Corrupt and crooked people were found all over America🇺🇸 during the late 1800s and early 1900s. During this period tannin and coal tar were sold as wine, mashed calf brain was packaged as cheese, flavoured chalk solution was sold as milk, maple syrup was sold as jam, and corn syrup with scraps of honeycomb was sold as honey. Charcoal and burnt coconut husk were sold as pepper, and fried chicory was sold as coffee. Indeed, packaged foods had little or no labelling.
The industrial revolution had forced many Americans from their rural homes into cities. Prior to the American Civil War (the antebellum period) and the industrial revolution, American society was mainly agrarian. Most of the population lived on small family farms where they raised their own animals, milked their own cattle, made their own bread, butter, and cheese, grew their own cereals and vegetables etc…
With the expansion of railroads, industries, and gigantic cities, came the mass exodus of rural folk from family farms. Living in overcrowded urban areas with no land to farm and no time and kitchen to cook, many turned to processed industrial foods. Large industrial complexes were established, especially in Chicago, to process thousands of animals and food crops into cans for national distribution.
As there were no refrigerators, these industrial food manufacturers turned to the rising chemical manufacturing industry for solutions. Chemical food additives that could preserve food in cans or packages were thus introduced, without considering or testing their health effects on the consumer. Indeed, stale milk and rotten meat were drenched with formaldehyde, the chemical used to preserve corpses, prior to packaging them into cans for human consumption. This became known as embalmed milk/meat…
Dangerous chemicals such as borax, cocaine, copper sulphate, salicylic acid, formaldehyde etc., were added to food to keep it fresh, green, and firm…
Upton Sinclair, a novelist who sneaked into a food processing plant in Chicago, saw how rotten and mouldy meat, meat that had fallen into latrines used by the staff, roaming rodents (mice), and human parts chopped off during slicing of the meat, were all quickly processed and packaged with impunity. His book, “the jungle”, which detailed these dastardly scenes, quickly became a best-seller. The books caused a national uproar and forced the government to investigate. The investigation revealed the same and even worse scenes.
It took the efforts of one man, Harvey Washington Wiley, to rise to the occasion and regulate the food industry. Battling against industrialists, businessmen, lobbyists, legislators, and politicians who were bent on maintaining the status quo, Wiley established and became the founder of the US FDA. Using human volunteers nicknamed “the poison squad”, Wiley fed them for weeks with food “poisoned” with the common food additives: borax, caffeine, cocaine🧋, formaldehyde, copper sulphate, salicylic acid, etc.
Within days to weeks, the very healthy young men of the poison squad developed very serious health complications that forced many to drop out of the study. The findings of this research rattled the nation and increased calls for legislation to regulate the food industry. Expectedly, the food industrialists also fought back by hiring scientists who “proved” that these additives were safe. If you think Africa is corrupt, then look further. The most corrupt entities are in the West.
Why are nitrites still used in foods despite their cancerous effects? Why are dangerous pesticides that cause Parkinson’s disease and killed millions of bees still not banned? Why were organophosphates (eg. roundup) made by Bayer/Monsanto used for years, despite their cancerous effects, only to be now regulated? Billions of dollars are now being paid to compensate the victims.
Evidently, the commercialization of cooking and food processing has affected the health of humanity greatly. It has made us dependent on companies and restaurants and affected our overall health. Space wouldn’t allow me to delineate the corruption existing in the food industry. The recent horsemeat scandal was just the tip of the iceberg. The food industry now decides what you eat. When they shut down, millions will go hungry. An example is the shortage of baby formula in the US; why can’t mums make food for their babies?
To charge of our health, we need to take charge of our food. The experiment conducted with the poison squad and its outcome only echoes what is written in scripture:
“When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you; and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.” Proverbs 23:1-3.
