CHAPTER 15

New Yorkers Biting Too Much off the Big Apple

Conclusions about the Historical and Geographic Perspective of the Food Industry

Section 4

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We all came into this investigation with our own prejudices about the importance of food.  What we discovered was that every detail, no matter how small, was essential to the development of the food culture of modern New York City.

This extensive study examined the intricate evolution of the food system in New York City from pre-colonial times to the global era. These chapters assessed the changes in agriculture, diversity of food, colonial and urban food markets by looking at the increasing complexity of technology, diversity, and geography. The history of New York City’s agriculture, inhabitants, population changes, colonization, and economic activity provided specific information about changes over the past few centuries.

We collected information that contributed insight to the growth of Dutch New Amsterdam into present day New York City. In our research, we discovered patterns concerning advances in technology and their effects on food production and distribution throughout the existence of this bustling, steel-framed megalopolis. The variety of foods available to hungry New Yorkers also expanded over time with the aid of innovations such as railroads, refrigerated rail cars, and canals. Besides technological improvements, agricultural advances in milling and production greatly furthered the progression of New York City’s cuisine.

While there are numbers of factors involved in supplying New Yorkers with the food they need, certain overall trends are apparent in terms of food markets, their locations, distribution and their subsequent effects.

From the days of the Lenape and colonization of the Dutch to the thriving metropolis of today, market structure in New York has undergone necessary change. The Lenape engaged in little trade, mostly harvesting and hunting the food that would be used for their own family or small community, making “markets” infrequent and informal (if present at all).  The first true markets were introduced to the new world by the Dutch, one of many traditional forms of infrastructure sourced from their urban origin.  As the city grew, its markets multiplied, with one centered in nearly every neighborhood.  Expansion in the diversity of foods available also paralleled the city’s growth, with exotic fruits like dragon fruit available to those who once lived where they grew naturally.

Over time, New York City experienced a change in the types and amounts of foods available. New technologies, such as the refrigerator freight car and pasteurization, dramatically increased the amount of food available to New Yorkers. Commodities such as grain and wheat could be grown in abundance. When the amount of foods available to New Yorkers increased, prices for these foods often decreased. As a result, food became more widely available to all consumers. New technologies also expanded the types of foods available in markets. By the early 1900s, New Yorkers could enjoy exotic new foods such as oranges from Florida for the first time. In the mid 1950s, even more different types of foods became available as more new technological innovations were developed. The changes in foods available to New Yorkers reflect New York’s use of innovative technologies. In addition to the shifts in the types and amounts of food available, the modes by which they were brought to consumers in New York City.  Prior to the rise of the elaborate railway networks–and the National Interstate Highway System in the years to follow–food transport remained very much a local process; products were carted in on horse-drawn carriages and occasionally, motor trucks.  As these infrastructural networks were built and expanded, however, food was sourced from increasingly vast distances, whether internationally (as is often the case with container-filled ships) or across states.  While different modes of transport have risen and fallen across time, their subsequent integration is responsible for today’s streamlined system.

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, legislation had played an important role in the local public market system in the regulation and prevention of illegal practices. After the enactment of the first agricultural and food laws in the early twentieth century, national food safety laws were passed, and federal agencies were established to administer those laws. The federal government’s greater involvement in food legislation serves to protect the health of consumers, and maintain higher food quality standards. Overall, legislation has played a larger role in American society from the local regulation of the primary food distribution mechanism and agricultural practices to national food safety.

Technologies were invented to create efficiency in the way food is shipped and preserved. The invention of the container in the mid-twentieth century allowed for convenience in freight movement and lowered the distribution costs. The refrigerated rail car improved the shelf life of perishable items, diversifying the foods shipped to the city.  Also, the refrigerated rail cars increased the quantity of food accessible to the city.  The advancements helped integrate different modes of transportation such as rail, trucks, and marine.  One key trend we have since the mid-19th century is the change in location of production of New York City’s food supply.  This was both intentional and incidental.  As technology advanced, transportation of raw materials was made easier.  Mass production was also utilized in industries such as the beer industry and the meat packing industry.  As a result of increased accessibility due to the rise of mass production, resources in and around the city were depleted and polluted.  New York had to look outside its borders to procure raw materials.  By extending its reach across the country and across international borders, the New York City food industry increased the distance again between the source and the location of production.

