this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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[–] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 178 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Welcome to The Jungle, we play dirty games.

Food safety costs a lot, so fuck the FDA

-Food companies, basically.

[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 109 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fun fact:

The precursor to the FDA was created during Theodore Roosevelt's administration. After the book was published, Roosevelt sent federal investigators to the Chicago slaughterhouses to validate the conditions detailed in the story.

The investigators reported that the conditions were worse than described in the book. And that was after the slaughterhouse owners got wind that the feds were coming and had everything cleaned from top to bottom.

Hard to imagine what "worse" looks like because the conditions detailed in the book are truly appalling.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 74 points 2 days ago

Additional fun fact, The Jungle was meant to highlight the poor working conditions in slaughter houses, but the outrage was related entirely to the poor consideration for the meat that the public was eating.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 44 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Love the cover:

collapsed inline mediaThe Jungle Upton Sinclair

[Incidentally and entirely off-topic, it reminds me of the book(s) I'm reading right now: Josiah Bancroft's Tower of Babel tetralogy - urban steampunk jungle, vertically]

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

Not sure if you intended this, but you can absolutely get what you wrote to work with the timing (and same rhyme sounds/pattern, basically) of the first few lyrics of Guns N Roses 'Welcome to the Jungle', with minor modifications.

Welcome to the Jungle,

where we play dirty games.

Food safety sure costs a lot,

so fuck the FDA.

We are the people who hate fines,

Whatever they may be.

If you got no money, honey,

We got your disease.

etc.

(Wonderful that some of the lyrics don't have to change at all, nor really the chorus, yay internal bleeding.)

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[–] nyahlathotep@sh.itjust.works 123 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

they used to put brick dust in chocolate bars, and sawdust in bread

edit: heck, they just caught someone recently intentionally putting lead in ~~applesauce~~ cinnamon that was used in applesauce, which has been used off and on as a sweetener since at least ancient rome, where a bunch of people went crazy and died from consuming a sweetener made by boiling grapes in lead pots

[–] thebustinator@lemm.ee 50 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I mean if you think about it, cinnamon is essentially sawdust right?

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (5 children)
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[–] whodatdair@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Copper sulfate used to be added to canned peas because it turns green when it oxidizes, making them look greener.

Copper sulphate is straight up poisonous, enough will kill a passion and low amounts will hurt them.

Anyone who wants to learn more about this history, there is a great episode of the “ridiculous history” podcast that goes into the story that finally got food regulations in the US. A team of people who volunteered to be poisoned to help prove that certain things are unsafe to put in food.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

enough will kill a passion

Those poor, poor passions!

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's also HEAVY, so something light sold by weight just needs a liiiiittle lead to be a lot cheaper to make

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago

This is what caused that pet food scare back in the 00's. Some Chinese manufacturer realized that they were being paid by weight, not volume, so they added heavy metals to their cat food and it poisoned a few cats here in the US.

China executed that guy btw.

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[–] psivchaz@reddthat.com 105 points 1 day ago (3 children)

My favorite "we had to regulate this" is coal mining. You see, the larger a coal mine tunnel, the more work and time it takes. So smaller tunnels will be more profitable. So in some places they preferred smaller women and children, so they could make make smaller, easier tunnels. This one I only ever found one source on, but supposedly one mine owner noticed that snags on clothing were slowing things down in the narrow tunnels so he insisted on sending them in nude. Nothing more capitalist than naked coal mining children.

[–] arrow74@lemm.ee 20 points 1 day ago (4 children)

The fact that these fucks were not regularly dragged from their mansions and beaten to death blows my mind

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[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 101 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Someone somewhere recently pointed out that fascism tends to rear its ugly head every 100 years because everyone that experienced it last time has to be dead before it can happen again.

Americans specifically have had it generally good for so long that anyone incapable of picking up and absorbing information from a history book, which is most Americans, simply don't know how bad it used to be. So they fucking sleepwalk into fascism or allowing regulations to be rolled back.

You'd think that having a written language to chronicle all our mistakes would ensure that we moved forward without repeatedly making those mistakes, but the catch is the majority of people have to read the fucking words for that to matter.

[–] BlackSheep@lemmy.ca 57 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hence, the defunding of education, and specifically critical thinking. That is by design. You can’t easily control the population when they can read and think for themselves.

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Exactly. Critical Thinking is the literally the most imoportant skill you cn learn. Critical Thinking is what allows people to recognize nonsensical propaganda immediately upon hearing it, and reject it.

It worked for me back in the late 80s, when Rush Limbaugh got started. He had a very entertaining delivery, but I was easily rejecting his unsourced bullshit and blatant lies, while people were calling in praising him for "opening their eyes." Dude, he's entertaining, I get that, but that doesn't mean he isn’t lying to you.

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[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 26 points 1 day ago

I think it would help to have history-oriented comics and manga in schools. I learned to enjoy history, in no small part on account of Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe series. Making things approachable is how people progress from knowing nothing to being a college graduate.

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[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

but the catch is the majority of people have to read the fucking words for that to matter.

Hell, I'd even settle for more people watching classic movies and TV shows. People need to maintain some link to the past to see the mindset of those who lived through fascism, wars, etc. and absorb what a society that rejects those ideas looks like.

Culture is a big part of our collective memory, and a society that can't look back will just reinvent the same problems.

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[–] Crikeste@lemm.ee 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

When I told my parents how we got things like the 40 hour work week they were fucking mortified. Something seemingly so inconsequential, many people died for.

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[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 69 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Vote with your dollar! If tainted baby formula kills your kid, simply refuse to buy that brand anymore!

[–] Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca 64 points 1 day ago (1 children)

3 stars. I dislike that it killed my baby, but shipping was really fast!

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[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 63 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Damn, just five minutes ago I saw this link shared in another thread:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swill_milk_scandal

🤢🤮

It took us well over a century to establish some sort of framework that makes such horrors almost impossible, but no, regulations are bad 🙄

Same for workers btw. And cows. It's not just about food security. That's just easier to sell to a thoroughly egoistic constituency.

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[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 62 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Omg is this the joke? Chalk in milk? So it took me 30 years to actually understand this Simpsons joke?

The golden years writers were so genius.

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[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 57 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Eventually we Canadians won't even have to boycott American agricultural products, they just won't be able to sell them to us because they won't pass our safety requirements.

I already subscribe to y'alls government emails about recalls, I suggest other Americans do too because many products are sold in both places, and hopefully it would be too expensive to set up two production lines, one for lower or nonexistant US standards and one for Canada. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en for 'muricans who are curious

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[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 49 points 2 days ago (1 children)

safety rules and regulations are usually 'written in blood'.

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[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 47 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Everyone who wants to remove food regulations should just be shot. I'm so tired of these absolute fools that slept through 10th grade history trying to take us back to the gilded age.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 15 points 1 day ago

It wasn't even just 10th grade... I learned about this shit in grade school, then again in civics class in Jr. High. Then again in American History in high school. Anyone who doesn't understand the risks here shouldn't be allowed outside by themselves.

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[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 38 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Whenever a corporation does something good (for example, make a charitable donation) rest assured it’s been calculated that the positive PR will make it financially worthwhile.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (8 children)

And it reduces its tax burden.

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Safety regulations are written in the blood of those who died from unsafe practices.

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[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It was so much worse than just chalk. Additives included plaster of Paris, lead, cow brain, and fucking formaldehyde

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Formaldehyde is natural, or bodies make some of it so it's fine /s

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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 30 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My favourite was hot dog and sausage vendors in big US cities, especially New York, in the early 1900s ..... they would take semi rancid meat, mix it with lye or some chemical to reduce the stench and bacteria, then mix it with red food colouring .... a good batch was known as a mix that didn't make that many people sick.

[–] notabot@lemm.ee 19 points 2 days ago

Sausage-inna-bun. CMOT Dibbler would be proud, no one else would.

[–] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 27 points 1 day ago

What Conservatives would like us to forget is that many regulations are written in blood.

[–] aramova@infosec.pub 27 points 1 day ago
[–] Rooskie91@discuss.online 25 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

This is why I've been trying to point out that the ground swell around raw milk seems to have less to do with any critiques of pasteurization (there are no good critiques) and more to do with the fact that if pasteurization isn't mandated as the only way to make milk safe to drink, corporations will seek cheaper options, like mixing raw milk with formaldehyde...

Relevant article

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[–] tabarnaski@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Same logic with antivax people.

[–] slappypantsgo@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

1000% my first thought. These nutjobs who say “just get some fresh air” are coasting upon the millions of dead and buried who paid the price for us to have longer healthier lives. Strict stringent food safety. Mandatory vaccines without exemptions.

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

But RandLover1988 on YouTube told me businesses have to sell good things otherwise competitors will come in and they'll go bankrupt, unless there are too many regulations and too much socialism, which is why he got banned for saying the N-word on YouTube. /s

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 16 points 2 days ago (4 children)

One thing people forget is that it was Big Food that wanted regulations.

After the book came out, it was almost impossible for American companies to sell their products overseas. Teddy knew that slapping a government label attesting to quality would mean that American companies would be able to make big profits.

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[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 16 points 1 day ago

It wasn't chalk, it was borax. And that was because it neutralised the sour taste of turned milk.

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