When one effectively portrays the ills of a popular issue, the outcomes can be revolutionary. Such was the case for one of the twentieth century’s most widespread literary compositions, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. By painting the plight of workers and portraying the corrupt business climate of the meatpacking industry, the novel’s popularity and vividly provocative detail helped pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Similarly, the contemporary documentary film Food Inc. outlined the labor and environmental defects of the agribusiness and the food industry as a whole. The film captivated Americans, leading to formal apologies of major food corporations like Monsanto and further preventative measures in relation to food contamination. Although the food industry has improved since the early twentieth century through more government regulations and higher wages, it has certainly worsened regarding certain regulatory agencies’ corrupt protection of major food corporations.
    

From the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to the release of the documentary Food Inc, the food industry as a whole has progressed pertaining government regulations. In the early twentieth century, food regulatory laws did not exist. Thus, companies were not held accountable for contaminated meat, false advertising, or labeling deception. Since the publication of The Jungle, however, such laws and regulatory measures have been taken. For instance, the recently passed FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 “aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it” (FDA.gov). This list of contemporary food safety regulations, indeed, serves as a paradigm of betterment in the food industry since the early twentieth century. In summation, the food industry has improved relating to government regulations.
    

Additionally, the implementation of higher wages functions as a significant advancement in the food industry since the inception of major food corporations. Upon the publication of The Jungle, a federal minimum wage, an absolutely necessary check on free market capitalism, did not subsist in the United States. Consequently, major food corporations could pay their personnel next to nothing, and they were legally protected by the federal government. Currently, minimum wage laws do exist, including the varying state-to-state minimum wages and the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. As a result, companies now pay their workers substantially more than they did in the early twentieth century. Mansanto, in particular, pays their farmers roughly $36,000 per year on average. Even accounting for inflation, Mansanto’s average salary for company farmers are significantly higher than company agriculturalists in the early twentieth century. Altogether, today’s higher wages exemplify a prevailing improvement in the food industry from the time of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
    

On the contrary, the food industry has worsened with regard to federal regulatory agencies’ protection of major food corporations. Essentially, certain federal regulatory agencies remain in the pockets of the major corporations that they propose to inhibit. During the Bush Administration, for example, the chief of staff at the USDA was also the former chief lobbyist to the beef industry in Washington. Likewise, the head of the FDA was the former executive vice president of the Food Processors Association. It seems that a corrupt consensual network has developed between big business and government, which has casted a dark shadow of dishonesty and exploitation on the food industry.
    

In conclusion, the food industry has certainly improved and worsened in various respects from the time of the twentieth-century muckraking novel The Jungle to the modern documentary film Food INC. Concerning government regulations and workers’ wages, conditions have indisputably changed for the better. However, the food industry has retained some negative aspects including food corporations’ manipulation of federal food regulatory agencies. As for the future of the food industry, major food corporations possess an obligation to improve the condition of the food industry as a whole and to rid themselves of corruption.