Performing cleanliness: clean milk competitions in Britain, c.1920–1940. (4th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Newman, Laura
• Is Part Of: Paedagogica historica. Volume 54:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 237
• Page End: 248
• Publication Date: 2018-05-04
• Subjects: Milk -- public health -- worker sports -- agriculture -- technical education; Education -- History -- Periodicals; 370.9
• DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2017.1313872
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0030-9230

Abstract

Abstract: The question of how best to secure a healthy, disease-free milk supply was one of the most contentious public health issues in interwar Britain. Commentators identified improper and unhygienic milking practices as just one area of the dairy industry in desperate need of reform. In the 1920s a loose partnership of agricultural scientists and educators, civil servants, and dairy businesses turned to competition as a means by which to convince milkers as to the benefits of "scientific dairying". Clean milk competitions came to simultaneously educate and discipline British dairy workers by working to redefine milking skill with the help of the laboratory sciences. However, the venture was a contentious one, wherein competition participants would often resist the meanings and methods that were coming to be employed in the quest for "clean milk".