Instruction
Topic:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/poison-squad/#part01
Write TWO responses (250-350 words for each response) to two posts belong to two different students below regarding to the documentary “The Poison Squad”.
Add something substantive to the discussion–a story (and how it’s relevant), a link (with an explanation about it), an argument (with evidence)…something other than “Yes, that was a great post!” Be sure to cite any information you obtained from other sources.
Reflection from student #1:
In the late 19th century, when Harvey Wiley started to improve food safety, there was no food safety because governmental regulations on food were lacking. Food companies for manufacturing and processing would use chemicals as they pleased to increase the quantity of food and preserve it for use over a more extended period. The thing that struck me as most egregious was how food companies were increasingly seeking to profit at the expense of fellow humans. The low-income populations who could not access fresh food such as vegetables and milk, among others from the farm, were particularly at risk of being poisoned by the high amount of chemicals in processed foods.
To advocate for the need for food regulation, Harvey Wiley experimented with 12 healthy young men who volunteered for the study. They ate nothing else apart from what Harvey Wiley gave them, which was the manufactured food, and the participants were labeled “Poison Squad” by News Media. After weeks of consuming food with borax, they developed headaches and uncontrollable trembling. None died, but it was clear that borax was making them sick. This experiment proved that adulterated food was not fit for human consumption. Despite having opponents in Congress who sought to thwart the efforts of Harvey Willey, he was generally successful in the public demonstration. He began many initiatives such as testing and approving, and he helped stop tobacco advertising because of the negative outcome it proved to have on health. In every attempt, he learned how to improve his approach, and he became more successful.
In conclusion, I have learned that to advocate for regulatory change, there is a need to have reliable information that cannot be dismissed. I perceive that if Harvey Wiley had just presented his case without some undeniably correct evidence, his adversaries would have had the ground to ignore everything he was presenting. Working with the right people and organizations is also crucial because Harvey Wiley could not have achieved the much he did if he had worked alone.
Reflection from student #2:
It is appalling that, not only was formaldehyde added to spoiled milk to sell it, but that those producing it essentially made a profit off of the deaths of thousands of children every year. It is horrible that those in the dairy business cared more about the bottom line than they did about doing the right thing and that they got away with it because of the lack of food regulations in our country.
Harvey Wiley first did scientific studies on volunteers with the most common poisons (they were coined the “poison squad”) which enlightened the public. This lead to the public reaching out to the public becoming aware and angry about the situation. This made the legislators respond to the outrage and to having Wiley speak before the house and senate. Although this did not result in regulations being put forth, he continued forward, gaining the support of women and housewives who were working with the women’s rights movement.
During this time, he started a letter writing campaign to Congress and the President along with Alice Lakey (a women’s suffragist), and throughout continued his attack against large companies who put harmful substances in their food products to reform their practices. Even with the continued denial by government to take his warnings seriously following Coca Cola’s win in maintaining the amount of caffeine in their product, he continued to pose his ideas in magazines in order to put them before the public. He also continued to lobby against the government for the rest of his life.
Wiley’s work did make a difference in the manufacture and safety of foods in our country. It happened posthumously, but he made an influence all the same. This is the benefit or reward derived from passionate pursuit of a worthy goal. Keep at it long enough and work to influence the right people and things will change over time.
