The conflicts of cereal

 I watched the documentary series The Food that built America via Amazon Prime Video, which was broadcast on the history channel in the US.

I was surprised and impressed there were many dramas of founders who had started up their food companies and brands like Heinz, Coca Cola, Hershey, etc.

They have been changing American society since the end of the 19th century and converted the world industry. 

I picked the topic about cereal makers from this series.

John Harvey Kellogg was a famous medical doctor, who ran a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan.

His sanitarium was so popular that people gathered from around the world to practice the unique health methods of Dr. Kellogg.

One of his methods was eating cereal that was baked thinly with a dough mixture of wheat, oats and corn for breakfast.

His brother, Will Keith Kellogg managed the kitchen and the cereal recipes.

Will proposed that Dr. Kellogg commercialize the cereal, but his brother didn’t allow it.

However, a patient of the sanitarium, C. W. Post had stolen their recipe, and commercialized the cereals as his own products.

Post succeeded and got a large amount of finance, though Will chagrined.

One day the sanitarium burned down in a fire.

John sold the cereal recipes to Will to rebuild the sanitarium, and Will established Kellogg Company to commercialize the cereal as “Toasted Corn Flakes” in 1906.

Though the ordinary people in this era hadn’t had a custom of eating breakfast, for they didn’t have much time and money for it, the cereal solved these problems. 

Their cereals became popular products because of their convenience, reasonable price and healthiness.

C. W. Post disturbed Will’s business in various dirty ways, but he managed to succeed according to his ability and his famous brother’s name as a medical doctor.

John had been jealous of his brother’s success, and he began to sell the cereals as his own products, and sued Will for the trademark rights.

The court ruled Will had won, after that, Kellogg Company has grown as the one of the biggest food makers in the world.

After C. W. Post died, his daughter, Marjorie Post succeeded her father’s company.

She expanded the company and renamed it to General Foods Corporation in 1929, even though there were so few businesswomen in this period.