Anna Zeide

author of "Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry"

December 11, 2018

Anna Zeide is a clinical assistant professor of History at Oklahoma State University. She received her doctorate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology. In her 2018 book “Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry,” as in all her work, she explores the ways that food offers a lens onto environmental change, consumption, technology and the economy. She is also the co-founder of the OSU Food Studies program and is committed to connecting her work with interdisciplinary interests, community engagement and pressing contemporary issues.

A century and a half ago, when the food industry was first taking root, few consumers trusted packaged foods. Americans had just begun to shift away from eating foods that they grew themselves or purchased from neighbors. With the advent of canning, consumers were introduced to foods produced by unknown hands and packed in corrodible metal that seemed to defy the laws of nature by resisting decay.

Since that unpromising beginning, the American food supply has undergone a revolution, moving away from a system based on fresh, locally grown goods to one dominated by packaged foods. How did this come to be? How did we learn to trust that food preserved within an opaque can was safe and desirable to eat? Anna Zeide reveals the answers through the story of the canning industry, taking us on a journey to understand how food industry leaders leveraged the powers of science, marketing and politics to win over a reluctant public, even as consumers resisted at every turn.

URL: https://library-dep.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2019-honorees/anna-zeide

Last Updated: 11 December 2018