Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth–century merchant as a narrative guide, Empires of Food vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past 12,000 years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate—and offers fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. In energetic prose, agricultural expert Evan D.G. Fraser and journalist Andrew capture the flavor of places as disparate as ancient Mesopotamia and imperial Britain, taking us from the first city in the once–thriving Fertile Crescent to today's overworked breadbaskets and rice bowls in the United States and China.

Cities, culture, art, government, and religion were founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses. Complex societies were built by shipping grain up rivers and into the stewpots of history's generations. But evenutally, inevitably, the crops fail, the fields erode, or the temperature drops, and the center of power shifts. Cultures descend into dark ages of poverty, famine, and war.

A fascinating, fresh history told through the prism of the dining table, Empires of Food offers a grand scope and a provocative analysis of the world today, indispensable in this time of global warming and food crises.
1110914533
Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth–century merchant as a narrative guide, Empires of Food vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past 12,000 years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate—and offers fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. In energetic prose, agricultural expert Evan D.G. Fraser and journalist Andrew capture the flavor of places as disparate as ancient Mesopotamia and imperial Britain, taking us from the first city in the once–thriving Fertile Crescent to today's overworked breadbaskets and rice bowls in the United States and China.

Cities, culture, art, government, and religion were founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses. Complex societies were built by shipping grain up rivers and into the stewpots of history's generations. But evenutally, inevitably, the crops fail, the fields erode, or the temperature drops, and the center of power shifts. Cultures descend into dark ages of poverty, famine, and war.

A fascinating, fresh history told through the prism of the dining table, Empires of Food offers a grand scope and a provocative analysis of the world today, indispensable in this time of global warming and food crises.
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Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

by Evan D.G. Fraser, Andrew Rimas
Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

by Evan D.G. Fraser, Andrew Rimas

Paperback

$17.95 
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Overview

Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth–century merchant as a narrative guide, Empires of Food vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past 12,000 years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate—and offers fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. In energetic prose, agricultural expert Evan D.G. Fraser and journalist Andrew capture the flavor of places as disparate as ancient Mesopotamia and imperial Britain, taking us from the first city in the once–thriving Fertile Crescent to today's overworked breadbaskets and rice bowls in the United States and China.

Cities, culture, art, government, and religion were founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses. Complex societies were built by shipping grain up rivers and into the stewpots of history's generations. But evenutally, inevitably, the crops fail, the fields erode, or the temperature drops, and the center of power shifts. Cultures descend into dark ages of poverty, famine, and war.

A fascinating, fresh history told through the prism of the dining table, Empires of Food offers a grand scope and a provocative analysis of the world today, indispensable in this time of global warming and food crises.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781582437934
Publisher: Catapult
Publication date: 03/20/2012
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 961,428
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.78(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Evan D. G. Fraser is the author of Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, which was shortlisted for the James Beard Food Literature Award, and the graphic novel #FoodCrisis. Currently he is the director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph and holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security.

Andrew Rimas is a journalist and the managing editor at the Improper Bostonian magazine; previously he was an associate editor and staff writer at Boston magazine. His work has frequently appeared in those publications, and in The Boston Globe Magazine and The Boston Globe.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Part I The Price of Food 1

The Three Gorges Dam 3

The Rise and Fall of Food Empires, Past, Present, and Future 7

Chapter 1 Fairs: The Food Trade 13

The Desert Fathers 16

Work, Pray, Eat 18

The Agricultural Revolution of A.D. 900 20

Fayre Is Fair 22

The Pendulum Swings 28

The Pendulum Swings Back 32

Manure from the Bones 37

Chapter 2 Larders: What Do You Do with Ten Thousand Tons of Grain? 41

National Security and a War on Terror 43

Bread Alone 46

Not by Bread Alone: Oil and Fish 49

Hannibal Lectured 52

A Question of Logistics 57

Grounds for Exhaustion 59

How to Feed an Empire, Cheap 62

The Larder Is Empty 64

Chapter 3 Farms: Growing Food for Profit and Environmental Rapine 69

The Grapes of Wrath 72

God in the Cup 79

The Weak Heart of Today's Food Empire 86

Part II The Price Rises 91

An Experiment in Survival 93

Chicken Little or a Lot of Chicken? 97

Chapter 4 Water: Irrigations Questionable Cure 101

Mesopotamia's Fix 104

In Praise of Grain 107

Oriental Despotism 110

Retreat of the Elephants 115

The Yellowing River 118

Water, Water Everywhere? 121

Chapter 5 Dirt: The Chemistry of Life 125

The Story of N 126

In Praise of Phytoplankton 129

Fecal Politics 131

War Empires 136

The Birds of Peru 141

Chapter 6 Ice: Preserve Us 145

How Food Rots and How to Slow It Down 146

It's a Jungle 150

The Industrial Garden State 152

Triumph of the Tomato 156

California Scheming 159

The Orange Juice Quandary 161

Part III Empty Pockets 165

Storm Clouds 167

Chapter 7 Blood: The Conquest of Food 173

Rebellion in the Spice Islands 179

Chiapas 183

The Moral Economy of Food 187

The Climate Trigger 193

Chapter 8 Money: Tea and Famine 197

A Foundation in Pirates 199

Victorian High Tea 203

Her Majesty's Drug Cartel 205

"In America, There Could Be No Famine…" 209

The Great Hunger 211

The Food Empires Ahead 214

Chapter 9 Time: Fair, Organic, and Slow 219

The Meaning of Fairness 222

Greener Pastures 230

The Snail Triumphant 235

Conclusion: The New Gluttony and Tomorrow's Menu 243

Acknowledgments 255

Notes 257

Index 289

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