Invisible Evolution of Meat, continued.

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 795  Blog Bookstore

Related Posts:

Meat "Packing" Industry, 1917: "The String Department" and "Curled Hair Machines" at the Meat Plant  (here)

 Spam, Smeat, Spic, Prem, Mor & Arf: Food by Any Other Name  (here)

Food, Food Packaging and Creating Desire: the du Pont Company, WWII. (here)

I wrote yesterday (The Importance of Bridges in the Invisible Evolution of Meat) about the invisible evolution of meat from range to plate, but mostly about what happens in those big building with no windows.  The wide solitary middle of this food chain exists almost not at all in the popular mind, most folks choosing not to think of the gruesome process of “processing” animals into the plastic-protected deli selections. 

The middle killing & etc. part has been generally very well hidden from public view, at least for the 20^th century.  For example, this 1949 ad from LIFE magazine introduces the “Fall Pork Chop” with the evolution of meat summarized in those three small pictures.  The processing guy is starched and white and pure standing there before the non-detailed, smoothed-out carcasses.  He even has a little white cap.  The interesting part here is the Uncle Sam delivering the boxed final product.  Uncle Sam?  How did he get into the picture?  He certainly sanitizes the whole procedure, what with the imprimatur of the U.S. government and all, and even suggests a slightly patriotic aspect to the food chain. The odd thing here though is the blood-red background color, which was a common practice for selling dead flesh in LIFE for many years.

The middle killing and scooping part of this is basically nothing that would ever be broadcast on television, and certainly it is nothing that parents would want their kids to see.  Don’t people turn in horror and disgust when those undercover videos of processing plant  practices make it to youtube?  So if these images are too fabulously gruesome for children (and adults) to watch, why take a benefit from them?  I’d say that if the process of producing your benefit is too horrible to watch  you shouldn’t  be able to enjoy the outcome.

Comments

[Hadrosaur]

I agree that people are far too removed from the food chain today however while I am more than willing to dispatch and process animals for my own use I am also more than willing to pay a bit extra to have all of the hard work done for me. It takes a lot of time and know how just to dress out a chicken, rabbit or a deer which many people still do at least occasionally.
If you want to talk disgusting take a look at feedlots. The way our meat is raised before it is butchered is the bad part for me. I have even gone so far as to buy free range beef but availability and cost make it impossible for most folks. If you can get it its worth the price