Snapshots into how Americans grow, prepare and serve food
1500-1600 | 1600-1700 | 1700-1800 | 1800-1900 | 1900-1950 | 1950-2000+
1950-2000
The modern age . . . Food on the run. Instant and convenient. Scientific and technological improvements.
|
 | | Man Barbecuing
Steaks in Backyard
� CORBIS | |
1950: Casseroles and Barbecues
The huge assortments of foods ready-to-eat or processed foods - canned meats, soups, and vegetables - available in the 1950s were very popular with the era's cooks. Savvy cooks mixed these products together to create casseroles. For example, considered a gourmet dish at the time, crab and cheese soufflé featured Velveeta. Meanwhile, trendy dads cooked in the backyard on their state-of-the-art charcoal grills. Casseroles and barbecued meat were the number one food choices in America.
|
|
|
 | | Swanson TV Dinner advertisement, 1960
Campbell Soup Company | |
Fast Food At Home: The TV Dinner
Carl Swanson had a problem - a 270-ton problem. That's how much leftover turkey Carl, owner of Swanson's - a food processing company - had to use before it spoiled. He thought fast and came up with a revolutionary idea. Soon Swanson's introduced the first frozen "TV dinner" in an aluminum tray: turkey, corn-bread stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes, and peas. At the time, most people still didn't own freezers, so the meals were bought and eaten on the same day.
|
|
|
 | | The first McDonald's,
Des Plaines, Illinois, 1955
McDonald's Corporation | |
McDonald's: The All-American Meal
In 1955, Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald's franchise in suburban Chicago. His advertising slogan was "The All American Meal:" a $.15 hamburger ($.04 extra for cheese), $.10 fries, and a $.20 shake. This cheap, kid-friendly meal could be served to families at a speedy 25 seconds a meal. Eventually, Kroc bought the entire company and started one of the oldest brand name restaurants in America.
|
|
|
 | | Wheat Harvest on the Palouse
USDA Agricultural Research Service | |
The Green Revolution: "Miracle" Seeds
During the 1960s, improved varieties of wheat, corn, and rice dramatically increased the crop yields of American farmers. Through the use of pesticides, irrigation, and genetic engineering, these "miracle" seeds doubled or tripled harvests on the same size plots as previous harvests. These seeds quickly spread to farmers in other countries with the hope that they would help end world hunger. This dramatic increase in crop production was called the "Green Revolution."
|
|
|
 | | Astronaut sorts out food on the Space Shuttle Columbia
Courtesy of: NASA | |
Space Food: What Do the Astronauts Eat?
Since NASA's first manned flight in 1961, Americans have been fascinated with what astronauts eat to survive in space. During the 1970s, families bought "space food" - same as the astronauts ate - such as Mylar-covered freeze-dried trail mix and Tang, an orange-flavored breakfast drink. Today's astronauts have many more choices of food in space, including freeze-dried drinks, dried fruit, peanut butter and jelly, candy bars, nuts, sandwiches, and fresh fruit. Even salt and pepper are provided, although they are in liquid form to prevent free-floating salt crystals from cluttering the spacecraft. Happily, Tabasco sauce, a favorite with astronauts, already comes in liquid form.
|
|
|
 | | Bison standing on
hay in a corral
Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
Photograph by: L. C. McClure, Call Number MCC-2496 | |
Lewis & Clark Revisited: Unique Farm Animals
Although the buffalo herds that the Lewis and Clark expedition feasted on were long gone, the 1980s started a new trend in farms - exotic livestock. Ranchers and farmers across the country began breeding buffalo and ostrich for sale to trendy restaurants. Buffalo burgers, as well as game steaks, such as antelope and elk, were popular in restaurants and for at-home grilling. Clearly, people in the 1980s returned to their ancestors' habit of consuming large quantities of meat. Today, ostrich continues to be a specialty foodstuff of the New California school of modern cookery.
|
|
|
 | | In Salinas, California, a geneticist and technician evaluate sugar beet breeding lines for disease resistance
USDA Agricultural Research Service
Photograph by: Scott Bauer | |
Healthy Food: Factory Farms, GMOs and Organics
During the 1990s, families were concerned more than ever with eating healthy food. Some people questioned the use of factory farms. Factory farms raise one kind of animal - fish, chicken, pigs, or cows - and keep as many animals as possible penned together to produce the most meat. At the same time, organic farms began to pop up all across the country. Organic farms follow farming methods modeled on natural ecosystems, using crop rotations, compost, animal grazing, and careful cultivation to raise food with little or no fertilizer. People also became wary about the use of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, such as the "miracle" seeds of the 1960s that tripled grain harvests around the world. Unlike their relatives at the turn of the 19th century, people didn't necessarily want to eat twelve-course meals; they just wanted to know where their food came from.
|
|
|
 | | Woman Eating Yogurt
� CORBIS | |
Designer Foods: Food As Medicine
In the 21st century, Americans are still health-conscious. This interest is developing in two remarkable ways. One is a focus on "designer foods" which promise specific health benefits. The other is a return to more traditional eating habits with less fast food and more emphasis on "food as comfort" in the family. Both aspects of this trend are expected to continue. Soluble fiber in oat bran, which helps reduce cholesterol, and yogurt, which can provide the body with beneficial bacteria, are just two examples of designer foods.
|
|
|
1500-1600 | 1600-1700 | 1700-1800 | 1800-1900 | 1900-1950 | 1950-2000+
|
