“The Jungle and the Debate over Federal Meat Inspection” – a case study from the book Democracy by David Moss

Quick note, this book has many different case studies of events through US History.  These case studies are intended more to spark debate than they are to provide a history lesson.  For example, at the end of this case study, there’s no conclusion about what happened (I had to look it up myself).

SHORT SUMMARY (272 words or less)

As lame as reading a case study on the 19th and early 20th century meat industry might be, I found this fascinating.  The case study discusses oligopolies and price fixing that affected not just the meat industry but also the railroad industry.  Basically, the railroads consolidated into four large companies (The Big Four), and they were exerting price fixing strains on customers.  The meat industry benefited–as larger companies were able to extract more favorable rail rates.  Congress intervened to bust the railroad trust with the Interstate Commerce Act, but it took a long time to have teeth.

The meat industry was notorious for its terrible sanitation and work conditions, but Congress was impotent to act against them, due to the meat lobby.  Ultimately a book called “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair as well as advocacy by progressive-era journalists called muckrakers turned public perception toward reform.  Teddy Rosevelt signed into law the Meat Inspection Act of 1906–and the case study focuses on the legislative negotiations during this process.  My biggest takeaway, however, was somewhat unrelated but it gave me hope.  Railroad trusts and meat industry collusion had been around since around the 1870s, but it took almost 40 years for regulation and reform to come fully to those industries.  It makes me hopeful for the times today–that issues may take a long time to resolve, perhaps past our lifetimes, so you have to do what you can during your life to push the needle that way.  Also, how the power of culture (in this case a book by Sinclair) can change public perception.