The Canned and the Fresh: The Making and Remaking of American Food Culture
Open Access
- Author:
- Hoenig, John M
- Graduate Program:
- History
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 28, 2014
- Committee Members:
- Gary Scott Cross, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Bryan Lee Mcdonald, Committee Member
Tobias Heinrich Albert Brinkmann, Committee Member
Deryck William Holdsworth, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Food History
Tomatoes
American History
Agricultural History
Consumer Culture - Abstract:
- This study examines the development of tomato culture in America from roughly 1800 to the present. By taking a longer view of the study of American food and by engaging with a wealth of sources, including cookbooks, restaurant menus, seed catalogs, agricultural periodicals and censuses, this project studies the development of tomato culture both before industrialization and through two distinct phases of industrialization within the tomato industry. Beginning with nineteenth century rural farmers and cooks, tomatoes emerged as a vital component of expanding the diversity of American cuisine, overcoming early resistance to this Central American vegetable. This expansive tomato culture continued in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the canning industry and tomato production increased and influenced the emergence of a distinct geographically decentralized and economically diverse industry that overcame the seasonality of tomato consumption. The uses for tomatoes continued to expand as middle-class, elite, and immigrant consumers utilized increased production of fresh and minimally-processed canned whole tomatoes to diversify their diets. By the second half of the twentieth century, as technological innovations like the mechanical harvester led to consolidation and centralization of tomato production and processing, and the rise of prepared, heavily-processed, ready-to-eat meals discouraged culinary curiosity, tomato production and consumption became more standardized and homogenized. Yet, the tomato has also become a symbol for important counters to the dominance of this corporate culture, including farmers’ markets and home gardening. This project seeks to highlight how the two phases of tomato industrialization differed from other foods. Contrary to the existing scholarship, this project suggests that industrialization often helped foster increased diversity in American food production and culinary culture but also points to the limits of the corporate model on shaping and standardizing American cuisine. Despite the growing power of centralized producers and processors of food to shape eating habits, tomato culture in America remains diverse and consumers utilize numerous avenues to challenge and influence commercial culture.