TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR BRIAN CASSERLY
Video clips from our interview with Dr. Casserly can be found embedded throughout our website. Below is a transcription of additional background and commentary he offered.
“…I think the first thing you need to think about is that…the Drug Act, the Pure Food and Drug Act of the early 1900’s the context in which it is emerging. So its emerging in a context of a major reform movement in American history called the Progressive Movement…so there’s a whole series of reforms in various aspects in American society the progressive reformers are interested…they want to fix basically a lot of problems which they see in society. And one of the problems that they were concerned about is what they think is too much power for large corporations and not enough regulation of corporations in terms of the effects the corporations have on the various aspects of…of society—and concerns with food, medicine and etc. are going to fit into that whole concern that they have—a larger worry about the worry about the effect of large corporations…the uncontrolled effect that the might have on the American population. So that’s the context in which it’s emerging…”
“…And there are a number of people who are investigating problems surrounding issues like…food problems and problems in regards to…adulteration of drugs…and the contamination of food in the early part of the 20th century. Those groups of people are often focused around journalists investigating these problems, and particularly a group of journalists who became known as the muckrakers….One of the big things, and you’ve probably…I’m sure you’re familiar with this already…is that there’s a journalist who is called Upton Sinclair who writes called The Jungle, in which he investigates the working conditions…in the meat packing industry in places such as Chicago. And he’s fundamentally concerned about the really appalling working conditions…that the workers were laboring under. Really dirty, really dangerous…And again his intention is to draw attention to the really appalling working conditions in this industry, but it turns out that what people are interested in is not necessarily that the works are being abused and exploited and having to suffer these terrible conditions, but instead they’re worried about the conditions in which food is being produced. So really appalling cases of poor hygiene, contamination of food (in the canning industry and in the meat packing industry)…all of that is really what the public latches on to: and the public then creates pressure on the government to do something…”
“…And that then carries over into the drug industry: concerns about the contamination of drugs that are being produced in the American economy. And that then leads to the Pure Food and Drug Act, which is the government’s effort to try to regulate the ability of corporations to do what they want in producing food and drugs in the American society. So, there’s going to be this effort to try and bring about further government regulation to protect the consumer. So really there’s the rise of kind of a consumer movement in the United States, largely brought to light by writings like Upton Sinclair and The Jungle which highlights issues which then other consumer advocates are going to be concerned with….and that then continues down throughout the rest of the 20th century in terms of continued efforts to ensure that what people are buying and what they are consuming…is safe for them to do so.”
“And that, you know, applies eventually over the course of the 20th century to other things as well: to things like for example… in the 1960’s and early 1970’s to making cars safer. And to introducing things like seatbelts. And it applies to things like for example making sure that clothing sold to young children, particularly infants, is…not a fire hazard. All of those things become implemented over the course of the 20th century; but the Pure Food and Drug Act is kind of the great-grandfather of them all in terms of efforts to protect the consumer…”
(Interview by Abby Orler and Grace Wang, January 24 2014)
Video clips from our interview with Dr. Casserly can be found embedded throughout our website. Below is a transcription of additional background and commentary he offered.
“…I think the first thing you need to think about is that…the Drug Act, the Pure Food and Drug Act of the early 1900’s the context in which it is emerging. So its emerging in a context of a major reform movement in American history called the Progressive Movement…so there’s a whole series of reforms in various aspects in American society the progressive reformers are interested…they want to fix basically a lot of problems which they see in society. And one of the problems that they were concerned about is what they think is too much power for large corporations and not enough regulation of corporations in terms of the effects the corporations have on the various aspects of…of society—and concerns with food, medicine and etc. are going to fit into that whole concern that they have—a larger worry about the worry about the effect of large corporations…the uncontrolled effect that the might have on the American population. So that’s the context in which it’s emerging…”
“…And there are a number of people who are investigating problems surrounding issues like…food problems and problems in regards to…adulteration of drugs…and the contamination of food in the early part of the 20th century. Those groups of people are often focused around journalists investigating these problems, and particularly a group of journalists who became known as the muckrakers….One of the big things, and you’ve probably…I’m sure you’re familiar with this already…is that there’s a journalist who is called Upton Sinclair who writes called The Jungle, in which he investigates the working conditions…in the meat packing industry in places such as Chicago. And he’s fundamentally concerned about the really appalling working conditions…that the workers were laboring under. Really dirty, really dangerous…And again his intention is to draw attention to the really appalling working conditions in this industry, but it turns out that what people are interested in is not necessarily that the works are being abused and exploited and having to suffer these terrible conditions, but instead they’re worried about the conditions in which food is being produced. So really appalling cases of poor hygiene, contamination of food (in the canning industry and in the meat packing industry)…all of that is really what the public latches on to: and the public then creates pressure on the government to do something…”
“…And that then carries over into the drug industry: concerns about the contamination of drugs that are being produced in the American economy. And that then leads to the Pure Food and Drug Act, which is the government’s effort to try to regulate the ability of corporations to do what they want in producing food and drugs in the American society. So, there’s going to be this effort to try and bring about further government regulation to protect the consumer. So really there’s the rise of kind of a consumer movement in the United States, largely brought to light by writings like Upton Sinclair and The Jungle which highlights issues which then other consumer advocates are going to be concerned with….and that then continues down throughout the rest of the 20th century in terms of continued efforts to ensure that what people are buying and what they are consuming…is safe for them to do so.”
“And that, you know, applies eventually over the course of the 20th century to other things as well: to things like for example… in the 1960’s and early 1970’s to making cars safer. And to introducing things like seatbelts. And it applies to things like for example making sure that clothing sold to young children, particularly infants, is…not a fire hazard. All of those things become implemented over the course of the 20th century; but the Pure Food and Drug Act is kind of the great-grandfather of them all in terms of efforts to protect the consumer…”
(Interview by Abby Orler and Grace Wang, January 24 2014)