produced by Betty Talks; contributor Gerrylynn Roberts.
The Cornflake story
Cornflakes were a totally new foodstuff created by industrialisation. This programme traces how the food, first developed as part of a religious health regime, had become 'The Nation's Breakfast' in America by the 1930s. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg took over the running of the modest Seventh Day Adventist Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek towards the end of the 19th century. By the 1920s he had developed it into a luxury health resort where the main treatments were hydrotherapy, phototherapy, fresh air, exercise and a vegetarian diet. Dr. Kellogg and his brother, W.K.Kellogg, developed the cornflake as a palatable way of eating grain. It was a health food, served at the sanatorium and sold through their mail order business. W.K.Kellogg bought out his brother and made cornflakes into an automated mass-produced operation. He advertised them into existence, taking full advantage of the new advertising techniques. By the turn of the century Battle Creek had become a cereal boom town. In the 1920's Kellogg's moved into the British market where its success was aided not only by extensive advertising, but also by the vigorous promotion of milk. In 1938 Kellogs set up a factory in Manchester. Today, per capita, Britons now eat more breakfast cereals than Americans.
The Cornflake story