The history of crisco is also eye-opening. It was a waste product from cotton production - chemists were given the task of finding ways to extract money out of

The history of crisco is also eye-opening. It was a waste product from cotton production - chemists were given the task of finding ways to extract money out of left over cotton seeds. Cottonseed oil was previously used to make lamp oil and candles, but that business was dying out. They came up with partial hydrogenation to make it look close enough to lard, and then marketed it as a food product even though very little was known about it at the time. It was also shortly after Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, so people were excited about a vegetarian alternative to potentially contaminated animal products.