Along with the overlying trends seen in the New York City’s food industry at this time, changes in geography, complexity, diversity, and technology have followed clear patterns. These themes are all interconnected, and advancements in one area often influenced changes in the others. From our research, we observed an increased use of technology in food production and distribution. Advancements in hunting and harvesting occurred early in New York’s history, and as time went on technologies involving transportation and preservation began to improve. As the technologies proved to increase food accessibility and production, advancements are constantly made to further satisfy New Yorkers’ increasing demand.

A geographic theme of outward expansion regarding food production is obvious as well. In pre-colonial New York, the Lenape Indians would constantly migrate, so they would grow and eat food locally at their new resting places. When English settlers arrived in New York, however, the first markets sprung up.  Eventually, as Manhattan’s population grew, people began settling northward, and new markets opened to satisfy the demand of the public in their new location. By the 18^th Century, food was brought to Manhattan’s markets from Long Island, King’s and Queen’s Counties, and even North Carolina by ferryboat. Soon, New Yorkers received food from other counties and across the country. Today, we can see that our food comes from all over the world.

The diversity of food products has also increased. From colonists introducing non-native grains and animals early in New York’s history to technological advancements allowing the transport of goods from across the world, New Yorkers have always been interested in bringing new foods into their diets. Thanks to the expansion of food production and technological advancements over time, it has become easier to grow and import a large variety of food.

It seems easier and far less complex for New Yorkers to obtain food in the twenty-first century than ever before. There is no need to spend time growing and harvesting your own crops, so the only thing standing between a New Yorker and a plateful of steamed broccoli today is a trip to the grocery store. In actuality, however, New York City’s food supply became more complicated as time went on. Food comes to New York City from vast distances, requiring an extensive transportation system to sustain a supply of fresh food. The actual production of food has gotten increasingly complicated due to the development of new technologies designed to make food both impervious to pests and time. In the twenty-first century, most food that New Yorkers eat comes from hundreds of miles away and arrives either filled with preservatives or covered with pesticides. This is a far more complex process than existed in Colonial times, when food was harvested in close proximity to people’s homes.

All the trends of our research imply that food production, regulation, education, and distribution will need to be changed and reworked as New York City’s population and improvements in technologies continue to grow. Historically, the new features of our food industries have been responses to the ever-increasing demand. The technological advances that brought the city through the Industrial age and into the modern age as one of the biggest metropolises in the world also enabled several million people to be fed on a daily basis. Presently, an enormously intricate highway system enables this whereas refrigerated rail cars that ran on set tracks permitted this in the past. Millions of trucks now follow routes that are subject to change regularly according to their needs. New routes are added and old ones are reconfigured as food industries adjust to accommodate New York’s growing population.

Food production moving away from the city has enabled mass production and distribution at a cost that is becoming increasingly severe. Our produce is often treated with pesticides and other unfriendly chemicals in an effort to preserve it for an unnaturally long period of time. Milk, water and other beverages are bottled out-of-state (often in non-biodegradable materials) and shipped into the city every morning, contributing to the massive amounts of daily waste. The seafood industry, over time, has overdrawn from the oceans to a destructive degree, depleting many fish populations to sizes beyond recovery. Meat is produced on factory farms, which are known for both inhumane treatment of animals and massive carbon footprints. Lastly, the larger scale factories that provide pesticides for our crops, bottles for our beverages, and the motor parts to our trucks are responsible for some of the most significant technological advances. Consequently, these factories have also been the biggest contributors to air and water pollution seen in New York City’s history.

