President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Meat Inspection Act on June 30, 1906. It was first initiated by Senator Beveridge of Indiana. The Meat Inspection Act brought the following reforms to the processing of cattle, sheep, horses, swine and goats destined for human consumption:
• All animals were required to pass an inspection by the U.S. Drug Administration prior to slaughter
• All carcasses were subject to a post-mortem inspection
• Cleanliness standards established for slaughterhouses and processing plants
A key influence on President Roosevelt was the book The Jungle written by “mukeracker” Upton Sinclair. In this book Sinclair wrote about the dangerous working conditions, filthy processing plants, and meat products contaminate
increased but historic data proves that that was not the case. The change in price of meat was in-line with the price index for that time but the quality of meat supplied to consumers did increase. This proves that the laws were actually to benefit the consumers and not the industrialist.
Why did state governments begin to regulate the food industry in the 20th Century? One possible explanation is that regulation was enacted to create an entry barrier that protected producers of traditional food products from the competition provided by new substitutes. Another potential hypothesis is that regulation was desired in order to solve an asymmetric information problem in the market for food. If the regulations were in fact to help monopolize the industry and help the existing ca
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