap).  Additionally, it was discovered that many over the counter medicines were ineffective and sometimes dangerous for the consumer (MindTap).  The investigation prompted the Senate to pass legislation banning the sale of tainted food and drugs.  And while the bill stalled in the House of Representatives the public, after reading The Jungle, pressed the United States government to ultimately form what would later be known as the federal Food and Drug Administration (MindTap). 

Works Cited

"MindTap - Cengage Learning." MindTap - Cengage Learning. Cengage Learning, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. <http://ng.cengage.com/static/nb/ui/index.html?nbId=107659&nbNodeId=27378118#!&parentId=27378345>. The Reform Impulse.

Sinclair, Upton. ""Is 'The Jungle' True?" - Upton Sinclair - The Independent." "Is 'The Jungle' True?" New York University Digital Library Services, n.d. Web. 21 May 2015. <http://dlib.nyu.edu/undercover/jungle-true-upton-sinclair-independent>. Digital Library Technology Services

Sinclair, Upton. "Chapter 3." The Jungle. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2001. N. pag. Print.