The presence of McDonald’s in Moscow signaled the triumph of capitalism inthese post-Cold War years, spread by new patterns of globalization
McDonald’s (and by extension, foods like chicken nuggets) symbolized U.S. capitalist values penetrating former Communist societies, turning fast food into a geopolitical marker
Perdue called to them, “Come on folks, shape up! Start eating mychickens.”
Industry marketing of chicken as healthy. Shows manipulation of consumer beliefs to sell processed foods.
his negation was as political as it was nutritional ... The loss ofconfidence in America’s political superiority was matched by a loss of faith inits food habits.
Dietary advice and health fears shaped food industries and perceptions. Chicken nuggets benefited from being perceived as “low-fat” alternatives to red meat.
Don’t Do More Chickens, Do Moreto Chicken,” prioritizing further processing over higher rates of production
Shift from selling whole birds to value-added processed products. Demonstrates industrial capitalism’s logic: transform raw goods for higher profit Chicken Nuggets represent value-added capitalist strategies.
he roleof the family-size poultry producer has been reduced to ‘a cheap hired handwith a large investment
Reflects how agribusinesses shifted risk to small farmers while consolidating profits.
Rationing of red meat during the Second World War had increased demandfor poultry
WWII meat rationing shifted American meat preferences. Set the foundation for chicken’s post-war rise; shows war's long-term domestic effects.
Agribusiness,” theauthor wrote, “has managed to take the old barnyard, worm-eating animaland transform it into a wondrous fast-growing creation bred to live in asynthetic setting.”
Rise of vertically integrated chicken production systems. Reflects the transformation of agriculture post-WWII and consolidation of food systems Chicken Nuggets, caused by industrial farming innovations, enabling cheap, mass-produced meat.
Tofu came to mean somethingbigger. By 1969, the New York Times reported that “Some even feel that itmay be time to take seriously what many members of the younger generation,especially the hippies, have been saying for quite some time: You Are WhatYou Eat.
Tofu represented a broader countercultural rebellion against industrialized food and mainstream American consumerism. Symbolize the shift toward food as self-expression and political resistance
Soybeans were heralded as a potential solution tothe problem of inadequate global protein resource
Tofu became a sustainable protein alternative in the face of environmental concerns. Helped Americans reimagine food in an ecological, global context.
food is used as apolitical weapon” and proposed a countermeasure: “if you have a pig in yourbackyard, if you have some vegetables in your garden, you can feed yourselfand your family, and nobody can push you around.”
The philosophy aligns with tofu's rise as a self-sufficient, plant-based protein alternative embraced by other protest movements. Underscores the idea that controlling your food system is essential to political freedom—ideas that tofu later came to represent in white counterculture.
Young people were especially at the center of these changes. Theyrecognized the ways that institutions—from partisan politics to the militaryto corporations—had failed them
Tofu's popularity among youth represented a rejection of industrialized, processed, corporate food systems. Provide an alternative to mainstream systems—communes, cooperatives, etc.
this movement’s broader politicization of food laid the groundworkfor tofu’s rise in the years to follow
The framing of food as a right and tool for resistance created the mindset that allowed alternative diets like tofu to become politically meaningful. --> Inspired boarder food activism
That began to change in 1975, when another cookbook, The Book of Tofu, waspublished and its authors William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi traveled the UnitedStates spreading the gospel of tofu and launching tofu businesses all over
Tofu became popular in America as part of a broader interest in Eastern philosophies, vegetarianism, and health-conscious eating. Tofu symbolized a cultural shift in diet and values, representing protest against industrial food and war, and interest in Eastern traditions.
This was a time of dietary excess, to which Graham was reacting.
Dietary reforms- probably around the Industrial Revolution cause it produced too much food for people to consume.
Reilly’s roleas home economist was less a blue-collar job than a highly professionalizedposition for educated women at a time when many women were deniedprofessional status.
