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Abstract
This dissertation explores the earliest roots of the modern food industry, focusing on the development of the canning industry in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It shows the central role of food processors as middlemen, as both producers of consumer products and consumers of agricultural produce. My study uncovers how canning leaders leveraged the power of scientific expertise to create a market for canned food among American consumers. Before the mid-twentieth century, in order to win consumer trust, canners adopted new technologies, cooperated with federal food regulation, sponsored agricultural and bacteriological research, and standardized food production. All of these moves helped to make canned food a staple of American pantries by the end of the Second World War, making a previously unfamiliar opaque product trustworthy and transparent.
By the second half of the twentieth century, canned food was ubiquitous. As other industries entered the processed food landscape, and environmental and consumer critiques emerged, canners widened their scientific research base to more centrally incorporate marketing, advertising, and political strategy. Although canners still worked to gain and maintain consumer trust, they were more focused on their public image than on what happened behind the scenes in the laboratory or agricultural research station. In their increasing power, industry leaders were less willing to defer to governmental authority and more eager to directly control production and consumption. This study takes up the stories of five particular canned foods—condensed milk, peas, olives, tomatoes, and tuna—to understand the tools used by the food industry to build consumer confidence in a new way of eating. This modified diet not only changed the relationship between business and consumers, but also the relationships among Americans, farmers, universities, advertisers, and the natural environment.
