3rd Quarter Research Project - Food Safety (Progressive Era)

Food Safety - Progressive Era

By: Ryan Sanford

The food industry is a very complex industry with many components. Nowadays there are many regulations and health orders that we have to follow. For instance, if you own a restaurant, you have to follow rules placed by the Health Department. These rules can range from not being allowed to keep the ice scooper in the ice machine, or having to keep your meats at a certain temperature so that they do not soil. Even though today these rules keep our restaurants maintained, and overall safe, the food industry has not always had these rules. The food industry used to be a very dangerous, and not cleanly place. This changed during the Progressive Era, when the health and cleanliness of the food was brought to America's attention.

A powerful, and leading organization that kick started the reconstruction of the food industry was the Food and Drug Administration, abbreviated as FDA. This organization was founded in 1848, starting with the appointment of the Lewis Caleb Beck. This organization's purpose was to carry out chemical analyses of agricultural products. The FDA helped regulate and inspect food products, and helped maintain the health ordinances, so that the businesses would follow all of the rules. The FDA has grown into a bigger organization today, and has more impact on the food industry, but the organization definitely started something that would later impact the country as a whole.

There were many factors that brought this subject to attention in the public's eyes. There were some very important legislation that was passed during this time that dramatically changed the expectation of the food industry. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was a piece of legislation that prohibited interstate commerce in adulterated and misbranded food and drugs. This was also known as the Wiley Act because Harvey Washington Wiley was a leading force in the passage of this legislation. This piece of legislation was passed in June 30, 1906 and was put into effect on January 1, 1907.

Another piece of legislation that was passed along with the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was the Meat Inspection Act. This act required sanitary conditions in factories, inspections of animals and meats, and it also required correct labeling of packaged foods. This made packaged food become a lot less dangerous to the public because before this act was passed, lots of foods were mislabeled, and they contained many things that were not supposed to be in them.

Before any legislation was passed, the public’s idea and knowledge of the awful conditions in the food industry was little to none. The public had no idea what was in the packaged food that they purchased, and they did not know how disgusting businesses were, like slaughterhouses, and meat packaging factories. Something that sparked the interest, and caught America’s eye was a book written by Upton Sinclair, The Jungle. The story of the novel follows an immigrant’s family’s exploitation and the unsanitary practices prevalent in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. In order for Sinclair to gather his information on the industry, he had to dive into the industry himself. Many times he would dress up as a worker, and impersonate an employee so that he could acquire first hand information and experience of the industry. He also talked to many people, and made many connections with people in the industry so that he could gain more knowledge. Sinclair describes the conditions of the workplaces with severed fingers, tuberculosis, and blood poisoning. He said, “men who fell into vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough left of them to be worth exhibiting.”

It was in this time period that newspapers and magazine publishers discovered that their printing sales flew up when they featured exposés on political corruption, and controversial material. The media became a huge proponent that brought many nationwide, and global issues to bay. The impact of Sinclair’s book, for example, brought the food packing industry conditions to the eye of the public. Sinclair’s novel produced an immediate and powerful effect on Americans and on federal policy concerning the food industry. After President Theodore Roosevelt got word of the novel, he became more interested in the conditions in the food industry. He created his own investigation, and learned of the disgusting condition for himself. After catching his eye, Roosevelt later passed the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

Within this innovation of health regulations, and standards of the food industry, it would not have been possible without communication, persuasion, and collaboration. Without communication, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Meat Inspection Act would have never been passed, or even proposed to the federal government. Without these laws, the conditions of the food industry would still be as bad as they were before the Progressive Era. After these two acts had been proposed, someone had to persuade Congress to put them into effect; Harvey Washington Wiley was a main leader in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, and without his initiative and dedication to get them passed, they would not have been put into effect when they did. Out of the three components, collaboration is probably the most important, because without the ability to collaborate with each other, nothing would have gotten done, and the problem that was at hand would be unsolved and still present. President Theodore Roosevelt had to take matters into his own hands, and talk to lots of different people to figure out a gameplan to make the conditions better. Overall the three components are all important, and without one none of it would have worked. The food packing industry underwent a drastic change, and without that change our food would not be as reliable or as safe as it is today.

