Did you know that one bushel of wheat equals 1.25 cubic feet? It takes a lot of people to make just one bag of flour. The flour industry was very important, in fact it is still important today.
First, the flour industry started a long, long time ago. It started with a guy named Charles Pillsbury. Before Pillsbury came to MN the flour industry ran 15 years but many of them were failing. He bought one-third of a local flour mill for $10,000 and began the Pillsbury flour company. The company was one of the first flour companies to succeed without failing.
Next, what was Pillsbury Flour company like at its best? They had a ton of machines including the middlings purifier which removed the brown flecks of wheat during the process, which
turned Minnesota wheat into white flour, steel rollers that grounded the flour finer and faster improving the quality, and grindstones which is an older way of grinding wheat. Of course it needed transportation to get the wheat to the factory and the flour to the stores. The people played an important part of the process to. Some of the people included the farmers, railroad workers, machinists, barrel makers, and packers. One factory in particular was called Gold Medal Flour. It was and is still located on a river by the stone arch bridge in Minneapolis. Finally, what is the flour like today? The Pillsbury flour company building was transformed into beautiful apartments that you can live in. Just imagine how cool that would be if you could live in the old Pillsbury flour mill! Going back to the Gold Medal Flour company, you can visit it in Minneapolis. There is even a museum called the mill city museum.
New technologies not only allowed farming to become more efficient, but made the process of shipping crops west much easier. The most important innovation in farming itself was the horse-drawn combine, which required many horses to operate, but allowed wheat, a popular crop to grow in the west, to be harvested en masse. (Document D) However, railroads were also incredibly important for farmers, as they allowed Wheat, cotton, and corn to be transported across the country
Egan notes, “No group of people took a more dramatic leap in lifestyle or prosperity, in such a short time, than wheat farmers on the Great Plains” (Egan 42). The revenue from selling wheat far exceeded the cost of producing the wheat, so the large profit attracted people to produce more and more wheat. On top of the high profit from wheat, the Great War caused the price of wheat to rise even more. The supply of wheat rose with the price, but Egan points to information to demonstrate that the rapid increase in production can lead to overproduction, which is damaging to the land. Also, the invention of the tractor also lead to overproduction of the land by creating the ability to dramatically cut the time it took to harvest acres. When the prices for wheat began to fall due to overproduction, this caused the farmers to produce even more output to be able to make the same earnings as when the prices were higher. The government also played a part in promoting the overproduction of the land. The Federal Bureau of Soils claimed that, “The soil is the one indestructible, immutable asset that the nation possessed. It is the one resource that cannot be exhausted, that cannot be used up” (Egan 51). Egan points to factors such as a high profit margin, the Great War, tractors, increased outputs when wheat prices fell, and governmental claims that caused the people to overproduce the land of the Great Plains. Egan then gives examples of how the overproduction destroyed the land. Egan explains that the farmers saw their only way out was to plant more wheat. This overproduction tore up the grass of the Great Plains, thus making the land more susceptible to the severe dust storms of the Dust
Many businesses developed from Chicago's growing domination over the rail industry. One of those businesses was the grain business. The invention of the grain harvester and grain elevators allowed farmers west of Chicago who grew grain, to bring there grain to Chicago, store it, and keep it fresh before it was shipped on the rails. Chicago was doing so much business in grain that they established the Chicago Board of Trade. At the Board of Trade grain would be graded and large amounts would be sold for varying prices depending on their grade, but would be delivered at a later time.
Before Milton Hershey had a world wide known chocolate business, he had a small, not so well known caramel business. Milton Hershey began his chocolate making business in 1893, when his father and him traveled to Chicago to attend a big job fair (Tarshis 14), but it wasn’t until 1900 when Hershey succeed in making the first milk chocolate candy bar (The Hershey Company). Hershey attended an exhibit hall of new and amazing inventions around the world at the fair in Chicago. As Hershey walked into the exhibit hall, he was struck by a delectable smell (Tarshis 14). “Hershey was already a leading candy maker. He had created the largest caramel factory in the country, but he became convinced that the future of his business would be chocolate. At the fair in Chicago, Hershey Bought chocolate-making equipment. He had it shipped back to his caramel factory in Pennsylvania. Then he hired two chocolate makers. Soon the company was churning out chocolate candies in more than 100 shapes” (Tarshis 15).
The Roaring Twenties approached and the citizens in Colorado were facing rough times. In 1920, many people such as farm owners, manufacturers, and even miners were having a hard time making a living due to an economic downfall. The farmers especially, where facing the toughest of times. The price of various farm-grown goods like wheat, sugar beets, and even cattle was dropping because their goods were no longer needed by the public. Wheat had dropped in price from $2.02 in 1918 to $0.76 by the time 1921 came around. Sadly, the land that they were using to grow wheat became dry and many farmers had to learn to grow through “dryland farming” which became very popular in the eastern plains from 1910 to 1930 (Hard Times: 1920 - 1940). Apple trees began to die due to the lack of desire for apples, poor land, and decreased prices. Over the course of World War I, the prices of farm goods began to increase slowly. Farmers were not the only one facing this economic hardship while others in big cities were enjoying the Roaring Twenties.
