CEREAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

By Z. JAZIA

1 THE BATTLE CREEK SANITARIUM: A PLACE OF HEALTH 2 SCIENTIFIC EATING: KELLOGG S PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERN STOMACH 3 FLAKED CEREAL: THE MOMENT OF INVENTION 4 EXTENDING THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM INTO THE URBAN LANDSCAPE 5 THE SYSTEMATIZATION OF AGRICULTURE 6 BREAKFAST CEREAL IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY IN­TRO­DUC­TION SPA­TIALLY EX­TEND­ING THE DI­GES­TIVE SYS­TEM IN 1896, EX­ACTLY A DECADE BE­FORE WILLIAM KEITH KEL­LOGG PUT HIS FA­MOUS SIG­NA­TURE ON THE FIRST CORN FLAKES BOX, HIS OLDER BROTHER, DR JOHN HAR­VEY KEL­LOGG, PUB­LISHED A BOOK CALLED THE STOM­ACH: ITS DIS­OR­DERS AND HOW TO CURE THEM IN IT HE OUT­LINED HIS PHI­LOS­O­PHY OF NU­TRI­TIONAL HEALTH AS PRAC­TICED AT THE WELL-KNOWN MICHI­GAN RE­TREAT-CLINIC, THE BAT­TLE CREEK SAN­I­TAR­IUM THIS PHI­LOS­O­PHY RESTED ON A DI­GES­TIVE RE­DUC­- TION­ISM, PRE­SENT­ING AIL­MENTS AND DIS­EASES OF ALL KINDS AS CUR­ABLE THROUGH THE PROPER CON­SUMP­TION AND DI­GES­TION OF FOODS HELP­ING PA­TIENTS DI­GEST FOOD QUICKLY, CLEANLY, AND AC­- CU­RATELY WAS THE FOUN­DA­TION FOR HEALTH­FUL LIV­ING AT THE SAN­I­- TAR­IUM WHAT ARE THOUGHT OF TO­DAY AS STA­PLES OF AMER­I­CAN HEALTH FOODS—SOY MILK, PEANUT BUT­TER, GRA­NOLA, YO­GURT, AND OF COURSE CORN FLAKES—WERE ALL EI­THER IN­VENTED OR PER­- FECTED FOR MASS CON­SUMP­TION IN THE EX­PER­I­MENT KITCHENS OF THE BAT­TLE CREEK SAN­I­TAR­IUM THE SAN­I­TAR­IUM WAS, IN KEL­- LOGG’S WORDS, “A UNI­VER­SITY OF HEALTH ” IT OF­FERED OR­GA­NIZED EX­ER­CISE REG­I­MENS, AN ON­GO­ING LEC­TURE SE­RIES, AND A RATHER ODD BAT­TERY OF MA­CHIN­ERY IN­CLUD­ING ELEC­TRIC LIGHT BATHS, AU­- TO­MATIC MAS­SAGERS, AND AB­DOM­I­NAL PUNCH­ERS THAT WERE MEANT TO IM­PROVE HEALTH BUT ABOVE ALL, JOHN KEL­LOGG’S MES­- SAGE OF HEALTH IN THE DECADES PRE­CED­ING THE MASS PRO­DUC­- TION AND EX­POR­TA­TION OF BREAK­FAST CE­REAL WAS CEN­TERED ON DI­- GEST­ING THE RIGHT FOODS IN THE RIGHT WAY DI­GEST­ING AT THE SAN­I­TAR­IUM, HOW­EVER, DID NOT OC­CUR AS A PHE­NOM­E­NON CON­FINED TO THE IN­SIDES OF PA­TIENTS’ BOD­IES IT WAS, ON THE CON­TRARY, A VERY SPA­TIAL—VERY GE­O­GRAPH­I­CAL— PROCESS WHEN KEL­LOGG CEN­TERED HEALTH ON THE DI­GES­TIVE SYS­TEM IT MEANT, PARA­DOX­I­CALLY, THAT THE OR­GANS THEM­SELVES HAD TO BE EX­TENDED BE­YOND THE FORM OF THE BODY DI­GES­TION COULD NOT HAP­PEN WITH­OUT THE AID OF EX­TRA­COR­PO­REAL TECH­- NOLO­GIES, WHAT TO­DAY WE MIGHT SEE AS OLDER TYPES OF BIOTECH­NOLO­GIES THESE LATE NINE­TEENTH-CEN­TURY BIOTECH­NOLO­- GIES CAME IN THE FORM OF FOOD-PRO­CESS­ING MA­CHIN­ERY, AR­CHI­- TEC­TURAL EN­VI­RON­MEN­TAL SYS­TEMS, UR­BAN SEW­ER­AGE, AND AGRI­- CUL­TURAL IM­PLE­MENTS FOR THE MECH­A­NIZA­TION OF MAK­ING FOOD EACH OF THESE BIOTECH­NOLO­GIES HAP­PENED IN PAR­TIC­U­LAR PLACES FLESH­ING OUT RICH DE­SCRIP­TIONS OF THOSE PLACES SHOWS US JOHN KEL­LOGG’S GE­OG­RA­PHY OF DI­GES­TION, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME DEMON­STRAT­ING AN IN­STANCE OF WHAT LIT­ER­ARY THE­O­RIST STACY ALAIMO HAS RE­CENTLY CALLED “A SENSE OF THE SUB­JECT AS AL­READY PART OF THE SUB­STANCES, SYS­TEMS, AND BE­COM­INGS OF THE WORLD ”1 IT IS IM­POR­TANT TO REC­OG­NIZE THAT “SUB­JECTS”— SAN­I­TAR­IUM PA­TIENTS, IN THIS CASE—ARE EVER IN­VOLVED IN GREATER EN­VI­RON­MEN­TAL AND TECH­NO­LOG­I­CAL SYS­TEMS THIS BOOK AIMS TO DEMON­STRATE THAT BE­ING A BI­O­LOG­I­CAL HU­MAN TO FORGE THIS OTHER WAY OF THINK­ING ABOUT FOOD SPA­TIALLY, THE BOOK CON­NECTS THE BODY WITH THE LAND­SCAPES, MA­CHIN­- ERY, AND UR­BAN IN­FRA­STRUC­TURES THAT EMERGED ALONG­SIDE JOHN KEL­LOGG’S IN­VEN­TION OF THE “MOD­ERN STOM­ACH” IN THE 1890S, AN IN­VEN­TION THAT RE­FLECTED STATE-OF-THE-ART AD­VANCES IN NU­- TRI­TIONAL AND MED­I­CAL SCI­ENCE YET, FAR FROM A SET OF OR­GANS CON­FINED WITHIN THE EPI­DER­MAL BOUNDS OF THE BODY, THE DI­- GES­TIVE SYS­TEM EX­ISTED IN OTHER PLACES WITH­OUT REC­OG­NIZ­ING THIS WE MISS A MA­JOR OP­POR­TU­NITY TO CLAR­IFY THE PAR­TIC­U­LAR RE­LA­TION­SHIP BE­TWEEN FOOD, BODY, AND EN­VI­RON­MENT AT A CRU­