In all of these industries, damage has been done in an effort to create an efficient assembly-line style food production. The question now becomes how to mitigate the damage. Legislation comes long after the fact and is often too little too late. Our waterways, although cleaner than they were in the 1950s, are still highly polluted. Fishing populations are still being depleted despite congressional legislation regarding careful maintenance of ocean fisheries. With increasing urbanization comes a greater need for regulatory legislation. The effectiveness and more importantly, the timeliness, of such legislation have yet to be seen.
As food markets and trade networks become more complex, it becomes more important for us to address problems like pollution and unnatural treatment of foods. Food provisioning is one of the single most important issues that we all have a hand in. As we continue on an environmentally destructive track towards an ambiguously stable future, it will become increasingly important that New York addresses this grocery-list of issues in the near future. As the city and the list continue to develop, the solution becomes difficult to achieve and even more imperative. If the city wants to continue to eat, it must carefully examine the long-term viability of its diet starting now.

CHAPTER TEN

From New Metropolis to the Industrial City

Urban food markets in New York City and how they changed during the industrial era

Ivana Roman, Molly Steinblatt, Olivia Torres, Jasmin Zaman, Mason Taub

INTRODUCTION

During the 19th century, New York City grew as one of the nation’s principal cities. With increasing immigration, the opening of the Erie Canal, and thriving markets and industries, the population in the city began to boom, reaching more than 300,000 inhabitants by 1840. 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.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Beverages

Beer

Beer was a common beverage among the early settlers in America. They only used few vats for mashing, cooling, and fermenting (Brock 1995). However, the latter half of the nineteenth century saw technological advances help to promote a more efficient processing and production of this beverage.

Milk

Before the discovery of the tuberculosis bacillus in 1882, cows were not tested and milk was not pasteurized. Milk was ladled from large, uncovered vats into small containers brought by customers. Milkmen delivered directly to homes as they re-used dirty bottles from one customer, ladled new milk into it, and sold it to another. This caused the spread of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera (2005). The process of producing condensed milk was patented in 1856 and it was also used as a formula when “fresh” milk was not available (2005). Two types of condensed milk were available in cans, plain condensed milk and preserved condensed milk (Jones 2003). The best-known use of pasteurization is in the preparation of milk. It consists of heating the milk that destroys all the disease-causing bacteria, which cause milk to go sour so that maintains quality. Later, however, it was realized that harmful germs could also be killed if the process were modified.

In terms of transport, the “milk shed” was the radius the milk trucks were able to travel, which was lesser than that of the railroad. The New York milk shed, beginning in the western part of Vermont, includes the New York State region, southern Quebec, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Southern NJ, and part of Maryland. Some shipping stations in borders of both states served both places.

Grain Market

According to the Farmer’s Magazine, during this time, “The three great sources of New York grain supply [were] the Erie Canal, the Southern States, and New You State” (1860, 431). Most of what was consumed by the state of New York was actually produced in the state, but most of what was exported elsewhere from New York depended on other sources.  The Southern States’ contribution was important during the winter because it was not necessary to heat the grain during transportation. The Erie Canal is unique in that by the time the wheat is harvested the channels of communications close, therefore New York receives light spring wheat from the West as opposed to heavy winter wheat from the South (July to December 1860)

Box 9.1

The grain exports from New York, for the year ending 1st September, have been as follows: Flour …… 616,166 barrels Wheat …… 4,572,228 bushels Corn …… 1,724,955 bushels

Source: (Data from census years)

For a farmer growing grain in the early 20th century there were several complexities presented. One is that grain must be harvested within six months of planting, and the harvest period usually last anywhere from 2 to 3 months.  Ultimately this means that the bulk of grain destined to be sold to manufactures must remain in storage for quite a while before it reaches users. Farmers had a difficult time with this aspect of grain production because it must be kept in fireproof, insured warehouses or it becomes a liability (Benjamin Horace Hibbard 1921).

In 1915, the farms on Long Island fed only a small portion of New York City’s population. Marcus M. Marks argues that intensive farming on Long Island could have provided for New York City and neighboring towns. However, at the time, Marks argues that it would be impossible because the expense of the farmer would outweigh any profit they would gain.

The open markets encouraged farmers to produce a greater surplus of crops, which led to fresh and reasonably priced produce for consumers (New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment 1915).