Miller and Lux, based out of San Francisco, was ranked in the largest industrial enterprises in 1900. Miller and Lux had an immense number of cattle spread over 1.25 million acres in several states. Miller and Lux controlled the Pacific Coast and intermountain meat markets. The company made more than 5 million in annual sales in 1913. Igler explains that in order for Miller and Lux to make more than over 5 million in sales, they had control over both land and water rights. Miller and Lux used that power over land and water to change the environment so the company can make profit. Igler sates, “industrial enterprise in the Far West thrived by engineering natural landscapes and mobilizing large labor forces.” (p. 7) Like many other large industries, Miller and Lux relied on capital to undertake both vertical integration and to dominate the market. They also gave jobs to...
In the late 1880's in Missouri two men named Chris L. Rutt and Charles G. Underwood created a revolutionary instant pancake flour mix. They created the trademark after visiting a theater and seeing women in blackface, aprons, and red bandanas doing a performance of a song entitled "Old Aunt Jemima." This popular song of the time inspired them to use this very image as their company logo.
As in any time period, significant technological advances were made from 1877 to 1933. Since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in America, new technologies and advancements are being made every day. This Revolution has transformed the economy and in turn transformed every aspect of American life. An important effect of the Industrial Revolution was the Agricultural Revolution, when new advances in farming were made. In the area of farming, the government passed laws and regulations that were significant in the ...
The country at the time was in the deepest and soon to be longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world and this caused years of over-cultivation of wheat, because “during the laissez-faire, expansionist 1920’s the plains were extensively and put to wheat - turned into highly mechanized factory farms that produced highly unprecedented harvests” (Worster 12). The farmer’s actions were prompted by the economic decline America was facing. With the economy in a recession, farmers were looking for a way to make a living and in 1930 wheat crops were becoming very popular. In 1931 the wheat crop was considered a bumper crop with over twelve million bushels of wheat. Wheat was emerging all over the plains.
The 1920’s were the singularly most influential years of farming in our country. The loss of farms following the war, and new agricultural practices resulted in the dawn of modern agriculture in our country. The shift from small family to big corporation during this time is now the basis for how our society deals with food today. Traditional farming in the 1920’s underwent a series of massive transitions following WWI as the number of farms decreased and the size of farms increased.
Of one of the first to kick off, was the textile industry. Which helped Americna manufactoring. Hundreds of young women from farms were sent to mill towns to work in textile factories. In Document C, Farm familys strive to get their daughters into mills to help support the family and the farm. As manufactoring grew, transportation was key in connecting cities for trade.
We have carried out a study on the F.M.C.G Company Heinz. Heinz is the most global U.S based food company, with a world-class portfolio of powerful brands holding number 1 and number 2 market positions in more than 50 worldwide markets. There are many other famous brand names in the company¡¦s portfolio besides Heinz itself, StarKist, Ore-Ida, Plasmon, and Watties. In fact, Heinz owns more than 200 brands around the world and makes over 5,700 varieties.
ConAgra’s Foods mission of "one company growing by nourishing lives and finding a better way today, one bite at a time (ConAgra Foods, 2010/29/07)," is dedicated to providing consumers with good quality food that tastes great and provides good nutrition at a reasonable cost. ConAgra was founded in 1919 by Frank Little and Alva Kinney, who consolidated four grain mills as Nebraska Consolidated Mills. ConAgra financed the development of the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes in 1951 to make flour more profitable. But in 1956 they sold their assets in Duncan Hines to Procter & Gamble, and 15 years later in 1971 Nebraska Consolidated Mills changed its name to ConAgra. Several successful and lucrative investments resulted in ConAgra Foods being the largest processed foods business in America (ConAgra Foods, 2010/29/07). Along with the...
This case examines issues of asset control for Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., in light of the outstanding takeover offers by Chartwell Investments, Dreyer‘s Grand, Unilever, and Meadowbrook Lane Capital in January 2000.
Another major factor in which WWII affected the agricultural production in the U.S was the fact that because of the war produce needed better means of transportation in order to arrive at specific locations faster. One of the first events one notices that changes during the war period is the number of road systems. With less paved roads for vehicles to travel on transporting goods was much more difficult. This was a factor in need of dire change. Because of this the amount of roadways increased nearly 20%. Road ways was not the only means of transportation that was bettered railroads were also becoming more advanced.