Fresh from the factory : nature and the roots of the industrial food supply / Michael S. Kideckel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kideckel, Michael S., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cereal products industry--United States--History.

Cereal products industry.

Breakfast cereals--United States--Marketing--History.

Breakfast cereals.

Processed foods--United States--History.

Processed foods.

Natural foods--United States--History.

Natural foods.

Place of Publication:

Oxford University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"A century ago, Americans tried to escape industrialization with breakfast cereal and other processed food. Why? Fresh from the Factory shows that American consumption habits and beliefs about nature developed together. Manufacturers industrialized the food supply by linking mechanization to nature. Breakfast cereal emerged as a rebuke to industrialism before becoming one of the most profitable mass-produced foods on the planet. Some of the world's largest food processors became among the most widely read nature writers, health authorities, and social reformers. Cereal manufacturers gained their influence by appealing to a widespread desire among their largely female consumer base for cleanliness and simplicity. They took advantage of and helped promote new ways of making, advertising, selling, and distributing food-and did a lot of it in the name of nature. In a society with little public health regulation, cloudy ideas about scientific authority, and people unsure of who or what to trust, breakfast cereal makers appealed to the divine powers of nature and claimed that they could deliver it in boxes"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

How Food Became Natural

Branded Safety and the Emergence of Cereal

Nature as Myth

Nature as Measurement

Creating Natural Food

Fresh and Packaged from the Factory

Trust in Person, or Accounting for Goodwill

Trust in Print

The Table

Conclusion.

ISBN:

9780197532065