Expansion of middle-class white women's roles into food-related professions Reflects how 1950s American culture confined women's professional opportunities to consumer-oriented domestic fields.
food companies were happy to step in and helpwomen with these unreasonable expectations, providing ready-to-eat foodswith “built-in maid service” that housewives could whip up in a jiffy,
Processed foods like green bean casserole supported a gendered ideal where women were caretakers and consumers, shaping domestic labor and expectations --> gender roles Food industry marketing reinforced women's roles and contributed to domestic econ
The suburbs—the new residential areas just outside of cities, neitherurban nor rural—represented much of the prosperity of this period
Rise of suburban culture with its emphasis on modern kitchens and processed foods, contrasted with racial and economic inequalities, including segregation and redlining Food and domestic ideals reinforced both social mobility for some and systemic exclusion for others.
Nixon held up this space, its technologies and abundant processed foods,and the feminine women staffing it, as proof of American superiority.
Green Bean showcased as proof of the American standard of living and capitalist success Domestic life and food were frontline of ideological competition
These foods offeredat least a semblance of preparedness in a time of turmoil
Canned food like green bean symbolized survival, preparedness, and normalcy during Cold War nuclear fears Process foods become cultureally embedded as necessities for security, linking consumption to national defense
A polished housewife serving her family green beancasserole each evening came to embody a kind of American conformity inwhich not only communism but any kind of unorthodox views or social statuswere seen as suspect. White norms, traditional gender roles, domesticity,patriotism, celebration of capitalism, and religiosity were held up as ultimate“American values” and talismans against communism
Symbolize social comformity, gender norms, etc. Food practices became intertwined with political identity and social control Represents the American value as opposed to the communist
The green bean casserole embodiedall of these qualities. It was easy enough for any housewife to prepare, madeof ubiquitous canned foods, and produced through the marriage of homeeconomics and the food industry. It was thus a potent ideological weapon,alongside other processed food dishes.
Represented middle-class suburban prosperity and American capitalist superiority during the Cold War Showcase domestic modernity and abundance against the Communist
In 1955, in the Campbell Soup Company’s test kitchen in Camden, NewJersey, a new recipe was born. It was called Green Bean Bake, and it hadthree basic ingredients: canned green beans, Campbell’s cream of mushroomsoup, and French’s canned fried onions—staples that most 1950s homeswould have on their canned-food-laden shelves.
Green Bean originated as a produt of postwar industrial food complex and home econ research Designed to promote the use of processed and canned foods Reflect the rise of convenience food culture, shaping American food identity
Wartime mobilization led to a doubling of the gross national productand eliminated unemployment, ending the Great Depression
Spam's mass production benefited US's wartime industrial expansion The need to feed both troops and civilians drove the scaling of processed food manufacturing Spam is influenced by industrialization and become a symbol of US food tech Reflects how war spurred economic recovery and transformed US industry and food system
the camp “is hunger: weourselves are hunger, living hunger
Holocaust and genocide Show how the lack of food was used as a political and genocidal tool.
operated by “hundredsof Austin girls”—that ensured food safety
Spam produced by female workers Reflect shifting in gender roles, increase presence of women in industrial labors
Hormel began to ship up to 15 million cansof meat overseas every week, most of it Spam, to Britain and the SovietUnion
Reflect US political aid and power influence through food Strenfthen US political and cultureal influence, especially post-war food culture
Jay Hormel turnedto pork shoulder, a cut of meat that was routinely wasted in the butcheringprocess
Spam made use of cheap and discarded meat reflected Depression-era frugality; made meat more accessible to lower-income populations
the United States could save 40percent of the cargo space if meatpackers removed the bones before freezingand shipping.
Spam production influenced by military efficiency needs Improved military food logistics and inspired canned meat development
All armies on their stomachs move, and this one moves on spam.
Spam represented the power of industrialized American food system Fed allied armies and demonstrated the logical strength of the US, helping post war influence
The United States’ leading status in food production gave it outsizedinfluence both during the war and after. The rapid industrialization of Americanagriculture and food processing before the war allowed the United States tofeed Allied troops all over the world, to keep its domestic population fedeven during food rationing, and to set the country up for dominance on theglobal stage after the war.
Spam provide a central food source for the U.S. and their allies during WWII Food innovation Use food to influence and dominate abroad
oranges as a gift of nature scientifically proven to promote health andgrowth—the perfect antidote to all of the pathologies of modern living.
