Selling sunshine

'Start your day the Kelloggs way' goes the jingle and millions of people do just that - shaking corn flakes into bowls, pouring on milk and scattering sugar over the top. 

John and Will kellog started a revolution with a new process for flaking corn, patented in 1894, in Battle Creek, Michigan. John was head of a sanatorium and wanted to develop foods that were nutritious and digestible for his patients.

And while millions at the time were stirring and munching their way through grits and porridge, and others were frying and chewing through ham and eggs, deviled kidneys or kedgeree, Will Kellogg dreamed up the instant breakfast - corn flakes.

The very name suggested lightness and ease, dispelling images (and realities) of greasy fry-pans and congealed grains burning and sticking in the cooking pot.

But having a good product is not enough on its own. There is the competition to consider - like Henry D Perky's Shredded Wheat or, even more dangerous, another brand of corn flakes called Post Toasties. However Will Kellogg had some slick advertising ideas up his sleeve.

He realized the importance of the package itself as an advertising vehicle and offered prize contests and cut-out masks on the box itself. he used sex to sell, with the corn flakes girl - 'Sweetheart of the corn'- smiling as she            

embraced a corn stalk. At the same time he managed to purvey the image of corn flakes as wholesome and pure and therefore entirely suitable for families and children.

Clever gifts were aimed at youngsters, such as the famous submarines and divers that you filled with bicarbonate of soda and lowered into a jar of water. In a few seconds, fingers crossed, the little aquatic toy rose to the surface in a wallow of bubbles. Who could resist?

Instant breakfast cereals soared in popularity especially after the Second World War. As more women went to work, or stopped cooking breakfast, and people turned away from grease-laden fried meals for health reasons the way was open for the Sunshine Breakfast.

Corn (otherwise known as maize) is the only major food grain which originated in the Americas. Cultivated since earliest times in the Andes and in Central America it is still the main food for the native people of the continent, cooked up into tortillas or succotash. Corn grows in a range of colours including the blue corn favoured for its hardiness by the Hopi Indians of the US. 'Corn is like our mother,' they say. 'Blue corn is like our compass - wherever it grows we can go.'

The US is the leading producer of the cereal that has been transplanted so successfully around the world. In much of Africa's countryside maize meal is the staple food, while in towns and cities you can be sure to find packets of corn flakes - and maybe even a few plastic submarines.

overlooks their large maize field, brown and dry now after the harvest. A few cows stray across, foraging for mealie cobs and stalks to eat. The Kayayas have a small orchard of pear, peach, mango and mulberry trees which provide just enough fruit for the family. They hope they will one day be able to build a pump so as to grow vegetables on a commercial basis.
'I really don't have any complaints,' says Joyce. 'I love my smallholding and thank God for what He has given me.'
This shy but formidable woman is a source of  
inspiration to farmers in her area. It is unfortunate that

 Source NEW INTERNATIONALIST / NOVEMBER 1991
.

all their efforts are not rewarded by efficient distribution of maize.
Low copper prices, high oil costs, disabling debt repayments and the cost of caring for refugees from Mozambique and South Africa - all have squeezed Zambia's economy. But its people are, like Joyce, much more likely to pin the blame squarely on bureaucratic inefficiency. Wherever the responsibility lies, unless something changes the country will have to continue importing maize. Perhaps Joyce could sing a new song about that.


Mary Namakando is a senior features reporter with The Times of Zambia in Lusaka.

 More can be found on the subject of breakfast cereals on the wheat page. Weet-Bix

 

Make a free website with Yola