The History of the Meat Industry Regulation: Rights and Responsibilities of the Government and Citizens

Annalise Zabriskie Junior Division Individual Website

Process Paper While selecting a topic, I wanted to explore a subject that affects everyone. Food, is something that all humans need. In part, I was influenced by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilsons Chew On This. The book presented the deteriorated state of our current food culture. This spiked my interest in the history of food production and regulation in the U.S. After consideration I decided to focus my research on the meat packing industry and the regulation the USDA provides.

My research started with the USDA government website. After reading what their history was as a government department, I researched more about the chronology of the events the USDA described. This was followed by the findings of many primary documents and images from various databases that represented meatpacking conditions and regulations. I then researched the more opinionated side of history from the perspectives of both the government and the citizens. One of these biased sources was Upton Sinclairs The Jungle. This book was a turning point in the meat industry. Upton Sinclairs intent was to expose the mistreatment of the meat packing workers in Chicago. His readers reacted to the morbid conditions of the meat processing, which inspired new USDA regulations. I chose to interview individuals with expertise in butchery and cattle ranching, and incorporated their input through video.

I chose a website format to present the history of the meat industry because of its ability to convey the images and text in a unique and personalized way. The website also

proves an efficient tool to communicate in-depth research. Once I had completed the majority of my concrete research, I started developing the content of my website. I organized my project by having the topics viewed in chronological order. Once the content was organized, I embellished it with images and videos to supplement the content and add visual interest. Although biased and gruesome, the historical images of the meat packing plants represent different perspectives in history of the way food was being handled. The NHD theme of Rights and Responsibilities strongly relates to the history of the meat packing industry. As history advances, the story is told of what citizens believed their rights entailed, and what responsibilities the government took on in response to satisfy the citizens protest. Good or bad, the government has made great efforts to transform the meat packing industry, with the goal of cleaner and healthier production. In turn, citizens benefit from the responsibility taken by the government to regulate meat production.

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