Shows how vitamin C discovery was used to boost orange sales and link them to health and modern living --> advertising methods
the destruction of food or otherwealth ... is economic insanity
Critique of the agricultural system that burned food during widespread hunger
the orchard men prefer “the Chinamen because heis their slave
Reveals blatant exploitation and racism toward Chinese workers, who were later excluded by law
“The Powell Method reformed the bodies of workers, so thattheir motions in the groves and in the packing houses would more efficientlypreserve the perfect bodies of oranges.”
Reflects how workers’ physical movements were controlled to maximize fruit quality, showing labor as mechanized and disciplined.
But when tens of thousands of Great Plains migrants arrived, Californiawas far from the promised land. One migrant said, “They told me thiswas the land o’ milk an’ honey, but Ah guess the cow’s gone dry, and thetumblebugs has got in the beehive.” There wasn’t enough work to go around,and the oversupply of labor pushed wages even lower. With little money tobe made, the migrants settled into tents and make-shift communities alongirrigation ditches. Native Californians looked down on these poverty-strickennewcomers, with one grower exclaiming, “This isn’t a migration—it’s aninvasion! They’re worse than a plague of locusts!”19 The migrants moved on,following the oranges, the potatoes, the peas, whatever crops were ready forpicking, working for unsustainable wages
The labor of orange picking andpacking was especially regulated
The food waste contributed to thesense of oppression among these downtrodden people, their sense of injusticeand their feelings of “wrath” growing heavier with each pile of burning oranges.
Burning food supply, not give it to people in need --> causing the sense of oppression among people --> eventually resistance.
The main goal was to reduce agricultural surpluses in orderto raise prices and boost the farm economy. There were two ways to actuallyreduce surplus, depending on seasonal cycles. It is critical to note that the AAAwas created in May 1933, when the crops had already been planted and thelivestock had already begun breeding. “Reducing surplus” in early summermeant destruction. Oranges were burned down to “putrefying ooze,” corn wasburned as fuel, potatoes were dumped in the rivers
The AAA reduce surplus to increase farm economy and production efforts --> burning of oranges and other food supply (What an odd way of thinking but ok)
One posterappealed to immigrants, reading “you came here seeking Freedom, youmust now help preserve it.” The organization printed its materials in dozensof languages.
The United States was a clear global leader in agricultural productivity andused this advantage to provide international food aid, simultaneously as away of saving starving Europeans, preventing anarchy, and projecting thesuperiority of American politics and culture.
Food as a warfare tactic
But as Italian restaurants rose in big cities,staffed by immigrant labor, they standardized this version of Italian cuisine.
Spaghettigave rise to immigrant food businesses—import companies, pasta factories,and restaurants.
Despite the devotion of many immigrants to their customary diets, themove to the United States did significantly affect the way they ate.
Cultural Assimilation
Although some immigrants welcomed assimilation as a way of fittingin, others resisted the patronizing reform efforts. Italian immigrants inparticular had little interest in cooking instruction even as they attendedsettlement house classes and clubs on other subjects.
Resistance from the immigrants to the forced cultural assimilations, cling to their traditional foods
The reformers had their own visionof what immigrants should be eating, and blamed them for making choicesdeemed unreasonable. They believed that as long as immigrants clung to theirforeign foods, they resisted American ways and ideas.
Efforts to force assimilation/ cultural conversion. Immigrants' foods are usually expensive to import etc.
assimilated, the foreign practices abandoned. This move to “Americanize”the foreign-born fit neatly into the Progressive Era mold of standardization,efficiency, and rationality.
Cultural assimilation of migrants to the American cultures and standard
Jell-O was embedded in at least three major strands of Progressivism: therise of domestic science, attention to inequality, and pure food reform.
Food reforms- making the byproducts (Jello-O) to maximize profits Reforms for women and equality Jell-O is made inexpensive and available to all --> support equality
But as the scale of slaughter increased, those byproducts like gelatinwere present in sufficient quantity for the packers to find markets for theiruse, and indeed to earn the majority of their profit from the sale of these by-products.
Jell-O was created as a by-product of the meatpacking industry to make more profits.
