Spring 2026 Colloquium - Dana Landress

Title: Malady of Monoculture: Pellagra, Public Health, and the Pathologies of Cotton’s Capitalism

 

Abstract: Pellagra, a nutritional deficiency disease, was once widespread in the southern United States, where it was concentrated in areas of high-yield cotton production. This wasn’t a coincidence. In the early twentieth-century, pellagra was ubiquitous in regions where monocultural cotton production foreclosed cotton workers’ access to nutritious foods. Employers kept workers poor through wage theft, predatory credit systems, and labor coercion, all of which maintained a system of food scarcity. Amid the backdrop of the Jim Crow South, the unrelenting demands of the cotton economy created a public health crisis in the form of pellagra. Excavating the landmark contributions of Black nutritionists to the field of public health, this talk will spotlight the many constituencies that worked tirelessly to combat hunger, foregrounding their creativity, resilience, and determination. Though official public health programs framed pellagra in personal and behavioral terms, those who encountered and experienced the disease actively challenged food systems enclosure through union organizing, community health care programs, freedom farms, and collective action lawsuits. Malady of Monoculture reexamines pellagra, a quintessentially social disease, through the lens of labor history, food sovereignty movements, and grassroots health activism.