Citations

Federal Department of Agriculture - This secondary source is credible because it is straight from the website of the Federal Department of Agriculture. This comes from the source itself, and the url includes “.gov” which means its information is archives from the government, which has very reliable information. I used this source to learn about what the FDA is, and what they do. It helped me understand the types of restrictions and laws that were passed during the Progressive Era that affected Food Production.

http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/Origin/ucm124403.htm - This source is credible because it came straight from the website of the FDA, and it is also a government run website so the information given is reliable. I used this source to learn about the history of the FDA, and when it was actually founded.

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/politics-reform/essays/jungle-and-progressive-era - The author of this source is Robert W. Chermy is professor at the University of San Francisco. This source cites everything that they used. I used this source to learn about a book written during this time period about the poor conditions in the food industry, The Jungle.

http://docsteach.org/activities/4634/print - This is a credible source because it is from the National Archives. The website cites each source that they have, including the pictures. I used this source not only for images, but to learn of the overall culture and environment of the food industry. The before and after pictures helped me see the change that all the regulations had on the food packaging industry.

Law, Marc T., and Gary D. Libecap. The Determinants of Progressive Era Reform: The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2004. - Marc T. Law studied at the University of Vermont. Gary D. Libecap studied at Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Economics Department and the University of California, Santa Barbara. I used this source to learn more about The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906, to better understand what the act declared. This source was cited on another one of my secondary sources.

Lupein, John. “Food Quality and Safety: Traceability and Labeling.” Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 45, no. 2 (2005): 119–123. - John R. Lupein was the Former Director, Food and Nutrition Division Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)‎. His former experience with the industry gives the reader an inside look into the industry.

*I looked in the textbook for information on the food packing industry but I was not able to find much information that I could have used.

Images

FDA Inspectors

The Jungle   

Chicago Slaughterhouse

Harvey Wileys w/ staff

FDA Inspectors 2  

How do you analyze a political cartoon?

Analyzing a Political Cartoon

When analyzing a political cartoon, I think the best way is to first look at the images and think about what they different images mean, and the different meanings that they could possibly mean. One way to analyze the cartoon, and the meaning behind the cartoon, is to think of what the illustrator wanted the meaning to be.

The guide from WikiHow explained what to do when analyzing a political cartoon. The guide said what I explained in general, but it went further into detail concerning the smaller images. The steps from the online guide said - Look at the cartoon in general. Look at the smaller items in the image. Find and understand the context of the cartoon. Look for universal images that are depicted in the cartoon. (WikiHow) 

This guide taught me to first look at the bigger, centered pictures in the cartoon, and then to look at the smaller, more detailed images to further infer the topic of the cartoon. The smaller images, can have more meaning behind them which will help with the understanding of the context.

This cartoon shows three people; a Cuban, a Philippine native, and a Hawaiian native holding hands. The holding of hands represents an alliance and peace between the three countries. All of them are holding the American flag, this represents their friendship and gratitude to America for aiding them in the attaining independence from Spain. The caption below the image says "Hurrah for the fourth of July! We're coming in on independence day celebrations."

This cartoon portrays Uncle Sam working two horses with "justice" and "humanity" written on them, on the Philippine Field. This shows how America was working justice and humanity into the Philippines to help them be freed and independent. Uncle Sam is seen as a national symbol of freedom and liberty in US, and the use of this symbol shows the freedom that the US was helping the Philippines attain from Spain.

Philippines cartoon 1


philippine cartoon 2

Philippines cartoon 3

This cartoon illustrates Uncle Sam in the water, making his way towards Cuba. Because Uncle Sam is a national sign of freedom, this infers America's intentions of freeing other countries from Cuba and Spain. The cloud labeled war shows the progress of the war at this point in time. 

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/spanish-american-war-1898-granger.jpg

Semester I Speech

 Semester I Speech 

            The study of history is the way that humans are able to evolve and learn from past mistakes. 

Without the knowledge of history, we would not know where we came from, how our country came 

to be, or even what our countries original purpose was. By learning the history of our country, we 

can know the principle of America, and the ideology that shaped it into the current day.

            This year I was pleasantly surprised to learn of how successful our country was during the Industrial Revolution. I had no idea how much work and progress was made in America during that time period. I did not know of the great amount of progress and innovations that occurred during this time. I learned that many of history’s richest men came about from this time period, many of whom were given great opportunity to build on the growing economic businesses simply because of time period they were born in. We learned that railroads and oil were two big aspects that brought great wealth and opportunity to these men. I enjoyed learning about this time because it was interesting to learn how successful our country was and how much our country grew during this time.

