The Poison Squad

By the end of nineteenth century, food in America could be ownright deadly. Sustances added to extend the shelf life of food often shortened the life of the person who ate it. But American corporations blocked even modest food safety egulations. Then, in 1883, chemist Harvey Washington Wiley was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically analyzing food and drink, resorting to sometimes shocking methods. Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Deborah Blum will tell us about the long and dangerous conflict behind making food safe.