Irradiating Fish - Improving food chains. Retailers as mediators in a German Innovation Network? 1968-1977

Irradiated food evokes a scary vision. It reminds us of radio warnings not to eat spinach or drink fresh milk after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Irradiated food, however, was a highly promising vision that was shared by a broad range of actors, at least in the first three decades after the Second World War. It inspired the activities of scientists, as well as militaries, governmental officials, equipment producers, consumers (to some degree) and retailers. They all happily believed the promise of the atom as a cornucopia of abundance and therefore they strove to implement food irradiation as a process innovation into food chains. This article will focus on an institutionalized innovation network, the West German Förderkreis für Lebensmittelbestrahlung. Exploring the short history of the Förderkreis I hope to add some insights for the more general topic of retailers as actors for process innovations in food chains.