The gum industry

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. You can find links to gum chewing in almost any culture; gum being a substance excreted from wounded bark. Some of these taste horrible; others are palatable and have been used for thousands of years. The chewing gum industry in North American exploded when chicle, the latex like substance from sapodilla trees, was introduced to America in the 1870s. Sapodillas are evergreen trees growing deep in forests in Mesoamerica, certain people specialized in searching for these trees, cutting slashes in their trunks and collecting the exudate. As trees could only be cut every five years, this source dwindled but synthetic gum replaced it. Gum chewing may be socially taboo, but lots of people chew to their heart’s content-- the current Wrigley gum heir is always included in Forbs four hundreds’ list of richest Americans.