SPAM: Canned pork product with indefinite shelf life developed by Hormel Foods in 1937. Spam gained notoriety and global distribution as a standard part of c-rations for U.S. soldiers in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, etc. etc. (but not during the 1991 Gulf War, due to the Islamic prohibition of pork cited by Saudi allies). The distinctive blue and yellow can is now recognized worldwide. "SPiced hAM" (not "Scientifically Produced Animal Matter") consists of pork shoulder, ham, salt, water, sugar, lots of sodium nitrate, plus a layer of unidentified pinkish-beige jelly. In the 1950s and ‘60s, SPAM was promoted as the "Miracle Meat" for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In the 1960s and ‘70s, sales plummeted, and Monty Python’s Flying Circus performed a comedy skit in which the "Blue Midget Cafe" served SPAM with every dish. In the 1970s and ‘80s, Spamburgers, Spam Breakfast Strips, Less Salt Spam, Spam Lite, etc. were introduced. A bitter 13-month strike of the Austin, MN, Hormel plant was chronicled by Barbara Kopple in the 1991 documentary American Dream, which opens with shots of pigs being stunned, decapitated, dismembered, and disemboweled.
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