Year of Graduation
2022
Level of Access
Restricted Access Thesis
Embargo Period
5-19-2022
Department or Program
History
First Advisor
David Hecht
Abstract
Greening the Market: Natural Groceries from the Countercuisine to Whole Foods is a history of the natural foods industry from the 1960s until the early 2000s. This thesis examines the countercuisine, a dynamic network of food co-ops, natural food stores, and alternative eateries that flourished in countercultural enclaves during the 1960s and 1970s. Ultimately, this thesis discerns how Whole Foods Market, the first natural foods supermarket, employed countercultural aesthetics, rhetoric, and practices while also appealing to mainstream consumers and business investors to become the multi-billion dollar company that it is today. This thesis concludes with a critical analysis of Whole Foods Markets' print and digital media to reveal the logics that undergird the company's brand mythology.
Restricted
Available only to users on the Bowdoin campus.