A particular trend in farms on the outskirts of New York City, in Kings County, Brooklyn, was observed during the Industrial Revolution. Between the years of 1880 to 1890, there was a decrease from 409 farms to only 307, which the New York State Bureau of Statistics of Labor inferred as, “’many’ farms that ‘were formally occupied and cultivated … are now lying idle in the hands of real-estate speculators’” (Marc Linder 1999).

At the turn of the century, although there was a slight rise in farmland usage in Kings County in the last decade, there was a sharp 70% decrease by 1910. By 1930, there were only 11 farms servicing New York in the Brooklyn area, a record low. Although the Great Depression and World War I forced the number of farms to rise to 65 in 1950, the acres of farm in Kings County never fully recovered the land lost.

Due to this urbanization and population of the New York and Brooklyn area, there was an increased demand for hay, vegetables, milk, and other perishable goods. The remaining farms in Brooklyn became dedicated to this and, “As a result, grain production declined ‘greatly’…” (Linder 25).  Since it was not profitable to transport perishable goods over long distances, New York began to focus its attentions to cultivating those commodities and began to rely more on grain imports from other sources.

This commercializing of agriculture did not take place over night; in fact it took almost half a century for the new wave of commercial farming to over power the traditional farms. Due to the developments of large cities, it became profitable to transport grain and meat long distances, because these commodities were not easily accessible to populations in cities (Benjamin Horace Hibbard 1921).

Meat

The major packing firms of Armour, Morris, Swift, and Hammond, known as the Chicago packers, supplied 85% of the nation’s beef by 1887 (Perry 1989), with another considerable percentage supplied by packers like Cudahy and Schwarzschild & Sulzberger (Whitten and Whitten 2006). The packing companies competed with each other for supply on both local and national levels, each changing their prices, quality, technologies, and shipment techniques to come out on top. The competitors continued to fight for the position as most successful company until they either dissolved or merged.

With the introduction of new technologies, the big packers gained the ability to slaughter, as well as pack, their meat. In fact, by 1916, Swift and Armour alone accounted for half of the cattle, calves, sheep, and hogs slaughtered (Perry 1989). From 1880 through 1910, “slaughtering and meat packing was either the first or second most valuable United States industry” (Himmelberg 1994, 206). “Small, local slaughterhouses, which previously had characterized the industry, were displaced rapidly in most markets because they could not compete with the new low-cost substitute (from the major packing companies).

Seafood and Shellfish

The Fulton Fish Market is considered a large, centralized fish market.  This means that the consumers, the fishermen themselves, and the dealers (or middlemen between those who actually caught the fish and those who wish to purchase it) all congregate in a single place to complete the trading of the product.

A point of contention between the managers of the Fulton Fish Market and the press has traditionally been the market structure.  This refers specifically to the physical construction of the market, i.e. the organization and maintenance of the individual stalls of the market in which both peddlers and permanently established dealers of the market sell their goods to the public.  This includes the protection of the goods in their containers from outside contamination, as well as refrigeration (which incidentally was not utilized in New York markets until 1835) (New York Times 1876).

Such areas are the origin of a market’s resources.  The origin, source, or original location of the resources refers to the natural site from where a market’s raw materials are physically extracted.  For the fishermen of New York City, these areas are the various waterways in and surrounding the five boroughs of the city.  Some historically utilized sites of New York City include: the shellfish beds of Jamaica Bay (the body of water that lies between southern Queens, southeastern Brooklyn, and Rockaway Beach), the Hudson River, and various locations off of Long Island (these served as the main source of oysters up through the early twentieth century) (New York Times 1876).

Map 9.1 New York Harbor and environs in the late 1800s

Source: (Kurlansky, 2006)

Fruit and Vegetables

The invention of the refrigerator car is often touted as the driving force of the changes in the fruit and vegetable industry during the industrial era. Fruits and vegetables were the most impacted by refrigerator car, and the books How Great Cities Are Fed, and Feeding the World: An Economic History of Agriculture, have empirical data supporting this notion. In addition, nyfoodmuseum.org has firsthand accounts of refrigerator cars and their impact on market locations and structures. In The “Industrial Revolution” in the Home: Household Technology and Social Change in the 20th Century, Cowan (1976) provides some background information about refrigeration through a utilitarian perspective.

