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In the 1960s and early 1970s, countercultural rebels decided that, rather than confront the system, they would create the world they wanted. The natural foods movement grew out of this contrarian spirit. Through a politics of principled shopping, eating, and entrepreneurship, food revolutionaries dissented from corporate capitalism and mainstream America. In Food for Dissent, Maria McGrath traces the growth of the natural foods movement from its countercultural fringe beginning to its twenty-first-century \"food revolution\" ascendance, focusing on popular natural foods touchstones -- vegetarian cookbooks, food co-ops, and health advocates. Guided by an ideology of ethical consumption, these institutions and actors spread the movement's oppositionality and transformed America's foodscape, at least for some. Yet this strategy proved an uncertain instrument for the advancement of social justice, environmental defense, and anti-corporatism. The case studies explored in Food for Dissent indicate the limits of using conscientious eating, shopping, and selling as tools for civic activism.

In this engaging inquiry, originally published in 1989 and now fully updated for the twenty-first century, Warren J. Belasco considers the rise of the countercuisine in the 1960s, the subsequent success of mainstream businesses in turning granola, herbal tea, and other revolutionary foodstuffs into profitable products; the popularity of vegetarian and vegan diets; and the increasing availability of organic foods. From reviews of the previous edition: Although Red Zinger never became our national drink, food and eating changed in America as a result of the social revolution of the 1960s. According to Warren Belasco, there was political ferment at the dinner table as well as in the streets. In this lively and intelligent mixture of narrative history and cultural analysis, Belasco argues that middle-class America eats differently today than in the 1950 because of the way the counterculture raised the national consciousness about food.—Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Nation This book documents not only how cultural rebels created a new set of foodways, brown rice and all, but also how American capitalists commercialized these innovations to their own economic advantage. Along the way, the author discusses the significant relationship between the rise of a 'countercuisine' and feminism, environmentalism, organic agriculture, health consciousness, the popularity of ethnic cuisine, radical economic theory, granola bars, and Natural Lite Beer. Never has history been such a good read!— The Digest: A Review for the Interdisciplinary Study of Food Now comes an examination of... the sweeping change in American eating habits ushered in by hippiedom in rebellion against middle-class America... Appetite for Change tells how the food industry co-opted the health-food craze, discussing such hip capitalists as the founder of Celestial Seasonings teas; the rise of health-food cookbooks; how ethnic cuisine came to enjoy new popularity; and how watchdog agencies like the FDA served, arguably, more often as sleeping dogs than as vigilant ones.— Publishers Weekly A challenging and sparkling book... In Belasco's analysis, the ideology of an alternative cuisine was the most radical thrust of the entire counterculture and the one carrying the most realistic and urgently necessary blueprint for structural social change.— Food and Foodways Here is meat, or perhaps miso, for those who want an overview of the social and economic forces behind the changes in our food supply... This is a thought-provoking and pioneering examination of recent events that are still very much part of the present.— Tufts University Diet and Nutrition Letter In this engaging inquiry, originally published in 1989 and now fully updated for the twenty-first century, Warren J. Belasco considers the rise of the countercuisine in the 1960s, the subsequent success of mainstream businesses in turning granola, herbal tea, and other revolutionary foodstuffs into profitable products; the popularity of vegetarian and vegan diets; and the increasing availability of organic foods. From reviews of the previous edition: Although Red Zinger never became our national drink, food and eating changed in America as a result of the social revolution of the 1960s. According to Warren Belasco, there was political ferment at the dinner table as well as in the streets. In this lively and intelligent mixture of narrative history and cultural analysis, Belasco argues that middle-class America eats differently today than in the 1950 because of the way the counterculture raised the national consciousness about food.—Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Nation This book documents not only how cultural rebels created a new set of foodways, brown rice and all, but also how American capitalists commercialized these innovations to their own economic advantage. Along the way, the author discusses the significant relationship between the rise of a 'countercuisine' and feminism, environmentalism, organic agriculture, health consciousness, the popularity of ethnic cuisine, radical economic theory, granola bars, and Natural Lite Beer. Never has history been such a good read!—The Digest: A Review for the Interdisciplinary Study of Food Now comes an examination of... the sweeping change in American eating habits ushered in by hippiedom in rebellion against middle-class America... Appetite for Change tells how the food industry co-opted the health-food craze, discussing such hip capitalists as the founder of Celestial Seasonings teas; the rise of health-food cookbooks; how ethnic cuisine came to enjoy new popularity; and how watchdog agencies like the FDA served, arguably, more often as sleeping dogs than as vigilant ones.—Publishers Weekly A challenging and sparkling book... In Belasco's analysis, the ideology of an alternative cuisine was the most radical thrust of the entire counterculture and the one carrying the most realistic and urgently necessary blueprint for structural social change.—Food and Foodways Here is meat, or perhaps miso, for those who want an overview of the social and economic forces behind the changes in our food supply... This is a thought-provoking and pioneering examination of recent events that are still very much part of the present.—Tufts University Diet and Nutrition Letter

