“…Indeed, except when warehouses caught fire – most catastrophically at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, when seventeen firemen died – cold storage initially attracted mostly positive commentary from the American press. Journalists marvelled at the size, bounty and sheer coldness of the warehouses. As the Boston Globe said of a new five‐storey construction in 1889:Arctic currents circulate throughout the big structure and freeze partridges, grouse, trout, pigs and the various soups that preface hotel bills of fare.…”
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the spread of what we now know as the cold chain sparked controversy in both Europe and North America. This article examines popular distrust of early refrigerated transport and storage in light of larger debates about how best to procure good food at a fair price. Expanding on E. P. Thompson's concept of moral economy, the article shows that refrigeration proved controversial not simply because it helped de-localize and industrialize food supply. It also challenged norms that had previously governed trade in perishables, especially those concerning transparency, naturalness and freshness.
“…Indeed, except when warehouses caught fire – most catastrophically at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, when seventeen firemen died – cold storage initially attracted mostly positive commentary from the American press. Journalists marvelled at the size, bounty and sheer coldness of the warehouses. As the Boston Globe said of a new five‐storey construction in 1889:Arctic currents circulate throughout the big structure and freeze partridges, grouse, trout, pigs and the various soups that preface hotel bills of fare.…”
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the spread of what we now know as the cold chain sparked controversy in both Europe and North America. This article examines popular distrust of early refrigerated transport and storage in light of larger debates about how best to procure good food at a fair price. Expanding on E. P. Thompson's concept of moral economy, the article shows that refrigeration proved controversial not simply because it helped de-localize and industrialize food supply. It also challenged norms that had previously governed trade in perishables, especially those concerning transparency, naturalness and freshness.
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