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Anne Meis Knupfer, Laura J. Miller. Building Nature’s Market: The Business and Politics of Natural Foods., The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 5, December 2018, Pages 1687–1688, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy276
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In Building Nature’s Market, Laura J. Miller seeks to answer the question, How did the natural foods movement became mainstream? Her approach is both historical and sociological, as detailed in chapter 1. She examines the history through archival research, as well as through interviews with participants in the natural foods industry. She also attended natural foods trade shows and festivals, and analyzed written sources, such as industry trade publications, research studies, cookbooks, and legal and financial documents. In terms of sociology, Miller uses social movement theory to determine whether the natural foods movement was a social movement. Although she believes there were overlapping movements, she discusses it throughout as a singular movement because of its members’ networks. She also considers how lifestyle movements spread cultural values that were practiced in people’s daily lives. Like many social movements, the natural foods movement critiqued capitalism and regulatory agencies. However, since its inception it has relied on the free market to sell its products.
