Throughout U. S. history, many changes have occurred nationwide. Government rolls have been modified, economic growth and stability has fluctuated, and social issues have shifted. One of the most prominent ages where these changes had developed was the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was a time when government did not interfere with economy and left social issues to American society. One of the most serious social issues took place during the Gilded age was consumer safety.
Over time, changes were made so that products had to meet government regulated standards, and that many products could o longer include certain ingredients that they once did. It is argued that although there have been advancements in consumer safety, they no longer match the issues that have arisen in the twenty-first century. Since The Gilded Age, food safety has improved, but with new times and new advancements there are still some issues.
Food safety was unregulated and unsafe during the Gilded Age. The U. S. overnment took a very small role in protecting it’s citizens from chemicals, bacteria, and other pathogens that were not filtered from food products in this era. During the Gilded age, the meat acking industry was exceptionally unsafe for consumers. Upton Sinclair explains in his book, The Jungle, just how dangerous the products were to the consumers, “There were men who worked in the cooking rooms, in the midst of the steam and sickening odors, by artificial light; in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour. “(Sinclair).
Conditions in the meat cooking rooms were so poor that the product was often surrounded by dangerous and harmful bacterias and viruses such as tuberculosis. This meant that when the consumer bought roducts from processing plants, such as this one, they would not only be exposed to dangerous sicknesses, but they would also ingest them. In another excerpt from The Jungle, Sinclair describes how certain animal carcasses were treated before butchering, “There were wool-pluckers, whose hands went to pieces even sooner than the hands of the pickle-men; for the pelts of sheep had been painted with acid to loosen the wool. (Sinclair)
Not only was this dangerous to the workers in the factories, but it was also dangerous to the consumer because the product had been in contact with toxic, flesh-eating acid. Another alarming example of just how unsafe food products were, was the list of ingredients included in Coca-Cola. Before the year of 1903, one of the main ingredients in the famous drink was an extract of cocaine, a highly addictive and deadly drug. The creator of the beloved soda, John S.
Pemberton, would market the dangerous drink as a “valuable brain tonic that would cure headaches, relieve exhaustion, and calm nerves. ” (Schoenberg) Due to the false marketing claims, Coca-Cola and other sodas like it would be used to treat minor ailments that could turn serious if proper medical attention was not given. Kimmel) This was until revolutionary ideas about food and consumer safety were brought on by the Progressive era. Towards the end of The Gilded Age, the Progressive Era began.
This was a time of enlightenment about certain political, economical, and social ideas. The concept of consumer safety was brought to scrutiny when unions began to form in the workplace. Factory and other processing plant workers would protest against the poor and unhealthy conditions that they had to suffer through regularly. This then sparked the idea that if the employees were working in squalor, than the product was being roduced in squalor as well.
Due to the realization that the poor conditions could possibly endangering the consumer, the U. S. overnment stepped in and decided to come between large companies and the health of the people. During this era, many different acts were put in place to protect the consumer. One of these acts was the original Food and Drug Act, put in place by the F. D. A. in 1906. This act was a list of rules and regulations stating what food processing companies could and could not do. Many of the regulations on the list stated that companies could not work with hazardous chemicals and were subjected to egular tests to examine the quality of the food being sold.
Companies could not longer sell or market misbranded or adulterated food, could no longer produce adulterated food, and were mandated to vide a list of the ingre hts included in the product to ensure consumer safety. If any company was found guilty in violation of the acts, they would be subjected to a minimum five hundred dollar fine and up to a year in prison. (F. D. A. ) This act would protect consumers by assuring that the product was safe to handle, as well as proving that all the claims made about the product were true.
In the same year, another important act was passed by the F. D. A. , this was The Meat Inspection Act. This act was passed after shocking claims were made against many meat processing plants, and their use of dangerous preservatives and dyes included in their products, allegations against the sanitation of the processing plants were also made. (F. D. A. ) The gist of this act would state that animals used in processing plants would only be used for human consumption, and that animals would be examined for disease before slaughter.
It also stated that animals would be slaughtered in a sanitary and humane way, nd only certain preservatives would be used. Lastly, the act stated that adulteration and misbranding would not be tolerated, and that anyone in violation would face a similar punishment to that of the Food and Drug Act. This act was put in place to protect the consumer from the hazardous chemicals, preservatives, and dyes that were once used in these plants. Also, the act would help protect the consumer from any diseases or bacteria that may harbour in operations such as these. F. D. A. ) Since 1906, many different food safety acts have been passed to protect the consumer. One of the more arguable cases relating to consumer safety was in 2015, when Congress passed a bill stating that would amend the original Food and Drug Act, which was called the Genetically Engineered Right-to-Know Act.
This act would explain that companies could not sell food that had been genetically engineered or that had contained genetically engineered ingredients, unless there was full disclosure that such ingredients were within the product. Congress) In the same year, The House of Representatives voted that companies do not have to disclose whether or not they include genetically odified ingredients under the legislation. This would be called the Safe and Accurate Food Labelling Act. It would insure that every state had the right to disclose whether or not a company sells genetically modified food. (Ring) Therefore, contradicting both acts and laws that had been passed. This is where the real argument takes place.
Because of the discrepancy between the Safe Food and Drug Act, the Genetically Engineered Right-to-Know Act, and the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, many believe that although food safety has improved, new times and advancements cause the riginal Safe Food and Drug Act to no longer protect the consumer in the same way that it once had. The difference between all three acts have caused, what some call, a “grey area” for what is acceptable under the acts and what is not.
If companies no longer have to disclose ingredients contained in their products, then they are no longer meeting regulations that are upheld by the Safe Food and Drug Act, causing them to be in violation of the act itself. The issue is that although companies are in violation of the original act, they are technically following he rules and regulations of the Safe and Accurate Food Labelling Act.
Thus causing many to believe that the original act no longer meets the needs of the modern-day food and consumer safety, and therefore should be modified so that it does. Ring) Although food safety has improved since the Gilded Age, new times and new advancements have proven that there are loopholes through certain acts, such as the Safe Food and Drug Act, that once fully protected the consumer. At one point in time, the consumer’s voice was not heard when it came to food safety. Food would come in contact with dangerous chemicals, acteria, and other pathogens, and companies did not have to disclose the ingredients included in their products.
Thanks to the Progressive Era, all that was change with a series of acts that protected the consumer at the time. However, the modern use of genetically modified food has attested to the challenges that the U. S. government has faced when it comes consumer safety in the twenty-first century. Overall, consumer safety has changed since The Gilded Age, but the advancements in modern science, particularly in genetic modification, have show to be more enduring than the effects of previous acts.
