Why Is There So Much Ultra-Processed Food Nowadays?
To understand why our supermarkets are overflowing with ultra-processed foods, you have to go back — not just to the postwar years, but to the very roots of how we came to see food not as culture, but as product.
In the early 20th century, the United States underwent a seismic shift. Industrialization didn’t just change how we worked — it changed how we ate. Food began its transformation from something grown, harvested, and prepared locally to something manufactured, branded, and shipped. Mass production techniques perfected during World War I and II — initially used to feed soldiers — were repurposed in peacetime to feed civilians. Canning, freezing, and dehydration turned food into a shelf-stable commodity.
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