There’s a saying, “Food tastes best when you’re hungry.” I’ve found this to be quite true. There’s another colorful phrase in marketing about the difficulty in trying to sell ice to Eskimos. These phrases represent a tension between necessity and need. A hungry person will not be too finicky about what food they eat whereas a person surrounded by snow and ice ostensibly doesn’t need more.
The Haber-Bosch process revolutionized the world with it’s ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia - the principle commodity in both weapons and agriculture. As a result of the surge to meet the needs of the Allies in WWII the industrial capabilities of the United States boomed resulted in a mighty engine of commerce to meet the world’s of demand. The war also resulted in the Cold War - a geopolitical detente between the United States and Russia.
One of the weapons the United States was to employ in this war, one not generally well known, was that of our food supply. With the industrialization of our food system, abundant natural resources, skilled labor, and a strong demand US Agriculture became a powerful weapon. In his 1961 farewell address President Eisenhower famously warned the US public and the greater world about the influence of military-industrial complex.
“ In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. “ Dwight D. Eisenhower
As the industry of agriculture became ever more efficient and more productive agricultural surpluses grew. Marketing this surplus became paramount as competition among the increasingly un-hungry was fierce. Supermarkets, with their abundance and variety of products, became increasingly popular. Coinciding with this popularity came an increased demand for media via marketing and advertisements.
As food choices grew, companies grew, as companies grew, marketing grew, as marketing grew… and on, and on, and on. This positive feedback loop continues to expand and along with it the interrelatedness of media and food worldwide representing USD $7.4 trillion1
Imagine what the shelves of those supermarkets would look like without, as Dr. Benjamin Bikman says, all the “bags, boxes and barcode”2 products made from those commodities. How might media in all its forms change without the near infinite variety of industrialized food products to market?
https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/food-and-drink-market-106247