            A subject that I was not as keen to learn about was slavery. This is a topic that brings lots of grief and cruelty to our eyes. Slavery is such a harsh topic to learn about, but without learning of it we would not know how our country grew, and which mistakes we have learned from. Watching the two historical films really brought the reality of slavery to my eyes, and showed how horrible it was.

            Since there is so much knowledge to learn about from American history, there is only so much that we will remember ten years from now. Ten years from now I think that I will remember most about the Reconstruction period. This is because in my opinion this is the period that shaped our country’s foundation, and it also interest me how our country rebuilt itself from actual rubble.  I enjoyed the project where in groups; we discussed what we would do if we were in the South’s position after the war, and what we would do next. This project was interesting to me because I expected our answers to be more differentiated than what they actually decided, but surprisingly we were close to what they thought. I think that the way the North and South came back together as one country will always show effect on America, and there will always be some proof of this, whether it be the political opinion differentially, or the societal culture.

            History is made so that we do not continue making past mistakes, unfortunately we still remake mistakes from the past. An example of this is the gap between the rich and the poor, and discrimination against the poor. During the Era of the City, the void between the wealthy and poverish was much more extreme. Although the gap is much smaller nowadays, there is still a space in between the two. Discrimination against the poor is also less extreme, but still present. Today some of the wealthy put themselves on a higher pedestal than the poor, viewing them as lazy, undeserving of better living, and below others.

            If I could name the time of 1865 to 1920, I would call it the “Era of Re-growth.” I chose this name because when I look back on everything that we have learned, most of it deals with the growth and rebuilding of America. We learned about slavery, the West and Reconstruction, the Industrial Revolution, and lastly we learned about the Age of the City. All of these time periods marked a growth and extreme change in our country.  

Thinking of Success

1.     Opportunity

2.    Hard work

3.    Skill

4.    Luck

These four components of success are all essential to accomplish something. Without opportunity, you will not have anything to accomplish. Without hard work, you will not do well doing the thing you want to accomplish. Without skill, you will not be able to do the job well. One component however is not essential to success, in my mind. Luck, is something that will help someone on his or her road to success, but without it a person can still be successful. For example, a lazy person could be lucky and be provided with an incredible opportunity, and then become successful because of luck. However an extremely hard working person could simply not be lucky, and still reach success because of their hard work, and determination. Success depends on the person, and how much they put in for success. 

Exploring Business/Clothing Industry

In the two articles I read, I learned about three different clothing companies; Zara's, Uniqlo, and H&M. These three companies are the leading companies in the clothing industry. They are known for fast, and trendy production. It was interesting to learn about such well-known international clothing companies.

            Zara’s is known for their fast production of clothes, and their ability to rotate the merchandise throughout their many store locations. This allows them to change to their customers’ needs, and wants. They can predict patterns and future trends, with this ability. Uniqlo is well known for their basic designs that fit to a bigger customer percentage. They create clothing that many people can appeal to, increasing their buyer rate. H&M has a combination of both Zara’s and Uniqlo’s patterns; fast clothing production, and clothes that appeal to a larger number of customers. With this combination, H&M is able to sell more clothes, to more people.

Ch.18 Test Blog Post

Dear loved ones, 

After arriving in America, my life has been turned upside down. While riding on the boats here, I did not know what to expect. I worried that it would be terrible, and I would not know how to start my life. Luckily there were others with my same worries and it helped to know that I was not alone. Most everyone that was on the boat with me came for the same reasons; better work, and a better life.

When we arrived in New York, the amount of people that I saw was unbelievable. I had no idea so many people could fit in the same place. When we got out most of us did not have the slightest idea of what to do next. We did not know where to eat, where or how to get a job, or even where we were going to stay. After walking around aimlessly for a while I noticed that some people were asking the natives. I walked up to someone and explained that I was an immigrant and I did not know where to go for anything. The response was not what I was expecting, the man was very rude and walked away saying things underneath his breath. Some people seemed to be fine with giving help, and others were completely opposed to even speaking to us. 

