Shaker Manifesto
Kitchen Education
September 1883
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The origin of many troubles which afflict mankind may be traced to a disordered stomach. No doubt but some of our bad legislation may be attributed to indigestible hotel breakfasts, and the burdens of sorrow produced by social disturbances have no more prolific contributor than the disordered stomach which produces disordered minds.
To raise the average of mortality, happiness and prosperity of the people, the science of eating must be given a more prominent place in our educational system. Through ignorance, and much of it inexcusable, we eat disease, we drink it and breathe it.
What to eat, how to cook it and when and how to eat it are certainly subjects of study, quite as practical and beneficial as the study of the conjugation of Greek verbs.
Isn’t it a little strange that while we employ the best medical skill we can obtain to cure disease, we turn our stomachs over to ignorant chefs and allow them to cram it with dietetic abominations which ruin its functions and produce disease?
If talent, genius and skill are looking for a good missionary field, the kitchen is the great uncivilized realm. We want the coming generation to be taught how to cook intelligently.
Give the stomach good, wholesome food, and it will fill your veins with pure blood which in turn will give you a healthy brain and drive away the whole brood of manufactured troubles.
We have had education for the parlor, and we are a nation of dyspeptics. Now, as a matter of experiment let us try education for the kitchen.
