The industrialization of the United States in the late 19th century began a nation wide market for her agricultural produce and industrial products. The completion of a nationwide railroad transportation network enhanced the ability to market perishable products over long distances. Civilizations and empires in general have always relied upon grain or bread as the staple food for the common citizen. But In the 1890's America was entering a new era of consolidation because of overproduction. Corporations and railroads began to be merged into Trusts and Consolidations. The depression of the 1890's was caused by the government's support of the gold currency standard that contracted the volume of available money in circulation. This led to prices falling for all agricultural products. This situation led to the rise of a third political party the Populist Party.(1)
The Populist Party took 5 states in the 1892 election and was the product of the western grain farmer speaking out against the corporation and monopolistic control of transportation fees, grain processing fees, government currency polices and banking practices. The Free Silver coinage issue began to gather momentum and that issue dominated the corporation corrupted election of 1896.The Populists then fused with the Democrats for solidarity about the money issue and is faintly remembered in history's faded pages. The Election of 1892 shows James Weaver the populist presidential candidate gained most of his support from the western grain growing areas.(2)
A new refinement of capitalistic agriculture had developed in the upper Mississippi Basin. Here there was sectional specialization. By the time Populism appeared there were three such sections, each dominated by a single type of farm system: corn livestock farming in a wide belt stretching from Ohio westward through Iowa and gradually pushing into eastern Kansas and Nebraska: dairy farming, found principally in Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota: and grain farming, predominantly wheat, which had been pushed out into a broad crescent sweeping from Kansas, through Nebraska, the Dakotas, and western Minnesota.
The corn livestock belt system felt the pressure of transportation costs and trade monopolies to a far less degree than did wheat farmers. The evils or disadvantages of the situation in which the wheat farmer were caught were all too apparent. Far from the market and with no competition in transportation, the freight on grain practically ate up not only the profit but the value of the grain as well. The extremely complex character of the machinery which controlled the grain trade, with local buyers, local elevator fees, commission merchant fees, terminal elevator charges, miller's profits, etc., all taking a toll from the passing stream of grain. Thus the grain farmer in comparison with corn and dairy farming not only found his margin of profit disappearing, but was able to put his finger on many practices which appeared unjust and which if remedied would leave to him a greater share of the value of his product.
There was also the question of credit. Here too the grain growing west was at a disadvantage. In the first place being only recently settled there had not been time to pay off the loans and mortgages by which farmers had capitalized their anticipated earnings, this step usually being necessary to secure the farm plant. Secondly because of the less stable profits and being at the mercy of monopolists they were less able to pay higher interest rates caused by contraction of the currency.
Thus did a revolution in agricultural commercialization was well underway and the daily bread of civilization was being replaced by a milk and meat culture. Instead of having your morning cereal in the form of bread you could afford to purchase boxes of processed cereal to immense in milk. And as total farm numbers began to decrease and the remaining farms became larger other commodities became cheaper. The average American could now afford to have eggs and pork based breakfast meats to start your day.This Industrialization of human dietary habits has taken several generations for the human body to lose tolerance to the processing of animal fat. Between one and two-thirds of the American population is estimated to be obese in 2004.Scientists are recently debating that the Chimpanzee, a cute little primate, shares a similar DNA structure with human beings and should be included in the human family tree of animal Classifications.Wild chimpanzees are mainly vegetarian and rarely eat any animal flesh (meat).(3)
A milk & meat history
The history of the meatpacking industry has been thoroughly documented in the United States and an examination will go far in understanding this revolution in the industrialization of the human diet. In 1903 the formation of the beef trustwith the coast to coast cooperation of the three largest packers collided with the anti-trust activities of Theodore Roosevelt.A drop in cattle prices set in motion a long running series of investigations the longest in 1917-1919 by the (FTC) Or Federal Trade Commission.The commission concluded that "The five major meat packing companies were so interconnected as to constitute a monopolistic combination which controlled about 80% of all interstate slaughter of cattle and calves." (4)
The Americanization of the German Frankfurter (Frankfort) sausage, wiener (Vienna), and hamburger (Hamburg) found a great distribution in the network of railroads in the Midwest. The giant of railroad central Chicago helped to spread these ethnic foods and cattle products across the nation. The Swift and Armour corporations led the way in introducing cattle raised on the western plains into urban centers through out the United States.
Hamburg (er)
Today we associate hamburgers with an unhealthy lifestyle. Drenched in fattening dressings and topped with few frightened bits of lettuce, the greasy, grilled meat, wedged in a bun and accompanied by French fries is the ultimate junk food. Tasty but unhealthy. Highly stressed, we constantly glance at our watches, developing stomach ulcers and quickly downing our meals.
