On That Date, No. 3

"The universal march toward convenience and cheapness, even though it . . . means loss in quality, generally brings a higher average of goodness. . . . [Consider] the meat supply --- never better than at the present time. Considering the relation of the [small] supply of cattle to the [high] demand for fresh meats[,] the cost is phenomenally low. "And why? Because the great slaughter-houses have eliminated waste. Not a hair is lost, not a bone, nor an ounce of blood, hide, hoof or horns, for all are given a commercial value, to secure which the consumers . . . of the entire world have been sought and won.

"Keep in mind when inclined to complain of the cost of meat that every year there are more millions to be fed and fewer acres for grazing cattle. The day of low cost meat has passed, and we have to thank the great beef barons for keeping down cost by means of steam, machinery, improved methods, distribution in refrigerator cars and scientific methods of handling."

--- F. N. Barrett, "The Improving Food Supply," Good Housekeeping 53, no. 4 (October 1911): 477, 478.

In Which I Continue My Experimentation With "New" Media

As many of you know, I'm fascinated by the possibilities of the age in which we live. I'm a historian and so I'm a bit jaded when it comes to "this is the most important moment in human history" kind of stuff --- but I'm intensely and keenly aware that, yeah, we are living in an epic era of an epoch. (I think that makes sense . . . )  Anyway, to that end, I'm experimenting with how to use the tools at hand: Twitter, Facebook, this website, sites like Medium, etc.

At the moment, my experiments are focused on this site and on Facebook. Heretofore (how's that for a ten buck word?), I've thought of Facebook as, ya know, that site we all love to hate but mostly love (yes, I love Facebook) because we can hang with our friends even though they live 2,000 miles away.

But: a few days ago, I created (at the prodding of my of my publicity team) a "Maureen Ogle Author" "page" at Facebook. I didn't want to do this. I truly needed prodding.

And . . . about an hour after I created the page, I thought "Hmmm. Hey. You know, there might be something to this. Perhaps Facebook can be used to promote the book in ways I hadn't realized."

Including figuring out how to attach this site to that Facebook page. Obviously, all I have to do is post a link to, say, this blog entry at the FB page and voila!, they're linked. But I'm interested in digging deeper to see how I can make the two sites function as a more powerful tandem promotional tool. (*1)

I also plan to tinker with this site a bit. I'd like to add a bit more functionality to it so it's easier for people to find what I want them to find, relative to the new book. So if the site undergoes a bit of wonkitude over the next week or so, that's why.

Anyway. I'm in full-bore promotional mode. Heh, so much so that I'm not even thinking about that new book I want to write. I'm talkin' laser focus here. (Cover your eyes.)

I hope you'll bear with me. And: if you've a mind to, I hope you'll read the content I'll be posting here, such as the Q&A Series, and that, hey, maybe you'll even pass along some of this good stuff to your friends.

Thanks!

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*1: Because, yes, I MUST promote the book. The ONLY way to get people to read the book is if I keep shoving it in front of their faces.

Mercenary? Yes. But having spent seven years of my life on the damn thing, I'll be equally damned if I'm going to let it sink into the history dustbin.

And for those who think "Oh, come one! Isn't writing a book about "art"? -- I say: How is writing the book any different than, say, launching a business making pizza or selling web designs or cleaning houses? Answer: it's now. I labored to write the book. Now I'd like to earn some money from that labor.

On That Date, No. 2

"We eat much more meat than is needed to supplement our vegetable food. Our meat is much fatter than would be necessary anyhow. The sugary and starchy foods of which we consume an excess make the fat still less necessary. . . . A reform must come, but it will come no faster than our farmers learn to . . . make more meat and leaner meat from less vegetable material, and consumers learn to buy and use meats and other foods of the kinds and in the proportions best suited to their actual needs." -- W. O. Atwater, "The Food-Supply of the Future," Century 43, no. 1 (November 1891): 103.

GMOs, Loony Tunes, and Reason

Highly recommend this. Highly. Take seven minutes and read. Because sanity, facts, and reason need all the support they can get in this sad world of ours. Brief background: While researching the meat book, I no surprise encountered the whole "GMOs are evil and satanic" thing. I knew nothing about GMOs or why they mattered or what they can/can't do or be.

So of course I dug into the subject (for my own information; I don't discuss GMOs in the book). Took me, oh, about four minutes to realize that finding any substantial information was gonna take awhile. A month or so later, I'd learned enough to know that most of what passes for fact about GMOs is bullshit, pure and simple.

So. Please read Entine's essay. Thanks!

On That Date. No. 1

The job of selling farm products, wrote an analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has become a matter of “art and psychology” because Americans, increasingly city born and raised, know nothing about “the origin and real character of food and food products . . . .” These days, consumers are “especially susceptible to suggestion; they are governed largely by appearances in their selection of farm products and are easily deceived by the trick of a false name or a false ingredient in a prepared food."

Slap the word “Canada” on a package of lamb, for example, and a butcher can earn “2 cents more per pound for it,” paid out by “customers who act under the delusion that they are getting something unusual for their money. In certainly 95 per cent of the cases they are getting plain domestic 'lamb,' and about 50 times out of 100 are not getting lamb at all, but mere mutton.' (423) So, too, sausage makers: slap the words "country sausage" on the package, and customers will pay more. (423) “The fictions seem to sell the product, and the eating public appears to be satisfied.”(423)

“Farmers should learn [these] whims and fancies of the markets . . . . By so doing the highest prices and the largest profits may be obtained.” (433)

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"Consumers' Fancies," by George K. Holmes, from U.S. Department of Agriculture Yearbook, 1904, pp. 423, 433.