Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
names such as ''Sugar in the Raw,'' the non-white sucrose sweetener is
pitched to consumers seeking ''natural'' or ''artisanal'' food products.
27
Unsurprisingly, this comparison of long-term trends in commodity
consumption confirms the centrality of various fruits, coffee, and sucrose
in twentieth-century U.S. diets. It further indicates that the biggest leaps
in percapita consumption occurred in the nineteenth century. Consump-
tion rates fluctuated considerably during the twentieth century, but they
generally leveled out in the 1950s. This is not to suggest that markets for
thesecommoditieshaveremainedstaticsincemidcentury;theyallbecame
increasingly integrated as shippers, processors, and distributors sought to
increase their market shares and lower costs. As industries consolidated,
commoditiesbecameincreasinglystandardized.Fablesofabundancegave
way to discourses on quality.
selective tastes: the evolution
of quality standards
As late as the 1880s, none of the commodity sectors considered
herehadundergonesignificantintegration;farmers,shippers,processors,
wholesalers, and retailers tended to be distinct entities although by no
means independent. However, this changed dramatically over the course
of the twentieth century. By the 1910s, just three U.S. banana companies
had achieved a very high degree of vertical integration, controlling the
production, shipping, and marketing of their product. California fruit
growers also integrated production, packing, and marketing operations
in the early twentieth century, but they did not control rail transporta-
tion. Some sugar companies, including United Fruit, had operations that
integrated cultivation, milling, and refining processes. The coffee indus-
try remained fragmented during the first half of the twentieth century.
FollowingWorldWarII,coffeeroastingintheUnitedStatesbegantocon-
solidate, but even then, roasters seldom owned coffee farms or processing
mills (beneficios) in Latin America. Significantly, consolidation generally
occurred first in the middle nodes of commodity chains; shippers, pro-
cessors, and distributors integrated before producers and retailers.
Getting commodities to mass markets required mass transportation:
in the late nineteenth century, fossil fuel-powered railroads and steam-
ships (along with mules and canoes) carried unprecedented volumes of
cargo at record-breaking speeds. Bananas, coffee, and sugar, along with
deciduous fruits from California, all required processing and/or packing
prior to transport in order to ensure that the product arrived in saleable