Jell-O, the hard-to-define new dessert that emerged around 1900, was aproduct of some of the problems created by industrialization and a solution toothers. The same domestic scientists and food industry advertising executiveswho created Jell-O also molded and defined a new era in American history.
Jell-O represents the changes and the Progression era of the American history.
The rise of Jell-O is a story of the Progressive Era pure food movement inthe early twentieth century, of the development of domestic science, and ofthe emergence of food advertising and branding.
Industrialization and progressions --> social change Pretty much summarize the theme for Jell-O
Thus, Black laborers picked and processed peanuts, Carver helped createconsumer demand for peanuts and used peanut agriculture to try to improveBlack lives in the rural South, and Ben Hicks revolutionized mechanizedpeanut farming.
Related to slavery, efforts for reformation (for former enslaved), reconstructions
The war launched the beginning of a wider acceptance of peanuts, assoldiers on the move became exposed to new foods and wartime scarcityrequired food substitutions.
Wartime food? Contribute to war efforts?
enslaved Africansand their descendants had been the main group of people to cultivate andeat the peanut—or ground nut, pindar, or goober pea, as it was also known.
A part of their identity (?)
But in fact, it was theBlack cooks who typically created this culinary splendor, shaping the creationof American cuisine.
African cuisine (and possibly some cultures) influencing American's
Although enslaved people could not bring any belongings with them,they did bring tastes, cooking methods, rituals, and a vast knowledgeabout the natural world.
Spread of knowledge and ideas --> cultural diffusions
Enslaved people onthese ships often used the refusal of food as a tool of resistance, subjectingthemselves to starvation or throwing themselves overboard to escape theirbondage
Resistance against enslavers
When enslaved people drank potlikker, ate greens, or sopped up the liquidwith corn pone, they were carrying on a long and storied food tradition thatthey and their ancestors brought with them from different parts of the Africancontinent
Traditions, sense of identity and origins Also suggest with some cultural diffusion
Potlikker embodies many elements of the story of food in enslavement.
Potlikker associates with enslavements Considered nutritious and is welcome in enslaved people's diet
At the turn of the nineteenth century, the United States was still a veryyoung nation, reconfiguring itself in response to new ideas and new leaders.
Political changes- probably resistance after the Whiskey Rebellion
Graham’s work embodies the United States of the early nineteenth century.It was a time of widening if still limited democracy, of political upheaval, a timeof national expansion and technological innovation, of religious ferment andpublic health reform, and a time of transformed foodways.
Dietary changes, reformations and tech innovations.
As rum consumption continued to decline with the banon the international slave trade in the early 1800s, whiskey became the mostpopular and cheapest alcoholic drink. The period between the 1790s and the1820s saw Americans drinking more alcohol overall than ever before or since,stimulating the rise of the temperance movement. But nothing could restrainthe centrality of whiskey as a truly American icon in the fledgling democraticnation.
Rebel against the British rule, separation from the British --> American sense of identity
Whiskey mattered, butnot because the frontiersmen were hillbillies obsessed with getting drunk.As this chapter has illustrated, whiskey mattered because it facilitated trade.
Whiskey facilitated trade, Whiskey rebellion --> survival, sense of identity (?)
period, embodying the fruits of farmers’ labor and of the rich American soils,the centrality of land and agricultural production, the promise of the frontier andthe rejection of British elitism, and the desire for equality and economic justice.
Rejection of the British Dominance, American Identity
The end of the seventeenth century brought a series of crises, many ofwhich were centered around colonists’ growing need for land to plant cornand other crops—land that was to be taken from Native Americans.
Corn caused exploitation from the colonist --> drove out the native
Corn and Enslavement
Exploitation
Corn was also a key player in the Columbian Exchange
Crops like corn and potatoes led to dramatic population growth in Europe.
Due to this centrality of corn to Indigenous diets and cultures, the plant alsobecame deeply interwoven with origin stories and ceremonies.
Corn shape cultures and dietary. Used in ceremonies, etc.
theyhad developed technological innovations for farming, hunting, and fishing tosurvive in a huge range of environments, tremendous artistic traditions andcomplex religious rituals, and wide-ranging trade networks.
Adaptation, innovations, resilience
Human Origins in North America
Origin of the Native Americans and Pemmicans