The War on Artificial Ice
Artificial meat is under attack: US states like Montana, Mississippi and Alabama have banned it - taking the lead from Florida who outlawed it in 2024. The irony? 180 years ago the sunshine state would pioneer another artificially produced product that was traditionally harvested from nature: ICE
In 1851 physician and Florida resident Dr. John Gorrie was granted a patent for an ice making process - after years of experimenting with artificial cooling methods for medical purposes. This would be the genesis of modern refrigeration systems we all enjoy today.
The notion of ‘manufacturing’ ice through an industrial process likely felt similarly strange as lab grown meat feels today. A product of a natural process suddenly produced through scientific wizardry.
In 1847 Gorrie would astonish guests at an event in Florida by serving wine cooled with artificial ice in the middle of summer - when ice was often scarce. Some scoffed at the notion - with The New York Daily Globe reportedly saying that same year: “There is a Dr. Gorrie, a crank, down in Florida, who thinks he can make ice as good as God Almighty.”
Scientific American would testify to the validity of the method in 1854 - in answer to a reader question about it - but noted the process was too expensive to be made in commercial quantities for common purposes - a bit like lab grown meat today (and other early innovations through history.)
A year later Dr. Gorrie would die, and ice would be manufactured in large quantities for the first time - though it would be many decades before the price fell enough to compete with the harvested ice industry, once it did however the incumbent ice industry pushed back…
THE BACKLASH
As the ice manufacturing industry grew, the incumbent ice industry would market its products as ‘natural ice’ - insisting a purer product, an unconvincing pitch to the public increasingly wary of pollution in bodies of water. One 1898 advert would pronounce:
“Science Fails and We Must All Bow Our Head to Nature”
In 1911 the Natural Ice Association of America would form and offer ‘certification’ to natural ice sellers - akin to the ‘organic’ and ‘GMO-free’ labels of modern times.
The effort didn’t work - as Virginia Postrel pointed out - ‘artificial’ didn’t have the same negative connotations in the early 19th century as it does today. By the 1930s natural ice use was in decline (below left) but that didn’t stop ice companies insisting natural ice was better, such as the 1931 advertorial (below right) that misleading claimed experts said natural ice was better.
The only prohibition of artificial ice were 1918 bans limiting its production during World War 1 in the name of preserving ammonia supplies - a key part of the ice manufacturing process. These laws however appeared to be pre-emptive and unnecessary.
All this begs the question whether similar efforts against lab-grown meat might be more successful - so far this seems to be the case. Had the natural ice industry preemptively lobbied to permanently outlaw the production and sale of artificial ice, it could well have hastened its arrival to consumers - if not preventing the industry ever emerging at all.
Dr. Gorrie would never get to see his innovation change the world in the profound ways it has, but his legacy is honored with a statue in Washington D.C. (Ironically gifted by the State of Florida, who pioneered artificial ice in the past and the prohibition of artificial meat today.)
Note: artificial ice caused some other controversies, ice manufacturing plants were liable to explode. Some distrusted that food frozen for long periods of time was still edible - with some states passing laws about storage. The late Calestous Juma has a great chapter about this in his book - Innovation and its Enemies. We plan to write on this more in the future.