Domestically funded (and performed) research and development (R&D) has historically been a major source of productivity gains in U.S. agriculture, and a principal source of R&D spillovers to the rest of the world. In the waning decades of the 20th century, U.S. policymakers opted to ratchet down the rate of growth in public support for food and agricultural R&D. As the 21st century unfolds, slowing growth has given way to real cutbacks, reversing the accumulation of U.S.-sourced public R&D capital over most of the previous century and more. The 2014 Farm Bill did little to reverse these long-run research funding trajectories—politicians failed to heed the economic evidence about the still substantial social payoffs of that research and the consequent slowdown in U.S. agricultural productivity growth associated with the spending slowdown. Meanwhile, R&D spending by other countries has been moving in different directions. We present new evidence that today's middle-income countries—notably China, Brazil, and India— are not only growing in relative importance as producers of agricultural innovations through investments in public R&D, they are also gaining considerable ground in terms of their share of privately performed research of relevance for agriculture. The already substantive changes in global public and private R&D investment trajectories are accelerating. If history is any guide to the future, these changing R&D trajectories could have profound consequences for the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture in the decades ahead.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program disallows artificial flavors in certified organic foods but allows nonorganic natural flavorings. [43] In 2011 4-MEI was added to the list of carcinogens and reproductive toxicants maintained under California's Proposition 65 (the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986),[44] and products containing more than 29 μg 4-MEI per serving sold in the state after January 2012 must carry a warning.

In this engaging inquiry, originally published in 1989 and now fully updated for the twenty-first century, Warren J. Belasco considers the rise of the \"countercuisine\" in the 1960s, the subsequent success of mainstream businesses in turning granola, herbal tea, and other \"revolutionary\" foodstuffs into profitable products; the popularity of vegetarian and vegan diets; and the increasing availability of organic foods.

This article provides a historical overview of the development of U.S. government-mandated commodity promotion. This form of promotion, known colloquially as the “checkoff,” is responsible for such memorable slogans as “Beef: It's What's for Dinner,” as well as research intended to boost consumption of agricultural products. The article argues that checkoffs represent an associational form of governance in which private organizations achieve public aims. Though they have been frequently challenged in courts and have garnered scrutiny from public health activists, checkoffs have been a durable form of agricultural regulation because they hide the heavy hand of government with the rhetoric of markets and self-help.

Much has been written about nineteenth-century African-American and white statures and body mass index values. However, less is known about their physical activity and calories required to sustain height and weight. This paper considers two alternative measures for biological conditions that address physical activity and calories per capita: basal metabolic rate (BMR) and estimated calories from calorie equations. African-Americans had greater BMR and required more calories per day than whites. Farmers and unskilled workers were more physically active and required more calories per day than workers in white-collar and skilled occupations. Nineteenth-century BMRs and calories were higher in rural locations, where greater physical activity was required and more calories were available.

Nissan is accelerating plans to go more green. The automaker announced it will spend nearly $18 billion of the next five years to add twenty new battery-powered cars to its lineup. That matches similar targets made by rivals in the U.S. and Europe earlier this year. Nissan said some of the vehicles would run just on battery like the LEAF which debuted more than a decade ago.

The transition to synthetic chemicals as a popular method of insect control in the United States was one of the most critical developments in the history of American agriculture. Historians of agriculture have effectively identified the rise and charted the dominance of early chemical insecticides as they came to define commercial agriculture between the emergence of Paris green in the 1870s and the popularity of DDT in the 1940s and beyond. Less understood, however, are the underlying mechanics of this transition. This article thus takes up the basic question of how farmers and entomologists who were once dedicated to an impressively wide range of insect control options ultimately settled on the promise of a chemically driven approach to managing destructive insects. Central to this investigation is an emphasis on the bureaucratic maneuverings of Leland O. Howard, who headed the Bureau of Entomology from 1894 to 1927. Like most entomologists of his era, Howard was theoretically interested in pursuing a wide variety of control methods--biological, chemical, and cultural included. In the end, however, he employed several tactics to streamline the government's efforts to almost exclusively support arsenic and lead-based chemical insecticides as the most commercially viable form of insect control. While Howard in no way \"caused\" the national turn to chemicals, this article charts the pivotal role he played in fostering that outcome.