123 a rich and full sense of deliciousness: See Marilynn Larkin, “Truncated Glutamate Receptor Holds Key to the Fifth Primary Taste,” Lancet, January 29, 2000; and Andy Coghlan, “In Good Taste,” New Scientist, January 29, 2000.
Babies like sweet tastes: See Julie A. Mennella and Gary K. Beauchamp, “Early Flavor Experiences: When Do They Start?” Nutrition Today, September 1994.
like those of the chain’s “heavy users”: See Jennifer Ordonez, “Hamburger Joints Call Them ‘Heavy Users’ — But Not to Their Faces,” Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2000.
124 annual revenues of about $1.4 billion: Interview with Nancy Ciancaglini.
Approximately ten thousand new processed food products: Cited in Susan Carroll, “Flavors Market Is Poised for Recovery This Year,” Chemical Market Report, July 19, 1999.
And about nine out of every ten… faiclass="underline" Cited in Andrew Bary, “Take a Whiff: Why International Flavors & Fragrances Looks Tempting Right Now,” Barron’s, July 20, 1998.
125 Its annual revenues have grown almost fifteenfold: IFF’s sales were about $103 million in 1970 and about $1.4 billion in 1999. The first figure comes from “Company History,” IFF Advertising and Public Relations. The second is cited in Catherine Curan, “Perfume Company Banks on CEO’s Nose for Business,” Crain’s NY Business, June 26, 2000.
the dominant flavor of bell pepper: The chemical is isobutylmethoxy pyrazine. Its minute taste recognition threshold is noted in “Flavor Chemistry Seminar,” International Flavors & Fragrances.
The flavor in a twelve-ounce can of Coke: An industry source, who shall go unnamed, provided me with the cost of the flavor in a six-pack of Coke, and I did the rest of the math.
A typical artificial strawberry flavor: This recipe comes from Fenaroli’s Handbook of Flavor Ingredients, vol. 2, p. 831.
127 “A natural flavor”: Interview with Terry Acree.
“consumer likeability”: Quoted in “What Is Flavor? An IFF Consumer Insights Perspective.”
128 The TA.XT2i Texture Analyzer: For a description of similar devices, see Ray Marsili, “Texture and Mouthfeeclass="underline" Making Rheology Real,” Food Product Design, August 1993.
the ones being synthesized by funguses: See Leticia Mancini, “Expanding Flavor Horizons,” Food Engineering, November 1991; and Kitty Kevin, “A Brave New World: Capturing the Flavor Bug: Flavors from Microorganisms,” Food Processing, March 1995.
McDonald’s did acknowledge: See Jeanne-Marie Bartas, “Vegan Menu Items at Fast Food and Family-Style Restaurants — Part 2,” Vegetarian Journal, January/ February 1998.
Wendy’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich: See “Wendy’s Nutrition/Ingredient Guide,” Wendy’s International, Inc., 1997.
Burger Kings BK Broiler: See “Nutritional Information,” Burger King, 1999.
6. On the Range
Sam Bingham, The Last Ranch: A Colorado Community and the Coming Desert (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996), and Peter R. Decker, Old Fences, New Neighbors (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998), are two fine books about the current struggles of Colorado ranchers. “The Rancher’s Code,” a chapter in Charles F. Wilkinson’s Crossing the Next Meridian (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1992), outlines the steps progressive ranchers are taking both to preserve and to remain profitably on the land. Among the many interviews I conducted in the ranching community, a number deserve mention. Dave Carlson, at the Resource Analysis Section of the Colorado Department of agriculture, helped me understand the economic forces now changing the state’s landscape. Dave Carter, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmer’s Union, outlined many of the development pressures and well-entrenched political interests that ranchers now confront. Dean Preston, the Pueblo Chieftain’s agriculture correspondent for nearly three decades, described the changes he’s witnessed in rural Colorado. Lee Pitts, the editor of Livestock Market Digest, helped place the experience of Rocky Mountain ranchers in a broader national perspective. Over the years his work for the Digest has represented independent American journalism at its finest.
For the history of cattle ranching and the Beef Trust I relied mainly upon Willard F. Williams and Thomas T. Stout, Economics of the Livestock-Meat Industry (New York, Macmillan, 1964); Mary Yeager, Competition and Regulation: The Development of Oligopoly in the Meat Packing Industry (Greenwich, Conn.: Jai Press, 1981); and Jimmy M. Skaggs, Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-1983 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986). John Crabtree, at the Center for Rural Affairs in Walt Hill, Nebraska, helped me see today’s formula pricing arangements in the proper historical context. Two of the center’s publications were especially usefuclass="underline" Competition and the Livestock Market (April 1990) and From the Carcass to the Kitchen: Competition and the Wholesale Meat Market (November 1995), the latter written by Marty Strange and Annette Higby. Concentration in Agriculture, A Report of the USDA Advisory Committee on Agricultural Concentration (Washington, D.C.: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, June 1996) is an official and belated acknowledgment of the problems faced by American ranchers and farmers. A Time to Act, the report of the USDA’s National Commission on Small Farms, does an even better job of portraying the harms of concentrated power in agriculture.
Mike Callicrate, one of the plaintiffs in Pickett v. IBP, Inc., provided a great deal of information about the misbehavior of the large meatpacking firms and the rural unrest now growing in response to it. And Dave Domina, one of the attorneys representing Callicrate et al., explained the legal basis for the case and supplied hundreds of pages of documents. Industry and Trade Summary: Poultry (Washington, D.C.: U.S. International Trade Commission, USITC Publication 3148, December 1998) gives a thorough overview of the American poultry industry. Marc Linder, a professor at the University of Iowa Law School, introduced me to the subject of poultry growers, poultry workers, and their misfortunes. Linder’s article “I Gave My Employer a Chicken That Had No Bone: Joint Firm-State Responsibility for Line-Speed-Related Occupational Injuries,” Case Western Reserve Law Review 46, no. 1 (Fall 1995), contains an excellent history of the industry and its labor relations. Steve Bjerklie’s three-part article on contract poultry growing, which appeared in Meat & Poultry (August, October, and December 1994), is a scathing indictment of the large processors by a longtime observer of the industry. The investigative reports by Dan Fesperman and Kate Shatzin, published by the Baltimore Sun in February and March of 1999, chronicle the latest processor abuses. For the story of the McNugget, I largely relied on Laura Konrad Jereski’s account in “McDonald’s Strikes Gold with Chicken McNuggets,” Marketing and Media Decisions, March 22, 1985; Timothey K. Smith, “Changing Tastes: By End of the Year Poultry Will Surpass Beef in the U.S. Diet; Price, Health Concerns Propel Move Toward Chicken; The Impact of McNuggets,” Wall Street Journal, September 17, 1987; and John F. Love, Behind the Arches, pp. 338–43.