ORAL HISTORY REGARDING AMERICAS FOOD SYSTEM

Oral History Regarding Americas Food System

Kelly Bryce
Portland State University

ORAL HISTORY REGARDING AMERICAS FOOD SYSTEM

Abstract
The food system in America is a topic of hot debate. By conducting an oral history
interview with an individual over sixty, I was able to gather information on how the food system
is so drastically different from how it was in the past. Some of the major differences include the
abundance of supermarkets, locally grown vegetables, locally raised meat and poultry,
overindulgence in fast food and sugar, and the rise of genetically modified foods. There is a trend
in obesity rates versus changes in the food system. Perhaps the ways of the past should drive the
direction of the future of Americas food system.

ORAL HISTORY REGARDING AMERICAS FOOD SYSTEM

The current food system in the United States is becoming concerning to many people.
Obesity rates have skyrocketed in the last decade; overweight and obese Americans now make
up more than 60 percent of the population (p. 14). Eating habits have drastically changed since
the mid-twentieth century, so it is possible that looking to the past can offer improvements for the
future of Americas food system.
One way to gain insight of everyday eating habits of people in the past is to use oral
history. As the University of North Carolina states, Interviewing a group of people can create a
picture of that experience, and can be a way of preserving a piece of history, (p. 1) For this
particular research project, I chose only one person to interview. My nanny from when I was
younger grew up in England, so I thought it would be interesting to get an international
perspective on the food system in the past. I asked her questions about food availability, eating
habits, and her opinions on how the food system is different now. By obtaining a primary source,
my understanding of the food system and how it has changed has become more clear.
She was born in 1953 in a village called Ecclesfield on the outskirts of Sheffield in
Yorkshire, England. Her family did not own a refrigerator until around 1960. Prior to that, her
mother shopped every day in the village for fresh meat or fish. Her recollections of the village
market include the butcher, where there was sawdust on the floor and the meat was on stone
slabs. All of the meat was farmed locally. In fact, there was an abattoir in the village where the
local meat was slaughtered. In addition to meat and fish, her family also ate rabbit, eggs, and
seasonal vegetables that they shopped for at the green grocers. Like the meat they ate, the eggs
and vegetables were grown locally on nearby farms. Currently in the United States, most food
bought in supermarkets is not locally raised and grown. Nowadays, it is rare for a person to go to

ORAL HISTORY REGARDING AMERICAS FOOD SYSTEM

the butcher to buy their meat. Instead, the majority of Americans buy their meat at the deli at
their local grocery stores (p. 107).
In addition to the aforementioned foods bought in grocery stores nowadays, milk is also
mass produced to supply supermarkets due to its high demand. In the case of my nanny, she had
a milkman who came to their house and delivered their milk every day. Like all the other foods
her family ate, the milk was supplied by a local farm. She describes her memories of the milk
delivery system: The milk came in gold top and silver top. Gold top had cream that would float
to the top and if you were not careful the birds would peck open the lids and drink the cream. In
the sixties, they also had a bread man come around and deliver fresh bread every day. Today,
most Americans buy their bread and milk in supermarkets where they are mass produced and
have a variety of chemicals and additives. My nanny and her family did not travel often to the
town of Sheffield, but when they did, she recalls a big open air market there with all local
produce. In their small village of Ecclesfield, there was no supermarket until the later sixties
when Co-op opened the first and only one.
Although supermarkets contribute to the obesity pandemic, children are learning
unhealthy eating habits from an early age. Many schools in the United States serve sugary junk
food in their cafeterias including chips, pizza, and soda (p. 129). When my nanny went to school,
their school lunches consisted of meat, vegetables, potatoes, and a glass bottle of milk. They did
have pudding available (known as simply dessert in America), but only for the children who
finished their entire meal. She recalls that a phrase often heard in the lunchroom was, if you
can't eat your meat, you can't have your pudding. Some schools in America today offer desserts
unconditionally to children, as was the case with my school when I was younger.

ORAL HISTORY REGARDING AMERICAS FOOD SYSTEM

Relating to the rise of unhealthy food, fast food began to become more popular in the
seventies when women were entering the workforce more. My nanny stated that as she noticed
families begin to have two fully-employed parents, fast food became more abundant due to
demanding schedules and less time at home. However, the only fast food she considers ever
eating was fish and chips. But the fish was caught locally that day, and the chips were made from
local potatoes cooked in animal fat. Today, fast food is definitely on the rise, and is one of the
major factors in obesity. According to, In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food;
in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion. One of the biggest culprits in the current food
system is fast food.
Another issue with food today is the aspect of genetic modification. My nanny recalled
that Nothing was genetically modified or filled with growth hormones when I was a child.
Today it becomes harder to find food that has not been tampered with in some form or other.
This is true; a lot of food found in supermarkets in the United States are genetically modified in
some way (p. 28). In an attempt to feed the ever expanding global population, GM foods have
become more common. This is beneficial for the poorer countries where food is scarce.
However, in the western world GM foods are in abundance and easily affordable, so many
people overindulge.
In conclusion, this oral history interview provided much insight on just how different the
food system was in the mid-twentieth century. Some key differences include the availability of
locally grown foods, new genetic modification of food, and overindulgence in sugar and fast
food. A lot of todays health problems could be solved by returning to the old ways of clean
eating.

ORAL HISTORY REGARDING AMERICAS FOOD SYSTEM

References:
Winne, M. (2008). Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty. Boston,
MA: Beacon Press.
University of North Carolina College of Arts and Sciences: The Writing Center. (2010). Oral
History. [PDF document]. Retrieved from:
https://d2l.pdx.edu/content/enforced/543896-OFFERING_UNST-144G001_201504/Oral-History-The-Writing-Center.pdf