7UP also released products

 7UP also released products

 in half-liter and liter sizes amid metric mania, even using a campaign slogan called “follow the liter,” and published a 60-page guide for teachers on the metric system.

Historian Stephen Mihm told Marketplace back in 2017 that metrification gained momentum because there were concerns about a decline in American exports. “That got chalked up, rightly or wrongly, to our intransigence about not adopting the metric system,” he said. 

In the 1990s, the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act was amended to require that net contents of certain packages be expressed in not just customary units, but metric ones as well. For businesses that wanted to sell their products internationally, it was advisable to use metric units to stay competitive.

Despite America’s staunch adherence to the calorie and its individualistic tendencies, the country hasn’t been immune to the pressures of global competition. A product’s labeling doesn’t just tell us about the food we’re eating or operate solely based on practicality: it’s also a story about economics and our complicated, decades-long relationship with the metric system.

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