Nuggets of Gold

Nuggets of Gold

by Patrick Dixon
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 01/10/2024

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For McDonald’s, the Chicken McNugget, the flagship product of further processed chicken, represented a once-in-a-generation innovation, a snack item that quickly evolved into a meal, spawned a legion of imitators, and gained a large share of the global poultry market. Yet, almost as soon as the McNugget made its North American debut, it quickly became the subject of opprobrium and ridicule, taking on a symbolic status among serious food connoisseurs as an indication of Americans’ culinary decline and a growing disconnection between diners and the origins of the food that they ate.


During a time of rising beef prices and growing health concerns regarding red meats, the Chicken McNugget was received as a lighter alternative to traditional burger meals, clean and easy to consume, popular with children, and adaptable to busy “on-the-go” lifestyles of working parents. Consumers understood that they were not purchasing a premium product made from the finest cuts but selected the McNugget as a rational economic purchase that represented a new way of dining.


In reassembling the rise of poultry in the United States, Nuggets of Gold presents a multilayered approach, connecting the entwined stories of workers and industrialists with restauranteurs and consumers, the former geographically moored within the South, the latter diverse and nationwide. Patrick Dixon centers further processed chicken within an analysis of the U.S. food system that demonstrates that consumers did not unwittingly succumb to a “junk food” diet but made deliberate and aspirational decisions based on conceptions of leisure, lifestyle, and bodily needs.

ISBN:
9780820367149
9780820367149
Category:
Food & society
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
01-10-2024
Language:
English
Publisher:
University of Georgia Press
Patrick Dixon

Patrick Dixon trained as a physician before in 1979 setting up an IT business involved in artificial intelligence and medical technology. Today he advises the senior teams of many of the world's largest corporations.

More than 500,000 web pages talk about Patrick Dixon and his ideas as a futurist, with cumulative TV, radio and press audience reach estimated to be more than 450 million. He has been ranked one of the twenty most influential business thinkers alive today. He is the author of fifteen books, including Futurewise published by Profile.

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