Letter to the Editor - What did I Just Eat?

There was a time in America when most people were healthy. Up until the late 1800s, families generally raised their own gardens. The word "cancer" and some of the modern health problems were seldom heard. Toward the end of the 1800s, however, the growth of population and rise of large cities changed things. More and more processed foods were put on the market. Chicago became the center of the meat-packing industry, and that is when people noticed that food safety was going down. The Chicago Stockyards and Chicago meat industry headed up much of the country's meat production. It was soon learned that the meat-packing facilities were places of filth, putrefaction, disease, dampness, poor-ventilation, and lack of oversight. People were sickened when they read of the problems. Newspapers noted that sometimes poisoned rats, splinters, rope ends, and other things were scooped up and canned as potted ham. Upton Sinclair's novel on the subject and a 1906 jingle that ran in the newspaper made people take notice.