Building Nature's Market : The Business and Politics of Natural Foods / Laura J. Miller.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Miller, Laura J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Food industry and trade--United States--History.
• Natural foods--Social aspects--United States.
• Natural foods--Economic aspects--United States.
• Counterculture--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

For the first 150 years of their existence, "natural foods" were consumed primarily by body builders, hippies, religious sects, and believers in nature cure. And those consumers were dismissed by the medical establishment and food producers as kooks, faddists, and dangerous quacks. In the 1980s, broader support for natural foods took hold and the past fifteen years have seen an explosion-everything from healthy-eating superstores to mainstream institutions like hospitals, schools, and workplace cafeterias advertising their fresh-from-the-garden ingredients. Building Nature's Market shows how the meaning of natural foods was transformed as they changed from a culturally marginal, religiously inspired set of ideas and practices valorizing asceticism to a bohemian lifestyle to a mainstream consumer choice. Laura J. Miller argues that the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the leadership of the natural foods industry. Rather than a simple tale of cooptation by market forces, Miller contends the participation of business interests encouraged the natural foods movement to be guided by a radical skepticism of established cultural authority. She challenges assumptions that private enterprise is always aligned with social elites, instead arguing that profit-minded entities can make common cause with and even lead citizens in advocating for broad-based social and cultural change.

Contents:

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Chapter One. Markets and Movements
• Chapter Two. Escaping Asceticism: The Birth of the Health Food Industry
• Chapter Three. Living and Working on the Margins: A Countercultural Industry Develops
• Chapter Four. Feeding the Talent: The Path to Legitimacy
• Chapter Five. Questioning Authority: The State and Medicine Strike Back
• Chapter Six. Style: Identifying the Audience for Natural Foods
• Chapter Seven. Drawing the Line: Boundary Disputes in the Natural Foods Field
• Chapter Eight. Cultural Change and Economic Growth: Assessing the Impact of a Business-Led Movement
• Source Abbreviations
• Notes
• References
• Index

Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 22. Okt 2019)

ISBN:

• 9780226501406
• 022650140X

OCLC:

1004848900