Until the dawn of the twentieth century, Americans and most of
the rest of the world for that matter, were pretty much on their
own so far as insuring the quality of the food they ate, the
medicines they took for their illnesses or the safety of their
workplace environments. America was an agrarian society made up
of small isolated communities in which everyone knew everyone
else and one knew who milked his cow, churned his butter, baked
his bread and prepared his medicines; and, he knew how it was
done and what went into the final product. He knew that he
needed to keep his hand out of the feed mill and also what would
happen to him if he did not. Any untoward happening was
considered to be his own fault; it was too bad but he should
have known better or been more attentive to what he was doing.
As the urban population grew as a result of the great migration
from Europe, this idyllic picture of American society changed
radically. Foods, drugs and other essential commodities became
products, created in inanim