The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (FMIA) is an American law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand
meat and meat products being sold as food, and ensures that meat and meat products are
slaughtered and
processed under strictly regulated sanitary conditions.
These requirements also apply to imported meat products, which must be inspected under equivalent foreign standards.
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...
(USDA) inspection of poultry was added by the
Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957 (PPIA). The
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act authorizes the
Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
(FDA) to provide inspection services for all livestock and poultry species not listed in the FMIA or PPIA, including venison and buffalo. The
Agricultural Marketing Act authorizes the USDA to offer voluntary, fee-for-service inspection services for these same species.
Historical motivation for enactment
The original 1906 Act authorized the
Secretary of Agriculture to inspect and condemn any meat product found unfit for human consumption.
[ Unlike previous laws ordering meat inspections, which were enforced to assure European nations from banning pork trade, this law was strongly motivated to protect the American diet. All labels on any type of food had to be accurate (although not all ingredients were provided on the label). Even though all harmful food was banned, many warnings were still provided on the container. The production date for canned meats was a requirement in the legislation that Senator Albert Beveridge introduced but it was later removed in the House bill that was passed and became law. The law was partly a response to the publication of ]Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
's ''The Jungle
''The Jungle'' is a novel by American author and muckraking-journalist Upton Sinclair, known for his efforts to expose corruption in government and business in the early 20th century.
In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks gathering information ...
'', an exposé of the Chicago meat packing industry
The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the Slaughter (livestock), slaughtering, Food processing, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and o ...
, as well as to other Progressive Era
The Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) was a period in the United States characterized by multiple social and political reform efforts. Reformers during this era, known as progressivism in the United States, Progressives, sought to address iss ...
muckraking publications of the day. While Sinclair's dramatized account was intended to bring attention to the terrible working conditions in Chicago, the public was more horrified by the prospect of bad meat.
The book's assertions were confirmed in the Neill-Reynolds report, commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
in 1906. Roosevelt was suspicious of Sinclair's socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
attitude and conclusions in ''The Jungle'', so he sent labor commissioner Charles P. Neill and social worker James Bronson Reynolds, men whose honesty and reliability he trusted, to Chicago to make surprise visits to meat packing facilities.
Despite betrayal of the secret to the meat packers, who worked three shifts a day for three weeks to thwart the inspection, Neill and Reynolds were still revolted by the conditions at the factories and at the lack of concern by plant managers (though neither had much experience in the field). Following their report, Roosevelt became a supporter of regulation of the meat packing industry, and, on June 30, signed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
The FMIA mandated the United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...
(USDA) inspection of meat processing plants that conducted business across state lines. The Pure Food and Drug Act
The s:Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, also known as the Wiley Act and Harvey Washington Wiley, Dr. Wiley's Law, was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws enacted by the United States Con ...
, enacted on the same day (June 30, 1906), also gave the government broad jurisdiction over food in interstate commerce
The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amon ...
.
The four primary requirements of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 were:
#Mandatory inspection of livestock
Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...
before slaughter (cattle, sheep
Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...
, goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
s, equines, and swine
Suina (also known as Suiformes) is a suborder of omnivorous, non-ruminant artiodactyl mammals that includes the domestic pig and peccaries. A member of this clade is known as a suine. Suina includes the family Suidae, termed suids, known in ...
);
#Mandatory postmortem inspection of every carcass;
#Sanitary standards established for slaughterhouse
In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a mea ...
s and meat processing plants; and
#Authorized U.S. Department of Agriculture ongoing monitoring and inspection of slaughter and processing operations.
After 1906, many additional laws that further standardized the meat industry and its inspection were passed.
Preemption of state law
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in '' National Meat Assn. v. Harris'', that the FMIA preempts a California law regulating the treatment of non-ambulatory livestock.National Meat Association v. Harris
SCOTUSblog (January 23, 2012). Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
Amendments to 1907 Act
Chronological
legislation
Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...
relative to U.S. Congressional revisions concerning the Federal Meat Inspection Act.
See also
*
Humane Slaughter Act
*
Packers and Stockyards Act
*
Pure Food and Drug Act
The s:Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, also known as the Wiley Act and Harvey Washington Wiley, Dr. Wiley's Law, was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws enacted by the United States Con ...
References
Further reading
* Coppin, Clayton and Jack High. ''The Politics of Purity: Harvey Washington Wiley and the Origins of Federal Food Policy'' (University of Michigan Press, 1999).
* Goodwin, Lorine S. ''The Pure Food, Drink, and Drug Crusaders, 1879–1914'' (McFarland, 1999).
* Law, Marc. "History of Food and Drug Regulation in the United States". ''EH.Net Encyclopedia,'' edited by Robert Whaples. 2004
online* Law, Marc T. "The Origins of State Pure Food Regulation." ''Journal of Economic History'' 63#4 (2003): 1103–1130.
* Libecap, Gary D. "The rise of the Chicago packers and the origins of meat inspection and antitrust." ''Economic Inquiry'' 30.2 (1992): 242–262. Emphasizes the role of the big packers and passage of the law that protected them against unsanitary local packing houses.
* Young, James H. ''Pure Food: Securing the Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906'' (Princeton University Press. 1986).
* Young, James Harvey. "The Pig that Fell into the Privy: Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and the meat inspection amendments of 1906." ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'' Vol. 59, no. 4 (Winter 1985): 467–480.
External links
''U.S. Food and Drug Administration''
{{Theodore Roosevelt
1906 in American law
Food law
Food safety in the United States
United States federal health legislation
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
1906 in American politics
Progressive Era in the United States
Meat inspection
Veterinary medicine in the United States