This is the present situation, but it was different in nineteenth century England. There the nutrition expert, J.H. Salisbury, claimed minced beef was so nutritious that it should be consumed at least three times a day!. He took the idea of mincing beef from German immigrants. The dish was especially popular in Hamburg, and consequently came to be known as hamburger steak.
When the hamburger steak eventually found its way onto the American market, it became a big hit and people shortened it to its present name, "the hamburger". In 1924 the "nutritious" new sandwich was so popular that the world's first chain of hamburger restaurants, White Castle, was opened in Wichita, KS. And in 1948 the first McDonald's restaurant opened and between 1968-1978 the total number of franchises increased from 1000 to 5000. By 1988 10,000 total franchises were opened. In the late 1970's Americans had peaked in the per capita consumption of beef at 90 lbs. per person!
Hot Dog?
A butcher from Frankfurt who owned a dachshund named the long frankfurter sausage a "dachshund sausage," the dachshund being a slim dog with a long body. ("Dachshund" is German for "badger dog." They were originally bred for hunting badgers.) German immigrants introduced the dachshund sausage (and Hamburg meat) to the United States. In 1871, German butcher Charles Feltman opened the first "hotdog" stand in Coney Island in 1871, selling 3,684 dachshund sausages, most wrapped in a milk bread roll, during his first year in business.
In fact Bruce Kraig A hot dog historian from Roosevelt University explains the difference between Frankfurters and wieners: the frank being thicker and made with beef in the mix, while the wiener was longer thinner and was commonly made with pork and veal. By the 1920's hot dogs were a cheap main stream food.deliberately marketed as patriotic, democratic fare."Hot dogs were Americanized through their association with public events"Bruce Kraig says."People ate them at baseball games, horseraces, fairs, and circuses.To eat a frankfurter at a game was to shed your ethnicity and become American as good as anybody else. Hot dogs were a perfect fit with the pace of American life you could eat one on the go."(5)
The earliest mention of a hot dog in print is a story from the Yale Record of 10-19-1895 titled the "Abduction of the night lunch wagon", in which students contentedly munched hot dogs. By the 1890's Americans were gobbling them up whatever they were called. Sausage vendors at the 1893 Chicago Colombian Exposition a local butcher named Oscar Mayer did a brisk trade. Charles Feltmen's former employee and later his Coney island competition Nathan Handwerker opened up Famous Nathans in 1916.As crowds were initially small Nathan got a idea of paying hospital interns at Coney island hospital to stand around in their white coats eating hot dogs in front of his stand to boost sales.
To make a hot dog the various ingredients (Beef, chicken, turkey, pork, leftover butcher scraps) are fed into a Emulsifier where everything is ground up and mixed with water.When it emerges it looks like a smooth gray-brown puke like substance. The meat then goes through tubes where the skinlike casing made from sheep intestines, is applied, after which the franks are smoked for three hours. Some different companies add cereal fillers called "extenders". Animal hearts, livers, and kidneys known as Variety meats also show up in hot dogs.
Only in America would an institution exist named the National Hot Dog and Sausage Group an Industry group based in Arlington Virginia.Only Americans would pack a plane with 37,000 hot dogs send it to our troops in Bosnia and call it "Operation Wienerlift". Janet Riley a spokesperson for the Hot dog council orchestrated a public relations incident of stupidity a few years back when three members of the Seattle Seahawks were fined for eating hotdogs on the sidelines she said "that the players were acting on an instinctive American impulse". Riley goes on to say that 2 billion pounds of hot dogs are produced a year and she translates that as 20 billion consumed. Thats about 75 hot dogs per person In the US.
US Meat & Milk Consumption
In the United States, each person consumes an average of 2,175 pounds of Food per person per year. This provides the U.S. consumer with an average Daily energy intake of 3,600 Calories. The World Average is 2,700 Calories Per day. Fully 19% of the U.S. caloric intake comes from fast food. Fast Food accounts for 34% of the total food consumption for the average U.S. Citizen. The average citizen dines out for one meal out of four. One third of the caloric intake of the average American comes from animal Sources (including dairy products), totaling 800 pounds per person per year.This diet means that U.S. citizens derive 40% of their calories from fat-nearly half of their diet. Americans eat over 3.5 times as much cheese today as they did in the 1950's. Part of the reason the consumption of dairy products is so high in American diets is because dairy products are present in approximately 80% of all processed food products.(6-7)
As machinery (tractors) replaced horses and mules on farms many acres of farmland could be used to grow other crops since much land was needed to grow oats for the horses which were the primary labor used on the farms. By the 1950's with the widespread use of hybrid corn and other animal feeds led to the pratice of confined feeding or fatting of cattle by feeding them grain led to an explosion of production in the livestock industry(8). This switch of diet from the natural grazing habits to being confined and fed grain is a completely unhealthy lifestyle for cattle let alone for human consumption. Drug stimulation of dairy cows is leading to smaller herds. Between 1991-2000 the number of dairy cows decreased on average 6%, but milk production increased 14%. With confined feeding of livestock sickness and disease in livestock is at great risk and most livestock are being administered antibiotics to prevent sickness , but this may lower human tolerance of medication and together with food processing probably causes these diseases of the affluent diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer, and many other long words that the common Joe could not pronounce!A dangerous surgical procedure called Gastric Bypass is performed for severely obese individuals where the stomach opening is shortened and dairy,red meat,and sugar products are then forbidden for the patients lives is but one sign of decandence in the a culture of overproduction and abundance.In recent years the public is increasingly being informed about the danger of the high-fat content in processed meats and the presence of sodium nitrites which some studies shows a link to diseases such as Leukemia(5). Here is a chilling sign that this type of diet is "out of control"! In Jan. 2005 a Texas law writer has proposed including the (BMI) or Body Mass Index on childrens report cards in Texas!
Many people are following a new trend in diet. Where a Dr.Atkins program is a popular example. If we look at things from a hierarchical prospective the bottom of the "food"pryamid is the carbohydrate layer. Being that the USDA and every other institution that creates these diet guidelines recommends 6-8 servings of grain, cereal etc.and protein which is almost near the top of this triangled guideline and is recommended at 2-3 servings. Most animal based protein is of the saturated fat type or high cholesterol and bad for your heart and arteries. Nuts from the trees the other high protein choice is low in saturated fat and far better for human beings. I bought some pecans at the store one day a Fisher brand of nut's and was astonished to see the "Mediterranean" diet food pyramid posted on the back of this package. Far different that the USDA type this food guide only suggests a few servings of lean red meat per month.Not knowing what either of these diets" imply because the word diet is the total variety of food that you eat. Most people connect this word with weight loss,so the word diet could define several things.
In 2005 the United States published a new Food Pyramid with a different design.The lines dividing the food groups run from top to bottom & are rainbow colored.The yellow line divides fruits,grains,and vegetables from the saturated animal fat groups.The only good foods on the right of the yellow line are tree nuts , seeds, beans, & Tofu. With the stick man graphic walking up stairs along side the pyramid , physical excerise is encouraged. I must say overall the new "food pyramid" guidelines are impressive as to really encourage others to improve thier health.I am proud that the Federal Government has stated the danger of having a diet rich in saturated animal fat.
A reason why this diet is a popular trend? Mass stupidity? A good question that debate could help. The weight of advertising convinces the fast food addicted to stay that way even though obesity is common? Blind faith in mass media? Let us take a look at the history and today's uses of grain.
Grain
Like all hierarchical institutions needing a base to build upon grain would be that foundation of civilization. A quick history begins with the duh! , The ancient Egyptians! The river Nile would annually flood its banks to enrich the riverbank with rich sediments of nutrients and water.(9) Allowing for the first culture to physically build an empire. With agriculture established, bread was the food for civilization. Grown grains that could be easily stored ensured the steady growth of a population. This surplus of manpower built the pyramids and monuments still seen today. So grain is the reason for the growth of civilization without bread you couldn't feed a population or use this population to fight wars or build stupid monuments.
The United States Midwest and Great Plains areas are commonly called the "breadbasket of the world". World War I and WW II saw the United States feed the Allied Armies and the whole United States combined. Without the excess Agricultural production and output of the United States the World Wars would have never taken place.Let us look at the facts......
The USDA forecasts US consumption of all grains this year at 252 million tons. Of this nearly 60 percent is used as livestock and poultry feed with 90 percent of this being maize. Maize accounts for about 80 percent of total US grain consumption (Table 1).
Over half the grain produced in the United States feeds livestock That would be the animal protein suggested in a low cab diet but if the animals are fed grain and you stop eating the grain because you don't want to get"fat" you eat the animal that eats the grain so you are still eating the grain.Are you with me still? People eat food to create Energy "the force that moves inanimate objects" which is needed to fight gravity and live life. Energy is created primarily by the Sun. Plants grow by asorbing sunlight,water, vitamins, and minerals from the soil . Livestock animals in the wild used to migrate around and eat natural vegetation according to weather and seasonal conditions.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
The production HFCS also started in earnest in the 1970's. HFCS is about 30 percent sweeter than conventional sucrose sugar per calorie, a significant advantage in today's health conscious market. Improvements in processing and product development have resulted in increased penetration of the US liquid sweetener market where it now dominates the soft drink market and accounts for more than 40 percent of overall US sweetener consumption. Growth in HFCS consumption in recent years, however, has shown signs of leveling off. HFCS appears to be reaching the limits of its liquid, mainly soft drink, sweetener market. HFCS is also found in baby formula, snack foods, processed meats,and a variety of pre-packaged processed foods.
