— OPINION — Boar’s Head’s deadly Listeria outbreak serves as a stark reminder that the food safety issues Upton Sinclair exposed over a century ago in “The Jungle” still persist. The impact of Sinclair’s work, which revealed the hidden dangers of food production, resonates today as modern food safety lapses, like the one at Boar’s Head, expose ongoing systemic weaknesses. In 1906, Sinclair’s novel shocked the public with vivid descriptions of unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry.
The revelation of contaminated and poorly handled meat led directly to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the 1906 Meat Inspection Act. While Sinclair’s focus was on the exploitation of workers, it was the food safety scandal that captured national attention, igniting sweeping reforms. A review of “The Jungle” by The London Times Literary Supplement in 1906 captures the global reaction to Sinclair’s revelations.
Despite the novel being fiction, the descriptions were so appalling that the reviewer questioned whether such content should even be made accessible to the public. What alarmed the reviewer more was the authenticity behind Sinclair’s narrative. The conclusion was clear: Sinclair’s account was grounded in reality, a fact confirmed when President Roosevelt took action to address the scandal.
The British reviewer’s words echo across time: “The things described by Mr. Sinclair happened yesterday, are happening today, and will happen t.