RESULTS, FINDINGS, OR CASE STUDY

Beverages

Milk

Milk was often transported using railroads and travels the shortest distance as 80% of New York’s supply comes from upstate New York itself. (Hedden 1929). However, there was a switch to motor trucks. At this point, the refrigeration of trucks as they sought to switch to trucks was in the embryonic stage, as glass-lined tank trucks were introduced. Average hauls are two hundred and fifty miles.

“Ice box on wheels” was patented in 1867.  It became used for many beverages during this time. One of the first cooling systems was an ice-and-salt mixture packed into a box and slipped into the car before sealing the door.

Milk was often transported using railroads and travels the shortest distance as 80% of New York’s supply comes from upstate New York itself. (Hedden 1929). However, there was a switch to motor trucks. At this point, the refrigeration of trucks as they sought to switch to trucks was in the embryonic stage, as glass-lined tank trucks were introduced. Average hauls are two hundred and fifty miles.

“Ice box on wheels” was patented in 1867.  It became used for many beverages during this time. One of the first cooling systems was an ice-and-salt mixture packed into a box and slipped into the car before sealing the door. The following photographs show these technologies used on the American railroad:

Figure 9.1 Technologies of the Early American Railroad

Beer

The processing of beer in New York is often credited to distilling and fermentation. There are many fermentation methods. We generalize in two – warm and cold ferment-usually called top and bottom ferment (Eckhardt 1995). The main ingredient found in beer is malt (Baron 1972).  The process activates the enzymes necessary to utilize the grain to make beer. Malted grains are easily stored and are the primary ingredient of beer (Ehert 1891). The malting process was transformed by the introduction of pneumatic malting systems that permitted greater control and efficiency in processing grains. The application of steam power and the use of hoists, pumps, keg scrubbers, and machines for mashing were able to increase the efficiency of production (Downard 1980).

Pasteurization, a process originally devised to preserve wine and beer (not milk) was adopted during this period (Katz 2006). After this, beer no longer had to be kept cold and could be shipped into warm climates and stored without re-fermenting (Brock 1995). This research contributed substantially to the expansion of bottled beer, which was stable for a longer period of time.

The Technology:

After the brewing process has been completed, beer is packaged in kegs, barrels, bottles, or cans (Eckhardt 1995). The racking, or filling of beer in barrels and bottling is in pasteurized or unpasteurized form depending on the type of packaging. Unpasteurized beer, known as draft, was formerly filled in barrels, or, today also in bottles (Elzinga 1995). Most bottled and canned beer has been, and continues to be, pasteurized; thereby killing any active yeast and permitting shipping, stability, and longer life for the beer (Risch 2009).

At the start of the decade in 1850, the 431 brewers in the United States were producing 750,000 barrels of beer. By the end of that decade 1,269 brewers produced more than a million barrels of beer. Prior to the introduction of ice and refrigeration devices, the production of lager beer could only take place during months when cellar temperatures were conducive to fermentation (Downard 1980). The latter half of the 19th century saw technological advances in production and marketing. Mechanical refrigeration aided the brewing and storage of beer. Once beer was pasteurized, wide scale bottling and off-premise consumption became readily available. Development of the rail and motor transport enabled brewers to sell output beyond their local markets. The twentieth century saw the rise in national breweries (Brock 1995). However, according to Doward’s book on distillation facts and figures New York the number of operating breweries took upon a sharp decline from 393 breweries in 1876 to 61 in 1940 seen in the chart below (1980).

