Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
meanings of consumption is clearly reflected in the history of cocaine,
whose status shifted from that of a medicinal tonic to a ''fiendish'' illicit
drug by the early 1920s.
23
Continued economic expansion, population growth, and a mass cul-
ture of consumption that helped tie together an otherwise divided na-
tion ensured that the United States would remain the largest single mar-
ket for coffee, bananas, sugar, and fresh fruits throughout the twentieth
century. However, trends in per capita consumption varied considerably
by commodity.
24
The lifting of shipping restrictions following the end of
the Second World Warenabled banana consumption to return to pre-war
levels by 1947. Per capita consumption of bananas subsequently declined
slightly and remained flat through the 1960s. In the late twentieth cen-
tury, banana consumption rose steadily, topping 27 pounds per person in
1997. California deciduous fruit trades followed a distinct trajectory: the
consumption of fresh citrus, including oranges and grapefruit, declined
from a peak of more than 60 pounds per capita during the mid-1940s to
less than 28 pounds in the early 1970s. Since that time, consumption of
fresh citrus has remained relatively flat. However, between 1970 and 1997,
individuals in the United States routinely consumed an additional 90 to
100 pounds of citrus per year in the form of processed juices. Consump-
tion of other fresh fruits widelycultivated in California, including grapes,
peaches, and pears, either declined or remained virtually unchanged in
the second half of the twentieth century; but as was the case with citrus,
consumption of these fruits in processed forms tended to rise.
25
Compar-
ing bananas to other fruits, then, underscores the uniquely narrow niche
occupied by bananas in U.S. cuisine: bananas have rarely been consumed
in dried, canned, jellied, jammed, or juiced forms.
Coffee consumption increased steadily between 1925 and 1945. Enter-
ing the 1960s, coffee was the most popular beverage consumed in the
United States. But coffee consumption fell by 26 percent between 1965 and
1987, a trend that continued through the late 1990s, when per capita con-
sumptionofbothsweetenedsoftdrinksandalcoholicbeveragessurpassed
coffee.
26
The popularity of soft drinks notwithstanding, per capita con-
sumptionofsucrose(fromsugarcaneandsugarbeets)declinedfrommore
than100poundsin1970toabout66poundsin1997.Thiscounter-intuitive
trend is explained by the rising popularity of sucrose substitutes, includ-
ing high-fructose corn syrup. However, there continue to be marketing
''synergies''betweencoffeeandcanesugar:theemergenceofaratherlarge
market for ''specialty coffees'' in the late twentieth century was accom-
panied by the appearance of semi-refined cane sugars. Marketed under
