Environmental Economics Lecture 4: History of Consumer Society

Consumer society in historical perspective What is “consumer society?” A society in which the buying and selling of goods and services is the most important social and economic activity.

Source: http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/files/table-4.pdf; http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census_issues/archives/metropolitan_planning/cps2k.cfm.

Consumer society in historical perspective Decline of agriculture A move from local economies to national and global markets New technologies: Transportation Storage Biology

History of consumer society: Refrigeration and food Refrigeration car circa 1870 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Early_refrigerator_car_design_circa_1870.jpg

History of consumer society: Eggs Seasonal food – biology (light and temperature) Preservation possible by coating “eggs with varnish or butter and then burying them in barrels of salt, bran, or oats.” Refrigerators (in 1834 Jacob Perkins filed the first legal patent for refrigeration using vapor-compression)

Consumer society in historical perspective: Eggs Why did American consumers not trust industrial refrigeration of eggs well into the 20th century? Poor quality Cultural lag: Technology develops faster than culture, i.e. people do not embrace new technologies as fast as they develop New middlemen – warehousemen who can control markets and lobbied politicians

History of consumer society: Industrialization of food production “Refrigeration profoundly threatened the norms, practices and social relationships making up the moral economy of the perishable marketplace.” How do we come to a consensus as a society about what is valuable?

Consumer society in a historical perspective: From egg to chicken Change from free roaming hens to highly productive, biologically unstable hens confound in cages: Turning of seasonality of reproduction Example of the Treadmill of production theory.

http://www.vegfriend.com/profiles/blogs/how-many-eggs-does-a-hen-lay-each-year-well-that-depends

Study Guide: Concepts from Environmental Sociology: Ecological modernization Treadmill of production Environmental justice Deep ecology Ecological feminism Critical animal studies

Project Write a brief paragraph on your progress towards the class research project. Have you decided on the topic? If so, what is it? If not, what potential topics are you considering? Have you considered specific research sites? If so, list them.

Due at the beginning of class week Bring examples of 3 resources related to your chosen topic. E.g.: Books Research articles Websites Field research sites (interviews)

Study Guide Questions What is “consumer society?” Why is it important to understand its history for understanding environmental footprint of contemporary societies? According to Freidberg’s article, why did American consumers not trust industrial refrigeration of eggs well into the 20th century? According to Freidberg’s article, how did the introduction of the technology for refrigerating large warehouses change the entire food system? What is a cultural lag?