Table 9.1 Operating Breweries by [Selected ]State[s] in Selected Years 1876-1940

State	1876	1880	1890	1895	1900	1910	1914	1919	1935	1940
NY	393	334	290	274	270	194	165	153	69	61

Grain Market

Table 9.2 Total Grains Produced in New York

Year	Buckwheat (in Bushels)	Barley (in Bushels)	Wheat (in Bushels)	Total	Difference from previous census	Percent Difference from previous year
1860	4,180,008	5,126,307	0	9,306,315
1880	4,401,200	7,792,062	0	12,199,262	+2,892,947	+ 31.09%
1900	3,000,000	3,800,000	10,500,000	17,300,000	+5,100,738	+41.18%
1920	3,901,481	2,273,911	9,136,368	15,311,760	-1,988,240	-11.49%
1940	4,549,088		5,361,743	9,910,831	-5,400,929	-54.50%

Sources: (Data from census years)

Meat

Refrigerator Cars

Prior to the widespread use of refrigerated railcars, meat was shipped primarily as livestock. Animal carcasses, known as dressed beef, needed preservation and cooling, and therefore could not be shipped in a non-refrigerated car without rotting. However, the idea of saving space, time, and money by shipping dressed beef instead of live cattle was too enticing to give up on. The start of shipping dressed beef began in 1869, when meatpacker George H. Hammond used the protection of winter cold to ship meat (Whitten and Whitten 2006).

Hammond built a monopoly on dressed beef New England, and his success attracted competitors in the 1870s. Packers like Nelson Morris and Timothy Eastman attempted to commercially ship dressed beef, but it was not until Gustavus Swift innovated the use of refrigerated cars that dressed beef became a major commodity. Swift began shipping using winter temperatures, like his predecessors, but became dissatisfied with the seasonal limitations. He began renting refrigerated railroad cars, primarily used for produce, to ship his meat. Swift hired engineer Andrew Chase, and together, they proposed a design for a refrigerated car to railroad companies in 1878. The railroad executives were not interested, as they trusted and were committed to livestock shipment, not the new and unreliable industry of dressed beef. Swift had his cars manufactured instead by Michigan Car Company of Detroit. After proceeding to solely ship dressed beef, Swift began to do extremely well. The cost advantage of shipping dressed meat as opposed to livestock drove his competitors from the business, or forced them to use his technique (Whitten and Whitten 2006).

“In October 1882, Harper’s Weekly confidently announced that the ‘era of cheap beef has begun for New York’ with the opening of Swift’s first refrigerated meat wholesale shop. Lower prices sped up consumer acceptance of chilled beef ” (Horowitz 2004, 1076). In addition to decreasing the cost of beef, refrigerated cars made the retrieval of meat much easier for retailers. Hedden states in his book that “the refrigerator car ha[d] made possible perambulating branch houses. . . . Two or three times a week a peddler car [wa]s loaded with beef, pork, and lamb as ordered. The retail dealers in each town m[et] the car and t[ook] delivery of their purchases on the spot.” (1929, 45-46).

Furthermore, refrigeration allowed for “centralized, large-scale slaughtering of cattle in Chicago or other leading western packing centers and the shipment of carcasses to eastern markets” (Himmelberg 1994, 206). This allowed packers to combine several aspects of the industry into one, making their work more cost efficient. Per capita consumption of beef rose by 12 percent between 1880 and 1889 due to the convenient and economical introduction of refrigerated transport. Eventually, the smaller packers who could not afford the new technologies could not compete with the low prices of the big companies, allowing a meatpacking monopoly to form. By 1917, the Chicago packers had 15,454 refrigerator cars, 93 percent of the U.S. total, and completely dominated the industry (Himmelberg 1994).

Seafood and Shellfish

The Fulton Fish Market

In the first years of the twentieth century, New York residents along the Gowanus canal began to notice a frequent change in color of the water as a result of waste drainage from the nearby dye manufacturers.  Newton Creek, which runs along the border separating Brooklyn and Queens and empties into the East River, was found to be contaminated by the petroleum from the oil-refining site on its shores.  A link was established between various cases of typhoid around the city and the oysters harvested in Jamaica Bay, which was subsequently shut down in 1915 and again in 1921.  In 1920, the New York Times reported that oysters were becoming a “delicacy”, and reported again in 1924 that the estimate for sewage dumped into the Hudson River annually was 14,000,000 tons.  The city began looking into importing oysters, once a plentiful and profitable natural resource, from France (Kurlansky 2006).

