The Scientization of Meat: Animals, Food, and Veterinarians in Modern Germany

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26770260
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: MITSUDA Tatsuya 慶應義塾大学, 経済学部(日吉), 講師 (90549841)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 食 / 動物 / ドイツ / 食肉検査 / 感染症 / 獣医学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The research was designed to contribute knowledge about the impact of science on the consumption of food, focusing in particular on the role of veterinary medicine in the assessment of meat in nineteenth-century Germany. Before the establishment of a modern and obligatory system of meat inspection during the twentieth century, European states, including German ones, relied on the expertise of butchers, medical practitioners and consumers to protect against meat products. Building on recent international research on the intertwined histories of animal health and food, the investigation was able to show how and why veterinarians came to contest the expertise of all three to construct, by the 1880s, a system of meat inspection in which veterinarians became the principle scientific experts working in newly-built abattoirs. As a model country whose example was emulated across the world, results revealed why butchers, doctors and consumers today have very little to do with meat inspection.

Free Research Field

西洋史