From Breeding & Feeding to Medicalization: Animal Farming, Veterinarization and Consumers in the Twentieth-Century Western Europe

To fully understand the changes in European animal husbandry during the long twentieth century, it is necessary to examine all aspects of the food chain devoted to supplying proteins and fats to a growing population. Indeed, the twentieth century saw great changes in animal husbandry - towards a market-oriented, intensified and specialized production. This influenced and was influenced by policies, trade, aspects of animal and public health, food supply issues, aims in animal breeding, development of production systems, principles in feeding and impact of producer cooperatives. Because it is not possible to apprehend all these global changes from a rural point of view, this book aims to bring together many different expert perspectives in fields such as: agronomy, veterinary medicine, microbiology, history of sciences, economic and cultural history, and sociology. Taking into account both national idiosyncrasies and changes from an international perspective, the book gathers scientists from Italy, Spain, France, England, The Netherlands and Sweden. The first part of the book will be devoted to the evolution of animal husbandry and commercialization from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. The second part of the book is devoted to the increasing medicalization of this sector with a special focus on the role of veterinarians and the on the increasing uses of antibiotics. 1. From breeding & feeding to medicalization, an introduction. Laurent Herment, Lourenzo Fernández Prieto, Carin Martiin and Daniel Lanero Táboas 2. Figuring the past. Statistics as cultural artefacts in British agri-culture from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Karen Sayer 3. Shifting needs for feed in Swedish dairy farming from the late 19th to the late 20th century. Carin Martiin 4. The devil is always in the details. Good and bad oilseed cakes at the end of the nineteenth century in France and Italy. Luca Andreoni and Laurent Herment 5. From dairy innovation to dairy specialization. Disruption of cattle improvement and milk commercialization in Galicia (1900-1975). Telmo Otero Rodríguez and Daniel Lanero Táboas 6. Innovations and associations in Italian dairy cattle breeding. The case study of the Frisona Italiana breed. Marco Marigliano 7. Fair value? The price of milk and the intricate path of bio-based productivity growth in Dutch dairying, 1950-1980. Ronald Plantinga, Merijn Knibbe and Marijn Molema 8. From massification to upgrading. A long run view of recent trends in dairy consumption in Spain. Fernando Collantes 9. Reproduction work. Veterinarians, artificial insemination, and the production of reproductive health in Swedish dairy cattle, 1910-1960. Karl Bruno 10. The role of the Veterinary profession in the improvement of livestock in Contemporary Spain (1910-1936). Diego Conde Gomez and Lourenzo Fernandez Prieto 11. When science is not enough. Antibiotic Growth Promoters and the precautionary principle within the European Union. Kristina Nordeus 12. Too much antibiotics in aquaculture too? The difficult emergence of a public problem in France retraced through actors’ discourses. Annick Jacq 13. More research? Or more use of research and practical experiences? On a systemic innovation compensating for regular use of antibiotics in Swedish pig meat production. Alexandra Waluszewski 14. Rise and fall of ecopathology. The thwarted development of a preventive approach to animal health (France, 1970s-1980s) . Nicolas Fortané