Discussion of Historical Issue
Regulation of Drugs, Additives, and Meat
Throughout the 1800’s and 1900’s Food and Drug Regulation has become increasingly more strict. Regulation of drugs specifically has increased over time as safety has become a main concern. Regulation of additives and substitutes in food, was initially limited, as there were no repercussions to putting potentially dangerous additives into food and drugs that were misunderstood or severely under tested... and in regards to the control of meat product factories, the control of them has increased as well, as older factories were dirty and unsanitary and posed health risks to both the workers and consumers. Overall, many of these issues have been corrected, but many issues still
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For Great Britain:
Cyclamate, Commissioner’s Decision
Banning of cyclamate (an artificial sweetener. 30–50 times sweeter than normal table sugar) in 1980
Studies were done to ensure safety of some of the substitutes (alternatives that have ingredients used to sweeten and enhance the flavor of foods)
September 6, 1958: The Food Additives Amendments are passed
Requiring that food additives, including preservatives, emulsifiers, and other functional additives, be subject to premarket testing.
For China:
Actions taken from late 1800s into the 1950s.
1848: Drug Importation Act
Requires U.S. Customs Service inspection to stop entry of adulterated drugs from overseas.
1902: Biologics Control Act
Passed to ensure purity and safety of serums, vaccines, and similar products used to prevent or treat diseases in humans.
Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906
Passed by Congress on June 30.
Prohibits interstate commerce in misbranded and adulterated foods, drinks and
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Regulation of Biologics--including serums, vaccines, and blood products--is transferred from NIH to FDA.
Smith/Marx Stance
Adam Smith believed in a very ‘laissez-faire’ approach to government, and he would most likely have limited regulation within the government on food. A likely outlook on the regulation of food in Smith’s eyes would most likely have been that, if a drug or food product was unsafe or had unintended effects, the general populace would boycott or avoid the product, until business were forced to more heavily inspect the quality of their products or die out.
Marx, on the other hand, would probably point out the quality of the products made by large companies and their overall lack of sanitation. He’d also would bring to light the treatment of the workers, who were forced to handle potentially deadly equipment Marx would most likely mandate that there should also be standards and regulations put upon food products to ensure that consumers and workers are safe.
Discussion of modern issue
Description of modern issue,
The beginning of Meat Inspection Act seemed to be at 1904, after “The Jungle” of Sinclair published. In fact, it started twenty years earlier, the regular law, used to satisfy Europe, the largest meat export market, but in 1865 Congress passed an act to prevent the importation of diseased cattle and pigs. Because of disease, European like Italian, French, and English restricted or banned the importation meat, and they turned to another supplier. Some bills were introduced but they failed to gather sufficient support. May 1884, Bureau of Animal Industry was established, it was doing good job in fighting Europe restrictions, helping the packers, but not helping the domestic consumers. March 1891, the first major meat inspection law was passed; some country removed the prohibitions on importing American pork. It distressed the European packing industry as well. So, they imposed more standards. Government had to do more action; major percent meat slaughtered was inspected. Some of companies exploited the law, but most of them, especially big companies agreed with the committee in 1902. In 1904, Smith, who was a great information aid to Sinclair, published a series of articles in The Lancet...
government set forth the Food and Drugs Act of 1906 in response which regulated and
Regulating what the government should control and what they should not was one of the main arguments our founding fathers had to deal with when creating our nation, and to this day this regulation is one of the biggest issues in society. Yet, I doubt our founding fathers thought about the idea that the food industry could one day somewhat control our government, which is what we are now facing. Marion Nestles’ arguments in the book Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health deal with how large food companies and government intertwine with one another. She uses many logical appeals and credible sources to make the audience understand the problem with this intermingling. In The Politics of Food author Geoffrey Cannon further discusses this fault but with more emotional appeals, by use of personal narratives. Together these writers make it dramatically understandable why this combination of the food industry and politics is such a lethal ordeal. However, in The Food Lobbyists, Harold D. Guither makes a different viewpoint on the food industry/government argument. In his text Guither speaks from a median unbiased standpoint, which allows the reader to determine his or her own opinions of the food industries impact on government, and vise versa.
The first of the legislation of the federal government in this time was the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. The Meat Inspection Act required the federal inspection of meats that were headed for interstate commerce and this gave much power to the big bosses of the Agriculture Department. The powers that this act endowed to the big bosses of the Department of Agriculture was to set the standards or the sanitary conditions. This Act basically gives the government the power to say what is sanitary and safe and what is vile and rank. The Meat Inspection Act was brought to the attention of the political hierarchy in great part to the novel written by Upton Sinclair. Upton portrayed the meat packing industry of Chicago as vile and disgusting. He expressed hideous images of rats and feces and other things very unfit for the food that they were eating. President Roosevelt read the book, The Jungle, and was totally convinced and he acted very quickly. In this, he sent a few federal agent to go investigate this convincing claim to see if it existed, they reiterated his disgusting results. Thus the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was passed by the Congress and by Roosevelt on its way to becoming a part of the incredible regulations of the Progressive Era.
Samuel Adams is a muckraker that wanted change. He wanted to expose the fake medicines that were in the market. Adams was widely known for his literature regarding patent medicines (Fee). Adams wanted to show and warn people of these medicines. He wanted the government to make laws to monitor these medicines. Adam wrote 11 articles on patent medicines called “The Great American Fraud” (Fee). The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was enacted on the
“Pure Food and Drug Act 1906.” 34 U.S. Stats. 768, quoted in Medicine in the Americas, Bethesda, Maryland: National Library of Medicine, 2004. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22116/.
"Pure Food and Drug Act: A Muckraking Triumph." Food and Drug Act. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.
The momentum generated by the passage of the Meat Inspection Act helped secure the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act, which had been stalled in Congress since 1905. With these two pieces of legislation, the federal government took important steps to assure the public that the food they were eating met minimu...
Along side of the FDA was the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. This put strains on and required the slaughterhouses to clean up. Sanitation became a big issue, and the slaughterhouses were now inspected for cleanliness. Also, every animal carcass to be inspected and pass inspection before it could be processed and used any further; it had to be cleared of infection and diseases.
Whorton James, review of Pure Food: Securing the Pure Food and Drug Acts of 1906, by
"Regulatory Information." Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 20 May 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. .
...ous tests (Law, 2004). They also must now have the FDA’s approval in order for a certain food or drug to be sold directly to consumers. Also the marketplace has changed, due to new ways to process the product in a more safe and effective manner. There were also changes due to political, economical, social, and cultural changes since 1906. In conclusion, the Food and Drug Act paved the way for the Progressive movement and food safety in America.
Michael Pollan makes arguments concerning the eating habits of the average American. Pollan suggests, in spite of our cultural norms, we should simply “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”
In the beginning of the 1900’s, the country made dramatic changes toward progressivism in domestic issues. These changes were first made by President Theodore Roosevelt, who signed the Pure Foods and Drug Act of 1906. This bill was made, “For preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes.” This would help bring progressive change to many manufacturing industries that were newly developed in the late nineteenth century. These jobs were dangerous to an equal and fair way of living for the American working class and were resolved by this act.
... government inspection of meat products. The Pure Food and Drug act also passed after the Meat inspection Act of 1906. The packers denied the charges and opposed the bills to no avail. These bills protected the publics right to safe sanitary meat.