🧵 Why Farmers Can’t Sell You Meat Straight From Their Land

The story behind how it became illegal for farmers to sell home-processed meat in America.

1️⃣ It wasn’t always illegal.
Before 1906, farmers could raise an animal, butcher it, and sell meat directly to neighbors, towns, or local butchers.
There were no federal rules governing meat sales: only local ordinances or state guidelines.
But as industrialization boomed, huge packing plants in cities like Chicago took over most meat production.
This shift from local to factory-scale processing changed everything. 2️⃣ The book that shook the nation.
In 1906, journalist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle.
He meant to expose worker exploitation in Chicago’s meatpacking plants, but what horrified readers was the description of rats, filth, and spoiled meat being ground into sausages.
Public outrage exploded.
President Theodore Roosevelt, though skeptical of Sinclair’s politics, ordered his own federal investigation, and it confirmed much of the unsanitary truth.