Harvey Wiley & The Fight Against a Corrupt Market:
Dr. Wiley is an important figure to introduce when discussing the rise of the Food and Drug Administration. Wiley was an Indiana farmer who decided to seek an education at Hanover College. While there, Wiley discovered an interest in the American market and how it was shaping the lives of the citizens whom he interacted with. He was quickly realizing the shift in the American demographic towards a more urbanized society, which allowed for more control from the major companies who had more access to urbanears than farmers of the past. This move towards a commercial and urban market freed people from the self-sufficient lifestyle of the past but also allowed many individuals to become prey of …show more content…
Wiley created a team of agricultural chemists who studied the issues and misconceptions regarding the food being distributed to citizens. He gave this report to a Congress who had little interest in regulating the commercial market. Wiley was distraught over the addition of harsh chemicals to American food sources and their lack of testing on the effects they could have on humans. Even the medicine of the time had very little reliable information about its contents. The major companies could produce and sell whatever they saw fit, even if it was inadequate or unsafe for human consumption. These changes to the American food and drug market grew alongside the new focus on patenting. Patenting allowed companies to innovate new ideas and products and secure their ability to sell them. Drug patenting became hugely competitive and lucrative; because of this, many drugs that would be useful to the American product were sold for fortunes, in an attempt to fund the trials for new drugs to then be patented again. There were concerns among the public but there was no system to take in their questions or concerns. The American public had become a victim of the capitalist …show more content…
These two events completely changed the public's opinion leaving the majority to support attempts at reform. This shift in opinion left Congress in a stand still. The public was outraged by their lack of production for a food and drug safety bill and the president’s efforts to pass legislation left Congress distraught. Finally in the fall of 1906, a law was passed which included the inspection of meat products and plants that would be used for consumption; as well as a clause that forbid uninspected goods from crossing state lines. This law was a breakthrough but it really did not accomplish much on a national scale. What it did do was establishing the precedent that the federal government was allowed to have a part in the market and control commercial abuses, as well as the new acceptance of patent medications and formulas used by physicians as drugs that required regulation. This was a fundamental change in policy and allowed for the creation of an official branch of the federal government for food and drug safety. Wiley used this bill to create the official Food and Drug Administration, as well as assert that it was now “the job of the government to protect citizens from some kinds of commerce rather that just to protect commerce” (Hilts 55). This was not going to be an
Dr. Wiley is an important figure to introduce when discussing the rise of the Food and Drug Administration. Wiley was an Indiana farmer who decided to seek an education at Hanover College. While there, Wiley discovered an interest in the American market and how it was shaping the lives of the citizens whom he interacted with. He was quickly realizing the shift in the American demographic towards a more urbanized society, which allowed for more control from the major companies who had more access to urbanears than farmers of the past. This move towards a commercial and urban market freed people from the self-sufficient lifestyle of the past but also allowed many individuals to become prey of …show more content…
Wiley created a team of agricultural chemists who studied the issues and misconceptions regarding the food being distributed to citizens. He gave this report to a Congress who had little interest in regulating the commercial market. Wiley was distraught over the addition of harsh chemicals to American food sources and their lack of testing on the effects they could have on humans. Even the medicine of the time had very little reliable information about its contents. The major companies could produce and sell whatever they saw fit, even if it was inadequate or unsafe for human consumption. These changes to the American food and drug market grew alongside the new focus on patenting. Patenting allowed companies to innovate new ideas and products and secure their ability to sell them. Drug patenting became hugely competitive and lucrative; because of this, many drugs that would be useful to the American product were sold for fortunes, in an attempt to fund the trials for new drugs to then be patented again. There were concerns among the public but there was no system to take in their questions or concerns. The American public had become a victim of the capitalist …show more content…
These two events completely changed the public's opinion leaving the majority to support attempts at reform. This shift in opinion left Congress in a stand still. The public was outraged by their lack of production for a food and drug safety bill and the president’s efforts to pass legislation left Congress distraught. Finally in the fall of 1906, a law was passed which included the inspection of meat products and plants that would be used for consumption; as well as a clause that forbid uninspected goods from crossing state lines. This law was a breakthrough but it really did not accomplish much on a national scale. What it did do was establishing the precedent that the federal government was allowed to have a part in the market and control commercial abuses, as well as the new acceptance of patent medications and formulas used by physicians as drugs that required regulation. This was a fundamental change in policy and allowed for the creation of an official branch of the federal government for food and drug safety. Wiley used this bill to create the official Food and Drug Administration, as well as assert that it was now “the job of the government to protect citizens from some kinds of commerce rather that just to protect commerce” (Hilts 55). This was not going to be an