JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 795  Blog Bookstore

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.