Workinonit Farm":3fzc8ke0 said:
:nod:
Jogeephus":3fzc8ke0 said:
Great idea! If you could connect the dots in such a way to easily show how Sinclair's book The Jungle led to the formation of the laws and regulations that have put the nails in the coffins of the small independent custom meat processor when Sinclair himself stated that people misunderstood the intent of his book and that the regulations Roosevelt put in place were unjustified boon to large meat packers at the expense of the taxpayers. These laws have essentially destroyed a good industry that once required a skilled workforce and replaced it with unskilled labor.
:nod: :nod: :nod: Yes!!!
"The Jungle" led to Teddy Roosevelt's Meat Inspection Act of 1907 (A good and necessary law for food safety)
Where it all went wrong was LBJ amending the Meat Inspection Act of 1907 with his Wholesome Meat Act of 1967
LBJ always meant well in all of his actions and laws. But in action after action there were unseen, unintended consequences. It was almost as though his presidency was cursed. Which is why I rate his presidency as easily
1 of the 10 worst of all time, with James Buchanan 1857-1861 hands down the worst.
The 1907 Act covered only meat crossing state lines, which in 1967 was 85% of fresh meat and 75% of processed meat.
LBJ saw this gap in federal power as a bad thing as it did not include imported and locally grown meats.
Rather than just passing a law to give the federal government jurisdiction over imported meats, he chose to try
to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and include locally grown meats.
In effect, LBJ's Wholesome Meat Act required all retail meat sold in the usa to be federally inspected by the USDA.
He was solving a problem with locally grown meat where no problem existed.
The cost of federal inspectors was too great for small local family butcher shops to compete with the big boys.
It drove thousands and thousands of small retail butcher shops out of business. And along with it the ability of small family farms to sell their products locally at competitive prices. Small producers with no other viable option were forced to sell their product to the big companies that could afford the new inspectors. These companies were able to pay for the added inspection costs by heavily discounting prices paid to small volume producers. Which in turn either forced small family farms out of business or caused many to scale back and get a job in town to make ends meet.
Economy of scale allowed for the vertical integration of meat production with Big Ag's battle cry of the 1970's
"GET BIG OR GET OUT"
op:
