Real Food: A look through the 20th century and how our diets have changed (Part 2)

Check out my introduction to this new Real Food Series and Part 1 if you haven't already.

1950's - 1990's

By the middle of the 20th century farming was transforming in ways it never had. Private family farms were quickly diminishing and being replaced with large, corporate, mono-cultural farms. As farms continued to increase in size farmers were eliminating hay and meadows from the planting rotation cycle that had been used in the past. Animals where no longer used as a part of the farming process and instead were separated out and put on to farms of their own. Chemical fertilizers were also becoming widely available and understandably so because they allowed farmers to increase their crop yield and better meet the demand for inexpensive food.

The use of supplemental nutrients to increase crop yield started as trial and error in the form of wood ashes, ground bones, salt peter, and gypsum. Justus von Liebig (1803–1873), a German chemist, laid the foundation for the use of chemical fertilizers as a source of plant nutrients starting in 1840. He recognized the importance of various mineral elements derived from the soil in plant nutrition and the necessity of replacing those elements in order to maintain soil fertility. Two British scientists, J.B. Lawes and J.H. Gilbert, in turn established the agricultural experiment station at Rothamsted, in the United Kingdom. They built on the work of Liebig and experimentally demonstrated the importance of chemical fertilizers in improving and maintaining soil fertility. In fact, the application of synthetic fertilizers was the basis of the global increase in agricultural production after World War II.

~Pollution Issues: Agriculture 

While chemical fertilizers were gaining in popularity, information about organic farming was very gradually entering the market, too. J.I. Rodale had begun publishing his periodical Organic Gardening and Farming in 1942. While not initially popular, when his ideas met with the ideas of those from the counterculture era that began in the 60’s, organic farming gained momentum. In all reality many farms were organic simply by the nature of farming prior to chemical use, but it didn't take long for there to be a need to specify the difference between farm practices. 

Real Food: A look through the 20th century and how our diets have changed (Part 1)

If you haven't seen it, read my intro post about this new Real Food Series. 

Click HERE to check out Part 2.

To begin to understand how our eating habits have transitioned over the last century, it makes natural sense to investigate how we used to eat and what our general view of food was, as well as, how our food was grown. Food availability, farming practices and crops, technology, nutrient knowledge have all seen drastic changes and each have impacted how we consume and view food today.

1900 - 1940's

In the late 1900's and into the first part of the 20th century, Americans were obsessed with meat, along with potatoes, cakes and pies.

In all sections of the Nation, beef was recognized as the king. And whether beef, or lamb, or fowl, or pork, it was most often accompanied by roasted, mashed, riced, baked, or fried potatoes. Sauces and condiments might be on the side, and other vegetables and fruits might take up a niche on the table, but meat and potatoes were the basics along with heavy sweet, especially cake or mince, cherry, apple, or berry pies, with large dollops of whipped cream if affordable.

~ American Cuisine in the 20th Century by Lowell K. Dyson

Lillian Russell

Meats and potatoes weren't only lunch and dinner fare, but breakfast too, and to fill out the meal, seafood, biscuits, bread, perhaps some scrambled eggs, and numerous hot cups of coffee were added to the menu. This was a period when having a thick waste line was not only attractive, but considered a sign of good health and wealth. However, there was a growing concern about the working class’ diet and a desire to understand what foods were necessary in the diet for a good days work. It the 1890's a new field of study was developing in New England called “Nutrition”. The new nutritionist focused primarily on understanding protein, fat, carbohydrates and water. “They saw little value in fresh fruits and were actively opposed to greens, which they asserted required more bodily energy to digest than they provided.” (Lowell K. Dyson “American Cuisine in the 20th Century”) These nutritionists believed the working class were spending far too much of their earnings on expensive cuts of meat, especially when cheaper cuts where available, along with other protein sources that were more than satisfactory for a healthy diet.  The American working class on the other hand felt that their expensive cuts of meat were their reward or privilege for all their hard work and weren’t so willing to give them up.

Up until this point, food scientist had believed a high amount of protein was necessary in the diet. However, Horace Fletcher, a man who believed in complete food mastication by chewing each bite silently 100 times, and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a vegetarian and creator of Corn Flakes, a breakfast cereal that transformed American's diet by replacing meat with grains,(Lowell K. Dyson “American Cuisine in the 20th Century”)

Real Food: The Introduction to My New Series

Movement, progression, change are all a part of life. Societies form, they increase, decrease and some simply disappear. Religions transforms man’s mind. New understandings reshape man’s way of life. Technology and science helped man advance. In the end man moves forward, sometimes quickly and at other times progression is hardly noticed. Through it all, man hopefully takes with him some knowledge of the past. The knowledge that will help him in the future and keep him from repeating mistakes and lead him in the right direction. Yet, even when the wisdom is there, the knowledge is all around, man likes to disregard it and instead does as he desires, forgetting how his desires may affect the future going forward. 

What in this picture do you consider Real Food and do you think the different growing/raising practices yield the same quality foods?