"Over a Century of Consumer Protection: The FDA"

Monday, May 16th, 2016

Diana D. Monaco, a dietician and also a Public Affairs Specialist in the Buffalo office of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was the TR Site’s featured speaker in April.  Her lively and interesting talk focused on two men who were instrumental in the fight to safeguard the United States’ food supply: Harvey W. Wiley, MD, and Theodore Roosevelt.

While many people associate the creation of the FDA with Theodore Roosevelt, who signed the Pure Food and Drug Act into law on June 30, 1906, Ms. Monaco suggested that Dr. Harvey W. Wiley deserves at least as much credit as TR.  Sometimes called the “Father of the FDA,” Wiley was born on an Indiana farm on October 18, 1844.  His family was adamantly opposed to slavery and his father’s example of unwavering commitment to a righteous cause made a lasting impression.

Wiley interrupted his studies at Hanover College to enlist in the Union Army, eventually completing his degree in 1867.  He then earned a medical degree at Indiana Medical College and studied at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, before landing a job as a chemistry professor at Purdue University.  Wiley’s first foray into the world of food adulteration came during his time at Purdue.  While studying what was purported to be pure honey, Wiley found that it was mostly glucose.  He went on to show that glucose adulteration damaged honey and suggested a means of preventing it.

In 1883, Wiley was appointed chief chemist in the Department of Agriculture, where he immediately expanded the federal government’s investigations into food adulteration.  Wiley went on to publish the unsettling results of his work, in an effort to heighten public awareness and encourage federal regulation.  Although pure-food bills were introduced in Congress throughout the 1880s and 1890s (in no small part due to Wiley’s efforts), none of them ever made it to the president’s desk.

Wiley persevered, however, and in his 1899 annual report, he “warned that the mislabeling of food and drugs represented a national epidemic that posed a direct threat to the health of millions of Americans. He emphasized that mislabeling posed a particular threat to the old, the young, and the sick, who unknowing[ly] ingested dangerous chemicals into vulnerable and infirm bodies.”  To demonstrate just how dangerous some common food additives were, Wiley organized a group of healthy young men who volunteered to test the effects of chemical additives and adulterated foods.  The young men lived together in a boarding house and were served meals that had been meticulously prepared with measured amounts of additives such as boric acid, borax, salicylic acid, sulphates, benzoates, and formaldehyde.  It was said “NONE BUT THE BRAVE CAN EAT THE FARE” served at Wiley’s boarding house.  In addition to keeping track of what each man ate, Wiley closely monitored their vital signs for any changes as well as any unusual symptoms.  For example, Ms. Monaco showed the audience a page from one young man’s daily chart; on that particular day, he reported: “Throbbing pains in the head, dizzy -- a little worse than yesterday.”  The disturbing results of Wiley’s experiments were purposefully spread far and wide.  Not surprisingly, the story captured public imagination; the young men were dubbed “The Poison Squad.”

Wiley used the results of the Poison Squad experiments to breathe new life into his campaign for federal regulation.  He also enlisted the help of women’s groups and popular women’s magazines (like Ladies Home Journal & Good Housekeeping) to spread the word about the dangers that chemicals presented to young children.  According to modern-day historians and Wiley himself, it was the club women of the country who turned the tide of public opinion in favor of “pure food” legislation.

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1901, a young New Yorker named Theodore Roosevelt was unexpectedly catapulted into the highest office in the country.  According to Monaco, TR’s thinking on the issues that drove the national debate on food and drugs had been shaped by the Spanish-American War’s “embalmed beef scandal.”  American troops were fed canned meat shipped to Cuba from Chicago meat producers.  The so-called “embalmed beef” was spoiled, sickening thousands of troops and killing hundreds (more, in fact, than died as a direct result of combat).  Roosevelt was outraged by the episode.

Nevertheless, Wiley did not get off to a good start with his new boss.  When Wiley publicly opposed a measure (supported by TR) that would have removed all trade barriers on Cuban sugar imports, TR ordered Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson to fire Wiley.  Wilson had his own differences with Wiley, but respected his integrity and ability.  Wilson convinced Roosevelt to allow Wiley to stay and, within a few short years, the two men were both working to get an ambitious food and drug act through Congress.

On February 12, 1906, the bill passed the Senate by a wide margin and the debate moved to the House of Representatives.  Later that month, however, muckraker Upton Sinclair published his now-famous novel, The Jungle.  Readers zeroed in on 15 pages within the book that described horrifyingly unsanitary practices in the meatpacking industry, including stories about workers falling into processing vats, children drinking formaldehyde-tainted milk, dead rats being shoveled into sausage-grinding machines, and spoiled meat being routinely disguised through chemical adulteration.  Roosevelt order sweeping reforms in the meatpacking industry, including regular inspections and new labeling, but the debate raged on in the House for months.  Finally, with only a few days left in the session, the bill was passed and reached TR’s desk.  He signed the Food & Drug Act into law on June 30th, 1906.

-- Lenora M. Henson, Curator / Director of Public Programming

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Speaker Nite is part of the TR Site’s regular Tuesday evening programming, which is made possible with support from M&T Bank.

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