Events

Environmental History Seminar

The First Local Food Movement: Elizabeth Lowell Putnam and Boston’s Campaign for Clean Milk

Sarah Sutton, Brandeis University
Comment: Kendra Smith-Howard, SUNY-Albany
Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 5:15PM - 7:30PM

In 1909, Elizabeth Lowell Putnam formed the Massachusetts Milk Consumers’ Association with the intent of tackling what was then known as “the milk question.” Using the MMCA as a case study, this paper argues that Boston milk reformers’ understanding of the new science of bacteriology fundamentally shaped their perceptions of the relationship between the rural environment, the food city dwellers consumed, and the health of human bodies.