~~Here is my essay on the pure food and drug act that i did back in 10th grade. Gee, it sure is funny to look back at how bad i sucked at writing back then.~~
Would you eat someone's cut off finger if you knew it was there? Would you eat food that had sawdust in it? I doubt that you would. Many changes were made during the progressive period to enhance life, such as the Pure Food and Drug act of 1906. This act was put into effect by President Theodore Roosevelt and was to help prevent the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated, misbranded, poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, also for regulating traffic of them.
This Act was needed for many reasons, until this time many people were falling sick just by eating the food they bought at the grocery store or market. Meat packing industries would end up having rats, their byproducts, human body parts such as fingers, and anything else that happened to fall in or get tossed into the packing machines being mixed with the food that were then one way or another sold to consumers all over the U.S. The same kind of thing was happening with other foods too such as putting sawdust in flour so that the industries bought less of the ingredients and made more money. Yet, nothing was stopping this from happening and because of it people were paying money for food that may potentially make them sick.
This put with the Meat Inspection Act, that was passed not long after the Pure Food and Drug Act, helped insure that the people of the United States of America were getting the food that they paid for and not food that could hurt their health in ways that they had not been informed of. To insure that the act was being followed Roosevelt and congress created the Food and Drug Administration, which were given the responsibility of testing all foods and drugs. Requirements for prescriptions from licensed physicians before a patient could purchase certain drugs were put in place and the requirement of label warnings on habit-forming drugs.
Although prices on most foods then went up and eating meals become more expensive, people finally knew what they were eating, and generations to come were healthier because of it. Life expectancy has increasingly gone up since 1906, a big part of that has to do with the Pure Drug and Food Act of 1906 and the other laws made after it to keep people informed about what is going into their food.
Thanks to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 Americans are healthier today, being able to live longer. It is one of the most important changes made by the progressive presidents during the Progressive period. It's what makes sure that your not eating fingers with your breakfast.
Ryan Stewart
