During these past two years, I have primarily worked on three research areas: 1. The history of livestock breeding techniques and their integration into political programs; 2. The history of the concept of domestication; 3. The globalization and industrialization of the meat sector.
For the first research area, I have examined the historical context that led emerging nation-states to invest in animal production at the end of the 17th century, particularly focusing on the establishment of the régime des haras in France. I then traced these transformations through the 18th century, especially with the foundation of veterinary schools aimed at rationalizing livestock breeding techniques through centralized veterinary training. My focus was mainly on the first half of the 19th century, a period of intense political and institutional transformation. This era witnessed growing investments in animal production, such as increasingly large-scale selective breeding and crossbreeding programs, including the mérinisation process of sheep in France. These political initiatives were accompanied by a redefinition of knowledge related to animal breeding and the institutions dedicated to its teaching: in the 1820s, major agricultural schools such as Grignon and Grand-Jouan were founded; in the 1830s, numerous farm schools were established throughout France; and in 1848, the Institut national agronomique was created in Versailles. Against this backdrop, I have been particularly interested in the formulation and development of two competing livestock sciences: applied zoology and zootechnics.
The second research area builds on these inquiries. It was, in fact, the theorists of applied zoology—particularly the naturalist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire from the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle—who devised a program for exploiting the biological resources of the colonies based on acclimatization and the domestication of new species. I have thus explored the history of the concept of domestication, which was introduced into English at the end of the 18th century and into French in 1830. In France, it quickly became the subject of a broad interdisciplinary debate involving naturalists, historians, anthropologists, and philosophers. Domestication proved to be of interest to these scholars for several reasons: 1. A field of experimentation for zoological sciences and a demonstration of species variability; 2. A strategy for increasing animal resources under the Second Empire; 3. A civilizing and moralizing endeavor (concerning both animals and peasants); 4. A crucial stage in the history of humanity and civilizations. The last two dimensions, in particular, attracted the attention of social thinkers influenced by republican and socialist ideals, such as Jules Michelet, George Sand, Alphonse Esquiros, and Auguste Comte. They saw domestication as an ideal of consensual exploitation of animals and a form of pacified domination over nature.
Finally, the third research area I have developed extends from my studies on the emergence of zootechnics. I have explored the technologies that enabled the new model of globalizing animal resources envisioned by zootechnics theorists in the form of finished products. This led me to investigate the first transoceanic meat trade routes in the 1870s and the application of chemical refrigeration techniques to the transport and production of animal products. During a research period in Argentina and Uruguay, I further examined the interplay between the globalization of animal production and the industrialization of the sector. I consulted the archives of entrepreneurs and politicians who promoted the first refrigerated voyages, as well as those of the largest 19th-century meat factory in the Southern Cone, located in Fray Bentos.