After awhile I met some people that spoke the same language as me. This made it a lot easier to communicate. Now we all live in the same neighborhood. We share the same native customs, which makes it a little easier to live in such an estranged place. There are also theaters and newspapers in our language, which makes us feel more accepted. I love that we can celebrate our own culture, but at the same time I want to experience the American lifestyle. At my job, my boss requires us to learn English. This helps with communication, but it is extremely hard. We are learning it quickly, but I struggle with it. It helps with the cultural divide, and makes things easier.

I wish you all could come to see it. It’s amazing here, but I miss everyone so much back home. I hope that everyone’s doing okay, and tell everyone that I love them. I will write you soon.

Love,

            Ryan Sanford

Railroad Propaganda

The Effect of Propaganda and Advertising

Ryan Sanford

Advertisement has a lot of influence on people. It can drastically change one's opinion on a subject, or it can reinforce their thoughts. Advertisement and propaganda is a visual method that can show the public a companies thoughts, arguments, and ideas. It is used to provoke the public, and also to create a reaction. Propaganda was used heavily for the Western railroads. Western railroad companies used propaganda to encourage tourism, jump-start the railroad business, and also to increase immigrant construction employment.

Before railroads were beginning to be constructed, the distance between the countries Northern, Southern, and Western regions made it very difficult to communicate and travel. The railways connected the regions in more ways than one. They allowed easier trade, and economic dependency lessened. The easier travel improved agriculture, mining, and lumber industries. The North did not have to depend on the southern rivers for transportation of goods. This lead to solidifying relationship between the North and the West. Even though the railroads increased the ability to travel and communicate through the far distance, there was still disconnected from the West to the rest of the country. Propaganda was used to promote tourism from the North and South to the West. Posters were used to portray the West as a positive, dreamlike land where everyone wished to come.

As more tourism came to the West, more business came with it. The more people that came, the more use of the railroads were needed, resulting in better business for the companies. The railroad business took off as people came to the West. People did not only come to tour the West, but people also came to start new lives. The railways were a great opportunity for people coming to the West without jobs. A large group of people that used the railways to their advantage was immigrants wanting to migrate west. Companies used advertising to promote immigration because more people that came meant more workers, and business for the companies.

Companies, to promote immigration employment, primarily used propaganda. Immigrants came from all over to migrate west, but two main groups of immigrants that came to work on the railways were the Chinese and Irish. Companies used the propaganda to reach out to the immigrants in particular because they were the ideal workers for the companies. This was because they were easily accessible, hard workers, and very poor. The large numbers of immigrants made it easy for the companies to find workers, and because they did not have a lot of money, the workers appreciated the small amounts of money that they received.

The promotion of tourism, boost in business, and increase in immigrant employment are all affects of propaganda in the west.  Without propaganda, the western railways would not have had enough business to survive, or enough builders to construct it. Propaganda was a vital accessory to the Western railroads.

Anti Railroad Propaganda

Annotation : This source was mainly used for a basic overview of the railways. It gave me the information on how the railroads brought the states together, and how they improved the trade and dependency for the north, south, and western states. 

Railway Advertising

Annotation: I used this source to find examples of propaganda and advertising for the western railroads. This gave me an idea of what the posters looked like, and how the companies would try to sway the publics outlook on the railroads.

Pennsylvania Railroad Propaganda

Annotation: This source was used only for an example of propaganda. This source particularly showed the variety of how the posters would look. 

The Great Rival

Annotation: This source provided an example of propaganda for the railroads. It also gave information on "The Great Rival." The Great Rival was a debate between Henry Villard, advertising the Northern Pacific Railroad, and Rufus Hatch, advertising Yellowstone Park to American and European investors. 

California Propaganda 

Annotation: This source gave information on the immigration and it went into deeper detail of the immigrant workers. It explained how Chinese and Irish workers were needed for the construction of the railroad.

Other Sources: 

Continental Railroad Present Day Comparison - BBC News

Annotation: This source contained a video that talked about how President Obama was planning on building more railroads. They said how the Chinese would be involved in the building and financing of the railroads again, and I thought this compared the past and present of the railroads well, because it shows how involved the Chinese have stayed. 

Central Pacific Railroad Workers - PBS

Annotation: This source had more information on the use of propaganda to help with the increase in immigrant workers.