I am constantly re-reading information about Obesity as newspapers and magazines often print stories and medical information about how this is considered a medical epidemic.I was curiously concerned about how and why such a situation could occur. I remembered how I had a history book which contained information concerning the industrialization of American Agriculture in the early 20th century.I also spent long hours doing internet research.I found a document with a detailed bibliography about Agriculture and I went to my local library and requsted them to send me this particular book half way across Pennsylvannia from Temple University to Beaver County, PA. (30 miles outside of Pittsburgh PA) I received this book ,to borrow, at no cost to myself and I must say to you reading this out there somewhere that if you have the will to learn others will help you achieve your goal ! This fact alone gives me the faith to celebrate the freedom of speech and opionion which has made the USA A wonderfull place to live throughout the years. Besides being based upon sound printed literature , this article is also augmented by various news articles and images which I hope will give readers a confidence to consider this most serious situation.
I began to type up most of this Information to post so others could learn about some of the history and causes or reasons behind the "Obesity Epidemic" which has plauged most of the Northen Hemisphere's so called rich and industrialized cultures.I thought I was through with writing about this subject ,but I was not aware I had need time to absorb this information and begin to rationalize some conclusions and suggestions about how people could change this situation. I recently was given a old vaccum tube radio which was stored in a farm in Western Pennsylvannia.The Radio did not work but I salvaged the old vaccum tubes for my antique instrument amplifer.Lining the bottom of the box was a farm industry publication from 1985 titled : Farm and Dairy from Salem, Ohio , 5-16-1985. The paper was yellowed but a whole complete issue none the less. I gained a "priceless" window or perspective into a period of US history.Even on the Internet today besides the preservation of ancient maps and documents one is hard pressed to find recent histroy made available to view.As many people could no longer afford to farm in the 1980's those that remained were subject to government commodity programs and corporation manuipulations through market controls.A somewhat disturbing picture will emerge below but remember change is always possible.
Overproduction (When Too Much of Anything leads to Decadence & Destruction)
The industrial capacity of the United States has flooded the American economy with the wealth of her production. The biggest problem of the American economy has been overproduction. The creation of the railroad network for a national distribution network let raw materials be shipped cheaply across the country. This Glutton of production has been a thorn in the side of the American economy ever since the beginning of the industrialization era. In periods of inflation prices spiral out of control and plummet with overproduction and depression. These periods of overproduction and depression which cannot find a peaceful outlet for the overproduction of American industry but history has shown that the United States wold wide production capacity has and can feed clothe and arm the world. The World Wars of the 20th century was startling, as these wars were wars of economic and not territorial expansion. The financial fuedalization of nation states to international banking and law (United Nations) forcefully opened the doors of trade in foreign countries with the United States.Japan ,South Korea,Germany,Great Britian,and Italy still have sizable US soldiers stationed in their countries and the thorough Americanization of these people to American branded commodities and overall cultural habits after over 50 years should be enough evidence for any cynical or brainwashed American.
The US mad cow scare of 2003 will illustrate my "war leads to a economic (American foot in the door) policy".The Food Institute reported on Jan 19 2004 that McDonalds in Japan handed out 10 million coupons on jan.18 to boost beef sales after the spread of the US mad cow news and the Japan Times online reported in April of 2004 that the American agricultural department was hoping to resume beef exports to Japan, the Untied States number one customer, by the summer of 2004.Besides the need to export oil to the United States the presence of the United States in Iraq will undoubtedly begin the Americanization of the Middle East.(10-11)
The story of meat production is also the story of modern Agriculture in the United States The 20th century saw 50 percent of Agriculture's value coming from livestock. There are estimated to be 100 Million cattle in the United States.That is one cow for every three people. Over 60% of grain grown in the United States is now fed to almost all livestock. The green revolution of the 1950's and 60's was a period of agricultural innovation that saw the introduction of hybrid corn and fossil fuel based pesticides & fertilizers which allowed a explosion of livestock and crop production to take place. This method of farming is thus tied closely to the prices of various fossil fuels and Milk, meat , and gasoline prices have more in common than what general inflation suggests. The National Geographic reports in June of 2004 The price of Steak: a pound of beef takes 3/4 of a gallon of oil to produce. A 1,250-lb. steer needs a agricultural investment equal to 283 gallons of oil to produce. That includes fertilizers on cornfields for animal feed & diesel that runs the machinery on the farm.(12) Where I live in Pennsylvania I checked the average price of ground beef in the supermarket fliers against the average price of gasoline for two weeks and a pound of beef was worth 3/4 a gallon of gasoline! May 22 2004 one gallon of gas: $1.99 , one pound of ground beef: $1.79.Feburary 2005, Gasoline :$1.93 a gallon and ground beef : $1.99 a pound ! The USDA estimates that 2.4 pounds of steer is needed to produce one pound of beef ,so a 1,250-lb. steer only nets 500 pounds of beef. Three-fifths of slaughtered beef cattle is unedible! Cattle farming is wasteful and Decadent.
