Upton Sinclair originally wrote The Jungle to draw attention to the desperate plight of immigrants being exploited by corporations in the Chicago meat packing plants. Men were disposable, women were taken advantage of, and even a family with 4 or 5 full time workers didn’t earn enough to even pay to heat the house. Rats were ground into sausage, sawdust was added as a filler, and people who fell into rendering vats got… rendered.
The book outraged America, not for the labor practices described, but for the vivid and disgusting descriptions of how food was made. The outcry was so great, it lead eventually lead to the formation of the FDA.
You must read the New York Time’s article about ground beef. Stunning. And gross. Perhaps it’s time for this new Jungle to lead to a reformation of the FDA that does not receive funding from the companies it regulates, but instead is a truly independent watchdog agency.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Yep. Independent is the only way to go. We really do need to stop thinking that the government can save us from ourselves.
ugh, that’s horrible. I had McDonalds for lunch and now I feel sick!
I read that article and it pretty much confirmed my decision to start grinding my own hamburger. With no kids in the house anymore, or only when the come for a visit, we don’t eat that much hamburger so it should be easier and perhaps cheaper to do.
Some grocery stores will grind for you. If you say, purchase a boneless roast you can ask them to grind it. (NOT WalMart or discount stores, though!) I know Publix will and Randall’s (Safeway) will if you go when the meat dept. is open.
Thank you for sharing! I am going to FB post this to all my friends and I think I will move “purchase meat grinder” up a bit on the list of things to do.
We live rurally, and I have been trying to convince my husband that we should buy a local cow and slaughter it ourselves (we can get it reasonably and have the area to do it). Perhaps this will help to motivate him. eColi concerns drop dramatically when you are eating non feedlot, grassfed beef.
Dreadful. We only rarely order burgers out, and we don’t buy ground beef unless we happen to be out of our own, but I will buy half a steer from a local farmer from now on, rather than take a chance on supermarket meat.
GROSS! makes my ground deer meat taste even better. I wonder is ground turkey process is like this too?
Hm. I’ve found bones in McDonald’s burgers No kidding.