Proposed Contributions to the Blog

For my contributions to this blog, I will be looking at the corporatization and processing of food products during the 1950's. The post-war era brought about massive change in the food industry throughout the United States. Open air marketplaces were quickly being replaced with supermarkets, coinciding with the rise of the middle class and growth of suburban areas. New technologies such as pesticides and fertilizers also allowed for produce to be transported to more remote areas of the country in seasons that certain produce products weren't traditionally grown. Processed foods boomed in popularity, transforming the way food was packaged, sold, purchased, cooked, and presented.
I intend to analyze the transformation in the food market through several short essay pieces on this blog in the following weeks. My focus will be on the rise of supermarkets throughout the country and the popularity of processed foods in the 1950's. I will look at SPAM as an example of the rise in popularity of processed foods. Stay tuned for future posts as I examine this fascinating aspect of 1950's food culture in the coming weeks.
-Henry