Fruit and Vegetables

Table 9.3 A brief characterization of the start and finish of the industrial era

	mid-1800’s	mid-1900’s
Delivery methods	Motor trucks House-to-house delivery	Trains Steamboat, barges Trucks
Market locations	Scattered	Concentrated on lower west side of Manhattan
Market structures	“Public markets” Consumer-to-grower	Highly centralized Consumer-to-seller
Processing of fruits and vegetables	Little to none	Little to none

Sources: (Anonymous 2004), (Davidson 1999, Hedden 1929, US Department of Agriculture 1994)

Table 9.4 A brief history of railroads, refrigerator cars, and fruits and vegetables

Year	Event
1885	First shipment of Virginia vegetables successfully delivered to New York City via refrigerator freight cars
1888	First shipment of strawberries come from California to New York via refrigerator freight cars
1905	Railroads started building their own refrigerator cars and buying out privately-owned refrigerator cars
1885	Railroads owned 990 refrigerator cars
1900	4000 cars were recorded traveling with fruits and vegetables from west coast to NY
1924	Railroads owned 121,832 refrigerator cars (pp 31)
1927	More holding tracks were constructed at Pennsylvania Railroad to handle the influx of deliveries (that reflect the success)
1927	Installations of “humps,” or special holding tracks, provided facilities for classification and holding by Penn railroad.
1927	Penn Railroad was reconstructed further to handle more fruits and vegetables
1928	Erie station reconstructed

Sources: (Hedden 1929, Sherman 1930, Millstone 2003, Ehrenreich)

Box 9.2

A summarization of delivery methods the mid-1800’s, pre-refrigerator car

Motor trucks –> plazas, farmers’ markets scattered around New York City according to farmer’s desired consumer base.

Box 9.3

VERSUS the 1900’s, post-refrigerator car

Railroads –> waterfronts –> tugboats –> New York City –> Lower West Side piers

Table 9.5 Delivery methods versus distance

Distance between source and destination	Most advantageous delivery method for perishable foodstuff
0 – 100 miles	Motor truck
100 + miles	Freight, ship, plane

Source: (Hedden 1929)

Box 9.4

Grapes Circa 1930: A Case Study In the post-refrigerator car era, the grapes will probably come from California (Davidson 1999). It is often easier and cheaper to ship grapes from the West coast by railroad than it is to grow and ship grapes within a hundred mile radius of Manhattan (Anonymous 1906). Distance is a small factor in distribution of high value fruits and vegetables such as grapes because of how cheap it is to use railroads (Friedland , Friedland 1994). A historian said, “ice plants and supplies made Florida, Texas, and California all [became] regular sources of fruit and vegetable supply for New York City by 1927” (Childe 1901, 34). The grapes will be assembled and classified, then packed into the cars. The grapes will travel in a refrigerator car owned by the railroad company. They will be shipped to other railroad classification yards en route to New York.

Sources: (Adelman 2010, Anonymous 1906, Anonymous 2004, Bachmann 2000, Childe 1901, Cowan 1976, Davidson 1999, Ehrenreich , Friedland , Friedland 1994)

Table 9.6 Delivery methods versus distance

Distance between source and destination	Most advantageous delivery method for perishable foodstuff
0 – 100 miles	Motor truck
100 + miles	Freight, ship, plane

Source: (Hedden 1929)

DISCUSSION

The markets at the beginning of the industrial era were characterized by scattered market locations, consumer-to-producer sales, motor truck deliveries to markets, little to no processing, and a decentralized type of marketing. This meant that farmers sold their own goods to consumers in relatively densely populated areas. These farmers often never traveled farther than one hundred miles by motor truck to deliver their fruits and vegetables to the markets because the goods would deteriorate rapidly otherwise. How Great Cities are Fed (1929) suggested in 1927 that motor trucks are only advantageous economically and in terms of practicality when perishables travel less than one hundred miles. At distances beyond one hundred miles, refrigerated freight travel becomes the more advantageous method because otherwise perishable goods could not survive the journey. At the time of the 1927 guidelines, the technology for refrigeration was not yet introduced to ships and planes feasibly (Hendrickson , Krasner-Khait , Millstone 2003).

