.png)
Pork, politics, and public health
During an autopsy of an Italian barometer maker in a London hospital in January 1835, doctors found what they termed "spiculae of bone" in his muscles. James Paget, a medical student at that hospital, examined these objects with a magnifying lens and found that many were cysts with "a small worm coiled up" inside. Richard Owen, an older and wealthier scientist who could afford a powerful microscope, examined these worms and named them Trichina spiralis (later changed to Trichinella spiralis). In time, other scientists found these parasites in raw or under-cooked pork. And others showed that they caused trichinosis, an often fatal disease.
Since few Americans ate raw pork, trichinosis was never a big problem in the United States. Just to be safe, however, the U.S. Department of Agriculture advised, time and again, that pork should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160° Fahrenheit. If thermometers were not available, boiling pork for 15 minutes per pound in summer (or 18 minutes per pound in winter) would prevent trichinosis.
Europe was a different story. Following an outbreak of trichinosis in the 1860s, European countries insisted on inspections of all pork on the market. When Americans refused to pay for inspections, Europeans embargoed American pork—thereby protecting their agricultural industries as well as their citizens. As the economic effects of this embargo became onerous, American meat producers and packers sought public assistance. Many requests came from Chicago, Illinois, the city that, with the great expansion of railroads at mid-century, had become "Hog butcher for the world" (as the poet Carl Sandburg would later write). Philip Armour, a major entrepreneur, asked Washington to send scientists to inspect hogs killed at his Chicago plant. When this went well, Armour lobbied for federal inspection of all pork intended for export. The Chicago Board of Trade agreed, calling for "vigorous action on the part of the national government to protect this great industry." After Congress gave its approval, American pork again appeared on European tables.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق