Empire of the “Jungle”

Abstract

This essay seeks to broaden traditional narratives of industrial meatpacking by framing the story within the Atlantic world rather than simply the United States and by examining consumption as well as production. The development of refrigerated meatpacking entailed radical changes in the taste of meat while also requiring the use of untested chemical preservatives, promoting considerable resistance from consumers. Chicago firms such as Swift and Armour took advantage of massive economies of scale to conquer successive regional meat markets within the United States. Nevertheless, consumers in Canada and Britain maintained their preference for freshly slaughtered beef for more than two decades after the arrival of refrigerated meats, and packers took even longer to change Mexican and Argentine tastes. By examining the processes through which different countries were incorporated into increasingly globalized meat markets in decades around 1900, this essay challenges the seemingly inevitable triumph of industrial food processing conglomerates.