The markets towards the end of the industrial era were markedly different. Towards the end of the industrial era, freight transportation became the main mode of delivery.  Empirical data supports the claim that freight transportation became the main method of transporting fruits and vegetables to New York City. The total amount of freight car loads containing fruit and vegetables steadily increased after 1888 (Hedden 1929). The average recorded distance fruits and vegetables traveled were 1500 miles by 1927 (Hedden 1929). Because it is well documented that only refrigerator car loads can handle perishables for 1500 miles or more without spoilage, it is certain that most fruit and vegetable deliveries occurred via freight (Sherman 1930, US Department of Agriculture 1994).

Fluctuation in production was a common trend from 1860 to 1940. The data collected by the Census of Agriculture can be showed in terms of the percent difference from the previous census. There was steady increase from 1880 to 1900, which was in fact observed in the farms of Kings County. The slight decrease in 1920, and then subsequent dramatic decrease in 1940 was also seen in Kings County Farms.

However, only focusing on the percent difference graph could lead one to believe that the production of grain in 1940 was much less than in 1860. This would be very misleading, since upon inspection of Table 9.7, one can see that ironically, the production in 1860 and 1940 are very similar.

Table 9.7 Total Production of Wheat, Barley, and Buckwheat form 1860 to 1940

Source: (Austin 1922, Kennedy 1864)

Another reason for this observed fluctuation could be attributed to the growth of factories. While the growth of industry initially increased production of grain in New York City, it eventually contributed pushing farms out as well. Commercialized farming was popular till the turn of the century when factory jobs in Manhattan forced people into neighboring towns. This suburbanization of Brooklyn and Long Island could have led to the fluctuation of grain production.

Similarly, the city required an enormous amount of meat, and a great variety of meat, to fulfill the needs of its large, heterogeneous population. A new policy changing the rate at which Chicago packers shipped their meat, the price of meat, or the convenience of acquiring the meat affected the New York City markets especially because of the unyielding demand of New Yorkers for meat products. Refrigeration cars benefited many New Yorkers by lowering the cost and increasing the availability of beef, but it also harmed thousands of New Yorkers who lost their jobs in local slaughterhouses and butcher shops due to the growing control of the Chicago packers.

The decrease of number in beer breweries is often credited to the rise of the national brewery association, in turn putting the local ones out of business. It’s not to say that these establishments no longer exist, just that they are more accessible through mass production. Due to Prohibition, the legislation banning a sale of liquor New York saw a decrease in the number of breweries open. Although bootlegging, and illegal manufacturing of alcohol still took place we can deduce that this type of data was most likely not recorded.  In addition, the advantage of the motor truck transportation over the railroad freight saved money in handling and was convenient for the farmer. It provided a single direct movement from field to commission merchant’s store door. However, it had lesser dependability of schedule because of delays.

While news journalists certainly had legitimate cause for complaint regarding New York’s polluted waters in the 1920s, the craze of progressivism, which arose at nearly the same time the Fulton Fish Market opened, is worth looking at as a potential bias.  The muckrakers—a term originating with President Theodore Roosevelt’s challenge to “the men with the muckrakes”—were a crowd of journalists bent on purifying American society through consciousness-raising articles.  The muckrakers spanned from liberal to conservative; from trust-busting in big business to abolishing prostitution and alcohol.

CONCLUSION

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.

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18.    Policy for research, education and extension during the early period and how it changed
a.    What are the national policies for agricultural research and how did they develop?
b.    What are the policies for agricultural education (colleges and extension services) and how did they develop?

19.    Policy for farm credit and marketing during the early period
a.    What are the national policies for farm credit and food price controls and how did they develop?
b.    What is parity and how does it affect food production?