The USDA spends large amounts of taxpayer money to promote the beef, pork, and dairy industries.Click to see This Recipe included on the back of a "elbow macaroni" package that was freely distributed by the USDAin 2004.The "meat,egg,and macaroni scramble" sounds like a "supersized heart disease pleaser",and with the added suggested milk & fat this recipe is actually a free advertisment for the general livestock industry. The "got milk" and "The other white meat" (pork) advertising campaigns tell people through television, radio, and newsprint media to support the waste of their money in the production of these commodities, ruin their health by consuming these products, and support the widespread destruction of the natural environment. Some farmer's belong to cooperatives or Co-ops which are organizations that intend to stabilize or raise their profits. The dairy producers have long used this type of collective bargaining tactics. (13) The Farm and Dairy news of 1985 had several articles promoting and encouraging a increase in American meat and milk consumption.Farmers who praticed monoculture ,which is devoting all land and resources to growing or producing one type of product to increase yields and hopefully profits, found that they were subject to the value of thier crops being decided by such market groups as the Chicago Board of Trade Which listed a daily market share value for agriculturial products. A direct result of cheaply produced livestock and dairy products is that Americans began increasing milk and meat consumption because of increased government support . Obesity levels in the United States in 1990 were between 5-10% of the population and in 2000 this level has doubled to 20% and recently some write the real figure could be 30%! Other than the obesity epidemic government support of the livestock and dairy industries has been found to be a waste of money! Bruce Gardner's study in 1987 of US government supported commodity programs showed farmers (producers) gained 17.5 billion and taxpayers lost 17.7 billion and consumers lost 4.8 billion in higher prices.(4) These programs are a failure as an economywide 5 billion is lost. So people who consume the milk and meat culture of the United States are double losers! You then support the production and consumption of an inefficient protein source that needs billions of tons of fossil fuels and billions of dollars to slowly destroy your health and the natural environment.
About half the people in the world survive on less than $1.00 per day.Many people who are starving rely upon a plant protien diet based plant protien diet based on grain.If the United States and her corporations can return to a natural form of livestock grazing instead of a artifical industrialized confined grain feeding the price of Livestock and dairy products will rise enough so people are encouraged to start a more balanced diet and stem the rise of the overall obesity trend. Excess grain could thus be freely given to the starving areas of the World as grain was historically cultivated for human consumption and returning to a pre-industrialized diet will probally help to lower obesity rates.A sad parting note I recentlly read that this generation of children will probally not outlive thier parents because of obesity related illness.Children should be educated early and often about the wisdom of following a high fiber diet. I remember in my elementry and high school "health classes" that little time was spent at all in the education of of a healthy diet.Why must US children learn and memorize all the bones in the human body is strange if most of the doctors in the US are foreign born anyway. Children should be educated early and often about good health. Because most adults when faced with a doctor's warning about diet are too stubborn or unwilling to develop the willpower needed to tun one's life around !
Geneticaly Modified Food is perhaps the clearest symbol of artifical industrialized food production.The European Union has written laws to have all geneticaly modified food labeled for sale in supermarkets.(14)
Massification of food production is probably inexpedient as well as unjust. Biodiversity is in danger, while monocultures are vulnerable to environmental lurches and the unpredictable mutations of microbial evolution. Over 90% of milk in America comes from a single breed of cows (which are given hormones to increase production), over 90% of commercially marketed eggs are from a single strain of hens, and almost all Turkeys are artificaly inseminated. According to the FAO, over 30% of 4,500 livestock species worldwide are at a high risk of extinction.
Monsanto produces more than 90% of genetically modified crops worldwide. Another four companies, Syngenta, Bayer Cropscience, Dow and Du Pont produce the rest. The fact that production lies in the hands of so few multinational corporations worries some who feel the companies will have too much control over world food production, can pressurise countries to buy their products and force more traditional farmers out of the market.
