The Food Disruptors

#16 Who Is Ball, and Where Is My Mason Jar?


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Mason jars stand everywhere at-the-ready as stolid, gleaming icons of utility, transparency, and authenticity.

   

But wait. Why is that name in glassy relief across the jar-front not "Mason?" Why "Ball?" Or "Kerr?"

The answer lies in a classic encounter of a food system need with capitalistic machinations that were anything but straightforward. Was Mason, an inventive tinsmith, also a fraudster or just dumb about business?

And how did the Ball Brothers -- all five of them -- segue from "wood jacket" cans that did a poor job of containing some of the most toxic substances available in the 1800s to market domination of Mason jars? America's foodways get disrupted in amazing ways.

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The Food DisruptorsBy The Food Disruptors