Thesis ID: CBB148954314

Farm to Pharmacy: Nutrition, Animals, and Governance in Britain 1870–1945 (2020)

unapi

This dissertation examines the emergence of nutrition science in the 20th century and the first cohort of experts who practiced nutrition as a form of medical diplomacy. Unpacking pivotal case studies in Scotland, Iraq, Vienna, Geneva, and Oxford, the project shows how scientific knowledge was produced on a local scale. I argue that knowledge about food developed in Britain from the late 19th century to World War II in a contingent path that involved much more than “discoveries” in labs. It was the unique formation of this discipline across national, international, and imperial political spheres that produced scientific standards and methods. Nutrition enabled a powerful language of exchange, metamorphosis, and commensurability that were vital for British political world systems. My research, therefore, investigates nutrition not just as medical innovation, but as a revolution in ecology and politics: food science was a way to reimagine the earth and Britain’s place within it. Scientific nutrition began as a marginal sub-field of agricultural science and came to acquire a central place in the definition of human needs. I show how critical terms of human nutrition – productivity, growth, and vitality – emerged from the attempt to improve animal health and from imperial agricultural planning. Even when the science of food moved from farms to pharmacies, through standardized units and products like vitamin supplements, animals and non-human factors continued to shape nutritional concepts, standards, and policies.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB148954314/

Similar Citations

Thesis Welk-Joerger, Nicole; (2020)
Feeding Others to Feed Ourselves: Animal Nutrition and the Politics of Health, 1900–2019 (/isis/citation/CBB263318909/)

Article Bleaney, B.; (2002)
Two Oxford Science Professors, F. Soddy and J. S. E. Townsend (/isis/citation/CBB000201148/)

Essay Review Fox, Robert; (2001)
Science at Oxford (/isis/citation/CBB000100480/)

Article Hofer, Hans-Georg; (2013)
Ernährungskrise, Krankheit, Hungertod; Wien (und Österreich-Ungarn) im Ersten Weltkrieg (/isis/citation/CBB001421904/)

Chapter Anker, Peder; (2011)
Ecological Communication at the Oxford Imperial Forestry Institute (/isis/citation/CBB001221388/)

Book Lang, James; (2001)
Notes of a Potato Watcher (/isis/citation/CBB000700339/)

Article Carlo Rubiola; Valeria Magnelli; (2016)
L'alimentazione nella spedizione dell'esercito sardo in Crimea (1855-1856) (/isis/citation/CBB625654680/)

Book Lisa Haushofer; (2022)
Wonder Foods: The Science and Commerce of Nutrition (/isis/citation/CBB755765560/)

Article Guerrini, Anita; (2012)
Health, National Character and the English Diet in 1700 (/isis/citation/CBB001221618/)

Book Campkin, Ben; Cox, Rosie; (2007)
Dirt: New Geographies of Cleanliness and Contamination (/isis/citation/CBB001031281/)

Book Thomas Robertson; Richard P. Tucker; Nicholas B. Breyfogle; Peter Mansoor; (2020)
Nature at War: American Environments and World War II (/isis/citation/CBB159359594/)

Article Otter, Chris; (2011)
Hippophagy in the UK: A Failed Dietary Revolution (/isis/citation/CBB001210132/)

Authors & Contributors
Peter Mansoor
Magnelli, Valeria
Haushofer, Lisa
Welk-Joerger, Nicole
Veronica Aniceti
Robertson, Thomas
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Concepts
Food and foods
Science and society
Nutrition
Public health
Farms
Agriculture and politics
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
Medieval
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
England
United States
Crimea (Ukraine)
Sicily
Iraq
Institutions
Oxford University
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment