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Industrial Revolution Begins in North America
New York State Education Department The Industrial Revolution triggers mass immigration to cities and creates new food supply and production needs. -
American Revolution Begins
New York State Education Department The American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusettes. -
Pre-1850s Farming
Pesticide Safety Education Program-- Cornell UniversityAlthough Indians taught the colonists to plant fish with their corn, fertilization of other crops was not a common practice. The native fertility of the relatively acid and nutrient-poor eastern soils was rapidly exhausted, and pioneering families commonly abandoned their farms -
Agricultural Revolution
Pesticide Safety Education Program-- Cornell University-mid 1800s advances in cultivation methods, breeding of improved crop varieties, and use of fertilizers and crop rotations to maintain soil productivity.
-by 1860 seven factories had been established in the United States to manufacture mixed chemical fertilizers.
-by 1893 there were 42 patented insecticides offered by several manufacturers. -
First FDA Advisory Committee
Food and Drug AdministrationThe Food Standards Committee, authorized by a 1902 appropriation, was the first FDA advisory committee, and it continued in operation until the passage of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972. -
Poison Squad is Established
Food and Drug Administration Wiley captured the attention of the country by establishing a volunteer "poison squad" of young men who agreed to eat only foods treated with measured amounts of chemical preservatives, with the object of demonstrating whether these ingredients were injurious to health -
The Jungle
Food and Drug AdministrationA single chapter in Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, precipitated legislation expanding federal meat regulation to provide continuous inspection of all red meats for interstate distribution, a far more rigorous type of control than that provided by the pure food bill. Both measures became law. same day, June 30, 1906. -
The Beginning of the Organic Movement
Whole Foods Market1920s-1940s
Writers in the U.S. and Great Britain published influential works introducing the basic idea of organics - that the health of plants, soil, livestock and people are interrelated - and advocating a fundamental approach to farming based on understanding and working with natural systems rather than trying to control them. -
The Poison Apple
Wessels Living History FarmIn 1925, a family of four in London fell ill with what would be diagnosed as arsenic poisoning. The poison came from apples from western United States that had not been properly washed by the grower. The British government was thinking of banning U.S. fruit. -
First Synthetic Herbicide
Wessels Living History FarmThe first synthetic organic chemical for selective weed control to come out of the labs was introduced in 1932 -
100,000,000 Guinea Pigs
Wessels Living History FarmIn 1933, Arthur Kallett and F. J. Schlink wrote 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs and charged that foods, drugs and cosmetics contained dangerous chemical additives or residues that were being "tested" on the entire population of the U.S. The book went through 33 printing runs and was a best seller. -
DDT is Invented
Wessels Living History FarmPaul Muller was working for the J. R. Geigy firm when he demonstrated that DDT killed the Colorado potato beetle, a pest that was ravaging the potato crops across America and Europe. DDT quickly became the new "wonder insecticide" and was credited with saving thousands of human lives in World War II by killing typhus-carrying lice and malaria-carrying mosquitoes. -
Organic Farmers First Unite
Whole Foods Market 1940s-1950s-- A loose network of farmers—including J.I. Rodale, Ehrnefried Pfeiffer of Kemberton Farm School, and Paul Keene of Walnut Acres Farms—shunned chemical agriculture by farming organically and writing about their experiences. -
National Food Associates is Formed
Whole Foods MarketNatural Food Associates (NFA) was formed in Atlanta, Texas, to help connect scattered organic growers with fledgling markets for organically grown foods. -
Long Islanders file suit over USDA use of DDT
Wessels Living History FarmDDT was killing fish, birds, farm and garden crops. Later, it was reported that milk from cows in the area was banned from sale because of high levels of DDT. -
Delaney Amendment
Wessels Living History FarmRep. James Delaney was able to insert a simple amendment into a bill about the FDA – "No additive shall be deemed safe if it is found to induce cancer when ingested by man or animal." -
Silent Spring is Published
Whole Foods Market Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring was published, documenting some of the negative consequences associated with chemical use in agriculture. Its publication gave rise to environmental consciousness and a renewed focus on organic agriculture. -
