Mathieu Nicol - Better Food for our Fighting Men

Mathieu Nicol
Better Food for our Fighting Men

Published by RVB Books, 2022
Size: 11 x 17 cm
Softcover
192 Pages - 92 photos

BETTER FOOD FOR OUR FIGHTING MEN presents a selection of approximately 100 images dating from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, taken from the archives of the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, a U.S. Army research and development facility. In this still-active industrial complex, military personnel and civilian contractors work to improve the soldier's daily life and nutrition.

Feeding troops is a major logistical, health, and psychological challenge for the world's leading army. Here, the enemy is bacteria, and the crux of the matter is supplies, the "supply chain." How do you produce, transport, cook, and serve food, in all latitudes and climates, and in all configurations? From the officers' mess to the barracks' self-service restaurant, from the field canteen to the individual survival ration in hostile terrain, the challenge is to deliver food that will take care of both the physical health and morale of the troops. Irradiate, dehydrate, compact, preserve, rehydrate, thermostabilize, reheat, serve... These images document the experiments conducted by the nutritionists and logisticians of this army's "food science lab."

The visual set is completed by a glossary of 24 entries, describing in detail different acronyms found in the image captions, evoking elements of the history of the American soldier's ration in the 20th century, and the different technologies developed by the agri-food industry in the manufacture of this collective food.