One unintended consequence of Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle was the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. While Sinclair had intended for his book to expose the terrible working and living conditions of the Chicago stockyards, the graphic descriptions of unsanitary meat-packing practices and the ill effects on the consumers inadvertently brought national attention to the need for federal regulation of the food and pharmaceutical industries.
