Dr Harvey Wiley Essay

Dr. Harvey Wiley is known as the pioneer of consumer activism. He was the first at the Food and Drug Administration, where he became known as the "Father of the Pure Food and Drugs Act". Wiley was born in 1844 on a frontier farm in Indiana. He spent his adolescence years planting and harvesting crops. His father was a humble school teacher who believed that all children should have basic education. He was one of the few in his family to go to college. He excelled in medicine and received a medical degree from Indiana Medical College and a science degree at Harvard. At the age of 37, he began teaching chemistry to students at Purdue University. In 1883 he gave up his life as a teacher and moved to washington D.C. and became a chief chemist in what is now the Department of Agriculture. His passion still remained the same as he continued to develop tests for food purity. …show more content…
To bring his cause to the public, and with a budget of $5,000, in 1902 Wiley organized a volunteer group of healthy young men, called the Poison Squad, who tested the effects of chemicals and adulterated foods on themselves. The battle was won on June 30, 1906, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drugs Act, largely written by Wiley, who was then appointed to oversee its administration. In his 19 years as director of the bureau at Good Housekeeping, he led the fight for tougher government inspection of meat; for pure butter unadulterated with water; and for whole wheat flour, which growers were mixing with other grains. Wiley in 1927 expressed his suspicion that the use of any form of tobacco might be harmful and that it might promote cancer. As a result, the Good Housekeeping stopped accepting cigarette ads in 1952. His influence led to better health labels and honest campaign slogans. The legacy of Wiley lives on at Good Housekeeping and at the Good Housekeeping