Milk, social acceptance of a new food in Europe: Catalonia, 19th-20th centuries

Abstract

In this article we analyse the time course of the consumption of fresh milk in different regions of Europe between the 1870s and 1930s. Working from the case of Catalonia, we affirm that the increasing consumption of milk in that period must be especially linked to the spreading of new scientific knowledge in microbiology and nutrition that followed Pasteur's discoveries. We particularly highlight the information dissemination activities in this direction carried out by health sector professionals (medical doctors and pharmacists), governing local institutions and the milk industry. The initiatives developed by these groups changed people's preferences-fresh milk became accepted as a necessary foodstuff , and demand for it increased. However, the evolution of consumption was not the same in all regions of Europe due to their different environmental and agronomic conditions.

Más allá de los promedios: patrones de segmentación del consumo de productos lácteos en España, 1964-2006

“…Con todo, había grandes diferencias entre unas y otras ciudades porque grandes eran también las diferencias entre unas y otras regiones: en la España húmeda, con unas condiciones ambientales relativamente propicias para la producción de leche de vaca (y, por tanto, con precios relativos bajos y facilidades para el autoconsumo), la leche estaba mucho más presente en la dieta de la población que en las regiones del interior, el litoral mediterráneo o el sur (Hernández Adell, 2012, cap. 4;Hernández Adell et al, 2013;Nicolau y Pujol, 2006;Muñoz Pradas, 2011;Nicolau et al, 2010;Pujol et al, 2007).…”

A new statistical methodology for evaluating the diffusion of milk in the Spanish Population: Consumer groups and milk consumption, 1865–1981

“…The information provided by late 19th-and early 20th-century medical-sanitary surveys is illustrative concerning the small number of consumers, as are the reports on the stock-breeding sector in 1891, and the more disperse data on family budgets (Ballesteros, 1997;Pujol-Andreu and Cussó, 2014). Previous research also shows that milk consumption became widespread first among children and young people (Cussó and Garrabou, 2004;Nicolau et al, 2010;Muñoz Pradas, 2016;Nicolau et al, 2010), and that differences according to income in this group were substantial (Carrasco Cadenas, 1934). Finally, other studies have shown that the increase in the availability of milk in those years chiefly affected the stockbreeding northern areas and some big cities (Langreo, 1995;Domínguez Martín, 1996, 2001Hernández and Pujol-Andreu, 2016), and that milk relative prices in the north were lower (Nicolau and Pujol-Andreu, 2006).…”

From organized to disorganized capitalism? Market versus nonmarket coordination in Spain's dairy chain

“…But, contrary to other major products, milk was not rationed, and there was no systematic milk price policy either nor were there subsidies to farmers or quality‐oriented policies restricting competition in dairy farming, processing, or retailing. Finally, even though physicians and local officers had been spreading the message that milk consumption was good for the health since the late 19th century (Nicolau, Pujol, & Hernández, ), the state was not involved in systematic, centralized propaganda efforts.…”