Meat Fit to Eat

Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle, a scathing expose of the filthy conditions existing in the nation's meat-packing plants, led to passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act. Still in force, the act requires the Department of Agriculture to inspect every red-meat animal whose carcass moves in interstate commerce --both before and after slaughter. Trouble is, 15% of the slaughtered animals and 25% of the processed meat do not cross state lines and thus escape federal regulation. Policing of this meat is left to the states, but only 29 have mandatory meat-inspection laws, and most of those are considered inadequate by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In an attempt to bolster state inspection services, the House of Representatives earlier this year voted 403 to 1 to provide grants of up to half the appropriated cost of state meat-inspection programs that live up to federal standards. In hearings before a Senate agriculture subcommittee, New Mexico's Democratic Senator Joseph M. Montoya proposed federal takeover of any state's inspection program that failed after two or three years to measure up to U.S. Government standards. Going a long step further, Minnesota's Democratic Senator Walter F. Mondale last week was pushing a bill calling for federal inspection of all meat sold for human consumption.

Flies & Vermin. The meat-packing industry has changed from downright opposition to any federal intervention in intrastate business to outright embracing of the Montoya bill. For as the subcommittee hearings continue, meat packers and grocers alike are hurting from the publicity generated by mounting evidence of irregular and insufficient intrastate meat-inspecting practices. Graphic descriptions were presented to the subcommittee from a 1962 Agriculture Department report of non-federally controlled meat-packing houses alive with flies and vermin. The subcommittee was also told that in 1966 federal inspectors forced producers to discard 250 million pounds of unwholesome meat.

In yet another test, the Department of Agriculture last July examined non-federally inspected processed meat products on grocery-store shelves--including Atlantic & Pacific, Kroger and First National Stores--in 38 states. Of the 162 samples tested, only 39 were able to meet federal standards. In most cases, the products contained more than the specified amounts of water, binder, cereals and nonfat dry milk, additives that do not necessarily injure health but do devalue the meat.

Switching Bills. With Mondale racking up mileage from his publicly popular cause--and with headline-grabbing Ralph Nader and labor unions joining the fight for across-the-board federal standards--it was not surprising last week that the Johnson Administration switched allegiance from Montoya to Mondale. Said Consumer Affairs Special Assistant Betty Furness: "The American housewife wants immediate and mandatory meat inspection." Speaking of the Montoya bill, she added: "I believe the housewife is unwilling to wait two years or three years or longer before she can be confident that the meat she serves her family is healthful." Best guess, however, is that the subcommittee will compromise on a bill closer to Montoya's version so as to avoid a floor fight before a final vote by the Senate.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.