Abstract: Food Markets during the Industrial Era (1860-1940)

During the Industrial Era, an expansion in food industry led to a greater access to the products by more consumers. With this expansion, there was a particular change in the distance between the market and the origins of raw materials. Refrigeration aided the access to availability of certain perishable foods. These included meat, beverages, seafood, and fruits. The development of refrigerated cars aided the development of larger-scale packing companies. As a result these companies were able to produce more meat, which forced the prices of the products down. This expansion and lowering of prices forced out smaller meat markets and made the products available to consumers of a wider scope of household incomes. The development of various types of technologies like refrigeration turned the selling of beverages into an industry of mass production. As with the meat industry, this allowed for a greater availability of the beverages that were being produced in factories, breweries, and distillation plants. Refrigerated freight cars also aided transportation of raw material as the origins of these materials became more and more distanced from the markets. Because of refrigerated cars, the source of the fruits and vegetables sold in the markets moved from local farms to out-of-state farms. The source of raw fish moved from local New York City waterways to fisheries outside of New York State. Markets for grain and wheat, which were not impacted by refrigeration, expanded in order to cater to the growing population density of New York City. The production of these crops, however, further away from New York, because small local farms failed to meet the high demands of New Yorkers. Using data provided from various sources such as the New York Times Archives and the Census of Agriculture, we observed the impact the Industrial Revolution had on food industry.