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Hearts and Stomachs: Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”
- moodytunes 7y agoMy favorite "fun" fact about The Jungle was that Sinclair originally meant the book to expose the working conditions of the meat packing plants, but instead everyone focused on the way the meat was processed and got up in arms about that instead. He apparently also had to tone down some of the book's more socialist leanings before being allowed to publish it. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle
- jonchang 7y agoYes, the entire linked article is, in fact, about this!
- Nasrudith 7y agoThe irony is that it is the exact opposite of the typical narrative myopia in only caring about people directly mentioned. Here everyone was horrified by the negligent cannibalism.
- Aloha 7y agoHe said himself I believe "I was aiming for their hearts, but missed at hot their stomach"
- bart_spoon 7y agoWhich is why the article is titled "Hearts and Stomachs". These fun facts are the point of TFA!
- jellicle 7y agoOdd that The Jungle is mentioned here. Does everyone realize that the US isn't doing any inspections of any food facilities any more?
- tyleo 7y agoWhere are you getting this information? Can you provide a source?
- tyleo 7y agoI personally found this on google: https://www.eater.com/2020/3/23/21191632/fda-routine-food-surveillance-inspections-suspended-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic https://www.eater.com/2020/3/23/21191632/fda-routine-food-su... I’m not sure it’s what you’re referring to. This seems coronavirus specific. From the original comment I thought that inspections were suspended indefinitely.
- dayofthedaleks 7y agoWell, we already turned the clock back past the New Deal let's just go ahead and strip away the Progressive Era as well. I knew the FDA had drastically reduced the number of slaughterhouse inspectors but regulatory capture is the order of the day after all.
- Loughla 7y agoWe're 'leaving it to the experts' and letting industry inspect itself. These are not good ideas. Example: How's that 737 Max fleet?
- jbn 7y agoThat is one of the premises of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1097.Fast_Food_Nation https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1097.Fast_Food_Nation , you won't want to eat US processed meat after reading this. (Good book, BTW)
- bwb 7y agoI read this in school and I am amazed how it stuck with me. The imagery of the factory, the workers, etc.
- brodouevencode 7y agoSinclair had an amazing economy of words. He could describe a scene so well in so few words, and simply.
- iron0013 7y agoToday we have "ag gag" laws that work to stifle speech that alerts citizens to issues related to the provenance of their food. To my eye, such laws are blatantly unconstitutional--but many blatantly unconstitutional things are routinely allowed in the service of Capital these days.
- downerending 7y agoAs an aside, Upton Sinclair wrote a book on fasting that presages a lot of our current interest and knowledge on the subject. Worth a look.