Remember 'The Jungle'!

One hundred years ago, a book was published that changed history. It was called The Jungle. Its author was a twenty-something socialist. And its message was simple: America's meat industry was corrupt, exploiting its workers and churning out food that shouldn't be eaten.

The novel focused on overworked immigrants, but readers fixated on details about meat production. Upton Sinclair described men falling into vats and then being turned into food. He documented rats scurrying onto piles of diseased meat. "Rats, bread and meat would go into the hoppers together," winding up on dining tables. This was muckraking at its best, ripping aside the veil for Americans to see what might otherwise be ignored.

Sinclair was summoned to the White House by Teddy Roosevelt. While the President slammed his fist on the table and condemned corruption, he also made it clear something would be done to address The Jungle. Sinclair had successfully turned literary celebrity into political clout. And on June 30, 1906, the Meat Inspection Act passed, "the most pronounced extension of federal power ever enacted," its chief proponent declared.

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