This event was recorded as part of the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance Third Annual Symposium “Beef: From Plains to Plate”.

Russell Lewis of the Chicago History Museum posits that Chicago’s Union Stock Yards was the result of the fusion of urbanization and industrialization, and it represented one of the greatest industrial innovations of the nineteenth century. Meatpacking was one of the trio of Chicago industries - along with grain and lumber - that catapulted Chicago onto the national and world stage. This presentation chronicles the rise of the Union Stock Yards and its place in Chicago’s history.

Celebrate Midwestern beef foodways by tracing the historic odyssey of all-American meat from the windswept plains of the heartland to meat processors in “cities on the make,” like Chicago, where it was packed, wrapped and sent to dinner plates around the globe. Join the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance (GMFA) on that journey Beef: From Plains to the Plate – Follow the Cattlemen’s Trail to Savory Midwest Beef Traditions.

Recorded Saturday, October 24, 2009 at Kendall College.