SPAM: Canned pork product with indefinite shelf life developed by
Hormel Foods in 1937.
Spam
gained notoriety and global distribution as a standard part of c-rations for U.S. soldiers in World War II,
Korea, Vietnam, etc. etc. (but not during the 1991 Gulf War, due to the Islamic prohibition of pork cited by
Saudi allies). The distinctive blue and yellow can came to be recognized worldwide. “SPiced hAM” (not
“Scientifically Produced Animal Matter”) consists of pork shoulder, ham, salt, water, sugar, lots of sodium
nitrate, plus a layer of unidentified pinkish-beige jelly. In the 1950s and ‘60s, SPAM was promoted as the
“Miracle Meat” for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In the 1960s and ‘70s, sales plummeted, and Monty Python's
Flying Circus performed a comedy skit in which the “Blue Midget Cafe” served Spam with every dish. In the 1970s
and ‘80s, Spamburgers, Spam Breakfast Strips, Less Salt Spam, Spam Lite, etc. were introduced. A bitter 13-month
strike of the Austin, MN, Hormel plant was chronicled by Barbara Kopple in the 1991 documentary American Dream,
which opens with shots of pigs being stunned, decapitated, dismembered, and disemboweled.
SPAM 1.x OPTIONS
SPAM 2.x
SPAM 3.x
