Commercial Poultry Production on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore
The Role of African Americans, 1930s to 1990s
By (author) Solomon Iyobosa Omo-Osagie II
Not available to order
Publication date:
07 June 2012Length of book:
206 pagesPublisher
UPAISBN-13: 9780761858775
Commercial Poultry Production on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore traces the beginnings and development of commercial poultry production in this very important region. African Americans were mainly involved in poultry production on the labor supply side, which was crucial to the expansion of the industry. Commercial poultry production expanded through vertical integration, acquisitions, mergers, and consolidations and became the dominant economic activity on the Lower Maryland Eastern Shore in the 1950s. Throughout the years, the industry has intermixed with public health and the environment. These integrations were problematic on several fronts, as the industry sought to maintain a much-needed economic lifeline for the region and yet protect public health and ensure a sustainable environment at the same time. In all, commercial poultry production has continued to fuel the local economy of the Lower Maryland Eastern Shore since its inception in the 1930s.
Drawn from his 2007 dissertation, historian Solomon Iyobosa Omo-Osagie II offers readers a complex portrait of rural blacks' lives in the region's broiler industry. He moves seamlessly from social histories of rural African Americans to an economic history of the industry....He skillfully pieces together an effective outline of the local industry's trajectory over six decades based on official publications, local media, and oral histories...Omo-Osagie's book makes an important contribution to an emerging scholarship on the place of rural labor in the making of the modern chicken industry.