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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
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Tom Pat
reviewed Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations on October 05, 2010
Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
I gave the book four stars because it is well written and serves a very important purpose. It provides an introduction to the concept of unsustainable food production as the basis of our civilization. Because it is entertaining and non-technical, it offers an entry point for readers who may not yet understand that we are all food insecure and that unchecked population growth and global climate change are leading us toward a bottleneck for human beings. Not all of us will get through it, and those who do will find the world a very different place. This is a book that makes complex topics understandable. As such, it generalizes and simplifies, but it does not seriously mislead. The author has done a great job of hooking the reader with his frame story of the 16th century merchant-adventurer Carletti and then hanging the story of the development of contemporary food empires on that frame. Specialists can read the books with graphs and charts, but the coming food crisis is a subject that everyone must understand, if we are to survive it. I highly recommend the book and hope that it will be read by many.
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Add Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, We are what we eat: this aphorism contains a profound truth about civilization, one that has played out on the world historical stage over many millennia of human endeavor. Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth-century merchant as a narrative, Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, We are what we eat: this aphorism contains a profound truth about civilization, one that has played out on the world historical stage over many millennia of human endeavor. Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth-century merchant as a narrative, Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations to your collection on WonderClub |
