![]() ![]() Baker was both a product of changes going on in the poultry world and a driver of those changes,” says Striffler. They were among dozens of poultry products he developed during his career, including turkey ham and chicken hot dogs, helping to greatly expand the U.S. Baker invented chicken nuggets in a laboratory at Cornell University in 1963. Though the origin of chicken nuggets, like so many food items, remains disputed, it’s commonly accepted that agricultural scientist Robert C. It would take a new invention to reinvigorate the American appetite for chicken. Preparing whole roasts was a time-consuming task for women increasingly entering the workforce. The birds were too small to feed all those postwar growing families, but too large for one person. Red meat was no longer scarce, and chicken had a portion problem: At the time, most were sold whole. When the war ended, poultry demand dropped. “The army’s requisitions provided a crucial opening for southern and midwestern producers to gain inroads in lucrative Eastern markets.” Ashton Merck, history instructor at Duke University. Late in the war, the military came for chicken, too: “In the spring of 1945, the War Food Administration requisitioned almost 100 percent of the production in the Delmarva peninsula (spanning Delaware, Maryland and Virginia), a major poultry-producing area,” says Dr. The massive chicken demand incentivized businesses to produce the birds more cheaply, says anthropologist Steve Striffler, author of Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America’s Favorite Food: “World War II encouraged the spread, modernization and industrialization of chicken on a much larger scale.” military commandeered red meat for soldiers, creating a beef shortage at home. During World War II, chicken became many Americans’ primary source of protein after the U.S. ![]()
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