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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until August 10, 2026

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Going Green: The Transnational History of Organic Farming and Green Identity 1900-1975

Cahn, Dylan James
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2473-4159
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1626793899137392

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
As the human population surges today toward 8 billion, the struggle to ensure necessary food, water, and public health has never been more intense. My dissertation unveils the interlinked origins of British and American environmentalism from 1900 to 1975, which developed as a debate between advocates of “natural” versus “artificial” solutions to the question of nutrition and health. My project explores the “green” or organic movement that resisted intensive, chemical-based farming practices, fluoridation and chlorination of public water, pasteurization of milk products, artificial baby formula, and other processed or manufactured foods. My work answers the question of why women make up approximately 75% of the participants in the environmental movement today. It traces the origins of “green” behavior and “green identities” to these early debates over the utility of scientifically “modern” food and health mandates versus natural and traditional practices. I argue that gender and family structures were fundamental to these early debates as proponents of both “natural” and “artificial” sides focused on children’s health as their primary litmus test to legitimize success in food and health practices. In doing so, both the organic movement and the technocratic movement levied an enormous level of anxiety on mothers as the primary household consumers and caregivers to make the right decisions for their children’s health and future. My dissertation is the first to analyze these gender and family dimensions and to demonstrate the transnational connection and mutual influences between the US and UK. It also reminds us that the environmental movement began decades before Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and was not initially divided politically between left and right (as it came to be after the 1970s) but rather developed from the argument over whether “natural” or “artificial” approaches would produce the healthiest food and water for families.
Christopher Otter (Advisor)
Nicholas Breyfogle (Advisor)
Bartow Elmore (Committee Member)
692 p.
Agriculture; American History; Dental Care; Ecology; Education History; Environmental Education; Environmental Health; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; European History; Families and Family Life; Food Science; Gender Studies; Health; History; Marketing; Medicine; Modern History; Public Health; Science History; Soil Sciences
Organic Farming; Organic; Green Movement; Hippies; Gender; Environmental Movement; Environmentalism; Food History; Pasteurization; Fluoride; Green Consumerism; Marketing; American History; British History; Modern History; Green Identity; Childhood History

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cahn, D. J. (2021). Going Green: The Transnational History of Organic Farming and Green Identity 1900-1975 [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1626793899137392

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cahn, Dylan. Going Green: The Transnational History of Organic Farming and Green Identity 1900-1975. 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1626793899137392.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cahn, Dylan. "Going Green: The Transnational History of Organic Farming and Green Identity 1900-1975." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1626793899137392

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1626793899137392
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.