Blast from the Past
early 1900s slaughter floor
So I’ve been wandering that funny line between things I loved to read, things I read because I had to, and books I read because I was in SPGR (Students for Peace through Global Responsibility), card carrying member of PETA and Greenpeace, and took environmental-leaning law classes in highschool. I loved Silent Spring, anything by Wendell Barry, Aldo Leopold, and Edward Abbey. And then there was Upton Sinclair. I tried. Really, really tried but it just didn’t work for me, until now. He isn’t the best writer, isn’t the most fluid, the most polished, or the most interesting to read. But after being neck deep in food, foodies, food politics, and anything else involving food for the last 10 years or so it all became startlingly clear especially during this Labor Day Weekend.
The Jungle, written in 1904, granted was the open door on exploitation, capitalism gone wrong, workers rights, and labor unions, but it was also about FOOD. After decades of food, health, and inspection laws we are right back where we started with even higher instances of Salmonella and E coli outbreaks due to unsanitary conditions, unhealthy living and eating conditions for slaughter animals, and just plain ‘ol poor animal husbandry practices, not to mention the outrageous environmental impacts that feedlots inflict. Want a decent read that is an open door to the current political, worker rights (still migrant), and food and health issues look no further than a book that was written over 100 years ago.
What does that say about American society, that for the last century we have perpetuated a failing, unhealthy food system, and continue to expand on a model that works for no one except large corporations. Baffling.
Okay, I’m off the soapbox now.