Drug Amendments of 1962
Food and Drug Administration: The Drug Amendments of 1962-- It was recognized that no drug is truly safe unless it is also effective, and effectiveness was required to be established prior to marketing -- a milestone advance in medical history. Drug firms were required to send adverse reaction reports to FDA, and drug advertising in medical journals was required to provide complete information to the doctor -- the risks as well as the benefits. -
The Beginning of Organic Certification
Whole Foods MarketIn the early 1970s, the growth of the organics industry prompted activists across the U.S. to form regional groups and create organic standards by which to certify farmers and their crops. A group of farmers formed California Certified Organic Farmers, becoming the first organization to certify organic farms in North America. -
Low-Acid Food Regulations
Food and Drug AdministrationLow-acid food processing regulations issued, after botulism outbreaks from canned foods, to ensure that low-acid packaged foods have adequate heat treatment and are not hazardous. -
DDT Banned and Environmental Movement Starts
Whole Foods MarketSome point to the United States' ban of the pesticide DDT in this year as the start of the modern environmental movement. The organics industry grew appreciably due to an expanding consumer opposition to chemical pesticides coupled with a desire for food that was produced without harming the environment. -
Congress Stops the FDA from Banning Saccharin
Food and Drug AdministrationSaccharin Study and Labeling Act passed by Congress to stop FDA from banning the chemical sweetener but requiring a label warning that it has been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals. -
The Red Book
Food and Drug AdministrationFDA publishes first Red Book (successor to 1949 "black book"), officially known as Toxicological Principles for the Safety Assessment of Direct Food Additives and Color Additives Used in Food. -
FDA is an Agency of the Department of Health and Human Services
Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration Act of 1988 officially establishes FDA as an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services with a Commissioner of Food and Drugs appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and broadly spells out the responsibilities of the Secretary and the Commissioner for research, enforcement, education, and information. -
Organic Foods Production Act
Whole FoodsThe organic industry had estimated sales of more than $1 billion and Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which established the framework to create National Organic Standards. -
Nutrition Labeling and Education Act
Food and Drug AdministrationNutrition Labeling and Education Act requires all packaged foods to bear nutrition labeling and all health claims for foods to be consistent with terms defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services...The food ingredient panel, serving sizes, and terms such as "low fat" and "light" are standardized. -
FDA Approves Monsanto's rBGH
Sustainable TableFDA approves Monsanto's recombant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) for use. According to opponents of the drug, effects of rBGH were never properly studied. The FDA relied solely on one study administered by Monsanto in which rBGH was tested for 90 days on 30 rats. The study was never published, and the FDA stated the results showed no significant problems. -
Saccharin Notice Repeal Act
Food and Drug AdministrationSaccharin Notice Repeal Act repeals the saccharin notice requirements. -
Food Quality Protection Act
Food and Drug AdministrationFood Quality Protection Act amends the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, eliminating application of the Delaney proviso to pesticides. -
Monsanto Bribes Canadian "FDA"
Sustainable Table Monsanto offers Health Canada (Canadian FDA) a $2 million bribe to approve recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), which had already been proven by Canadian scientists to pose significant health risks. Health Canada took Monsanto to court for bribery and denied approval of rBGH. -
Organic Crop Land Doubles
Whole Foods MarketThe USDA's Economic Research Service released a major study on the status of organics in the U.S. showing that certified organic crop land more than doubled during the previous decade and that some organic livestock sectors— eggs and dairy—grew even faster. -
FDA Approves Spraying Food With Viruses
Sustainable TableThe FDA approved the process of preventing the food-borne disease listeriosis by spraying bacteria-eating viruses on processed meats and cold cuts. MacGregor, Hilary E. "Latest food additive: Viruses." Los Angeles Times, August 28, 2006.