Rock Lobster
Life in Colonial America was difficult and very often short. Colonists arrived with hopes of making a better life for themselves and their families, but they were greeted with a unforgiving, and unknown environment.
English colonists were used to purchasing whatever they needed. In the new world, they were forced make, grow, hunt, and gather what they needed, or do without. Even later arrivals found the new world challenging. Hard work was not just an ideal to strive for, it was a matter of survival.
On top of the struggle of providing for daily needs, colonists contended with raids from the local Native American tribes they had displaced, and guard against thieves and servants who would steal rather than starve.
If that wasn’t enough, puritan colonists dealt with the many supernatural threats concocted by the devil and his servants. At any moment evil spirits might strike in the form of illness, poisonous plants, wild animal attacks, and fires.
Times were so bad, and food so scarce that Governor William Bradford was embarrassed to admit that when new colonists arrived the only food they “could present their friends with was a lobster…without bread or anything else but a cup of fair water”.
Lobster was an issue of contention in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. While grains, vegetables, fruits, and meat were tough to come by, lobster was plentiful. Piles of the red crustaceans would wash up on the beach daily. So plentiful was the shellfish that it was commonly used to feed servants and prisoners. In fact, in time colony was forced to sign contracts with indentured servants stating they would not be fed lobster more than three times a week.
The lobster of today wears a top hat and tuxedo. The lobster of yesteryears wears overalls and a straw hat. Even until the 1900’s lobster was seen as a poor man’s food. Lobster shells about a house were seen as a sign of poverty and degradation.
In 1875 lobster sold for around 11 cents a pound. By comparison, baked beans would cost you 55 cents a pound. Lobster was quite simply, a trash food. A food so lowly only the poorest and most desperate would be found eating it. Nowadays, that same lobster will cost you $14 per pound, while the beans ring up at just $1.50 per pound.
How did lobster rise from its humble beginnings as prison food to reign at the top of the most expensive menus? That answer comes from an unlikely source. Railroads.
While Americans living close to the coast were well aware of Lobster and its reputation, those living inland were ignorant of its status. Railway owners quickly realized that with some clever branding they could make huge profits by selling the dirt-cheap lobster as a luxurious delicacy. The thing about lobster, as you may know, is it’s delicious. Passengers were quick to believe that they were in fact eating a faraway delicacy because well, it tasted like one. So delicious was the lobster, that when they got off of the train, they kept asking for it.
Before long, fisherman began noticing that the once overflowing supplies of lobster were starting to shrink. Lobster prices hit their first peak in the 1920’s when overfishing reduced supply and caused prices to jump to about the same price lobster goes for today. Lobster quickly became a food only available to the upper echelon, a status that it still holds to this day.
Foods in the supermarket with the term “ancient grains” sell for anywhere between 50 and 300 percent more than their counterparts. Care to name a few specific “ancient grains” for me?
Bottled water that passes through a reverse osmosis filtering process sells for 45% more on average. Can you describe the reverse osmosis process?
Free range chicken sell for 40% more than their caged counterparts. Go watch “Supersize Me II” and let me know how that works out for the chickens.
Diamonds command the highest prices in the jewelry store. But in truth they are one of the most common gems on earth and can now be readily grown in labs.
The value of any product is entirely subjective. Unfortunately, marketing executives know this. Adding labels to products can make them seem like better options and allow the makers to charge more.
You work too hard for your money to fall for those tricks.