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A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization
In the last twenty-five years alone, the range of fruits and vegetables, even grains, that is available at most local markets has changed dramatically. Over the last 10,000 years, that change is almost unimaginable. This groundbreaking new work, from the editor of the highly regarded Cambridge World History of Food, examines the exploding global palate. It begins with the transition from foraging to farming that got underway some 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, then examines subsequent transitions in Egypt, Africa south of the Sahara, China, southeast Asia, the Indus Valley Oceanic, Europe, and the Americas. It ends with chapters on genetically modified foods, the fast food industry, the nutritional ailments people have suffered from, famine, the obesity epidemic, and a look at the future on the food front. Food, at its most basic, fuels the human body. At its most refined, food has been elevated to a position of fine art. The path food has taken through history is a fairly straightforward one; the space which it occupies today could not be more fraught. This sweeping narrative covers both ends of the spectrum, reminding us to be grateful for and delighted in a grain of wheat, as well as making us aware of the many questions that remain unanswered about what lies ahead. Did you know. . .
- That beans were likely an agricultural mistake?
- That cheese making was originated in Iran over 6000 years ago?
- That pepper was once worth its weight in gold?
- That sugar is the world's best-selling food, surpassing even wheat?
- That Winston Churchill asserted, in 1942, that tea was more important to his troops than ammunition?
- That chili con carne is one of the earliest examples of food globalization?
- That, by 1880, virtually every major city in America had a Chinese restaurant?
- That white bread was once considered too nutritious?
Kenneth Kiple reveals these facts and more within A Movable Feast.
- That beans were likely an agricultural mistake?
- That cheese making was originated in Iran over 6000 years ago?
- That pepper was once worth its weight in gold?
- That sugar is the world's best-selling food, surpassing even wheat?
- That Winston Churchill asserted, in 1942, that tea was more important to his troops than ammunition?
- That chili con carne is one of the earliest examples of food globalization?
- That, by 1880, virtually every major city in America had a Chinese restaurant?
- That white bread was once considered too nutritious?
Kenneth Kiple reveals these facts and more within A Movable Feast.
386 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
22 people are currently reading
362 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 16, 2013
A history of the animals, plants, and processes that make up our food, from the dawn of civilization into modernity. There's some interesting information in here, but it's hidden in what are basically lists. This book is exactly as exciting as an encyclopedia. Now, when I was younger I confess to voluntarily reading encyclopedias from cover to cover (though I never got past the first N volume), but that was for lack of other reading material. Once in a while, a spark of a thesis glimmered, but it was smothered under piles of facts. Still, Kiple's basic points stand up to his yawn-inducing style: the development of agriculture was good for the survival of the human species but bad for our health; GMOs are the bestest; politics, wars, and borders are inextricably linked with foodstuffs.
October 5, 2007
Author is completely erratic, the material is completely unorganized and circles back on itself a lot, but completely fascinating about how food has moved and replanted itself all over the world thousands of times - hardly anything is "native" to a particular place, and he draws in fascinating connections between food stuffs and world politics - ie, spices, sugar, tea etc.
November 25, 2018
I learned an amazing amount from this book, which at times feels more like an encyclopedia than a sustained narrative history (indeed, it exists in part as a condensed form of the Cambridge World History of Food). Much of it focuses on the two "big bang" events that really catalysed food globalisation: the invention of agriculture and the Columbian exchange. Kiple argues that agriculture created civilisation as we know it, allowing for the establishment of empires and trade routes which slowly spread basic crops, vegetables, flavourings and barnyard animals to every corner of the known world. After 1500, the Columbian exchange achieved a similar feat in a dramatically shorter period- by 1800, virtually all of the food sources available to humanity had been discovered and exchanged. The advent of consumer capitalism and global agribusiness over the past two centuries has granted a privileged (yet sizeable) global elite access to this incredible range of foods.
Some other interesting titbits include:
- Animals were probably first domesticated (and their milk consumed) as an accidental byproduct of ritual sacrifice. In some parts of Asia, chickens are still exclusively used for decorative and entertainment purposes.
- Maize agriculture, combined with the limited stock of animals, led the pre-contact Americas to have some of the highest rates of nutritional deficiency ever recorded. While the domestication of Maize permitted huge population increases, only the rich could afford a varied diet. This may have played a major role in the collapse of Mayan civilisation, and famine came close to bringing down the Aztecs decades before the arrival of the Spanish. After the Columbian exchange, maize became a popular crop around the world due to its great versatility. However, unless prepared in a specific way, it lacks the critical vitamin niacin. This led to the worldwide spread of the deficiency disease pellagra, which probably killed more people than any other nutritional deficiency in history, right up to the 1950s.
- Latin and Central America provided almost all of the new foods to the old world. From North America came only sunflower seeds while Australia and New Zealand have contributed nothing to the global larder.
- Europeans were initially sceptical about American foods. Potatoes, in particular, were regarded as potentially poisonous. In Germany and Russia, peasants had to be forced at gunpoint to plant and harvest them. In Asia, by contrast, chilli peppers were rapidly integrated into local cuisines.
One of the strongest aspects of the book is its global focus. Unfortunately, in the last 100 or so pages the author inexplicably abandons this broad perspective and only writes about the United States. The assumption seems to be that food globalisation is now effectively synonymous with Americanisation (or at least Westernisation), but I don't think this is adequately proven. Moreover, the book misses a lot of opportunities to comment on the modern history of Western relations with the developing world and how food globalisation has been actively used as a tool of imperialism. Nick Cullather, for example, has written about how the concept of the calorie has been used by Westerners to denigrate non-Western diets which did not conform to the European understanding of nutrition. While the book does discuss a similar issue relating to the racial and demographic biases of American government nutrition advice, it does not even attempt to discuss these problems on the global level.
I also wish the author had dedicated more attention to cultural and political aspects of food globalisation. While the book thoroughly documents when and how foods arrived in different places, rarely do we get a sense of what people thought about this transformation of their food culture. I also pondered, in light of contemporary politics, whether there is more to say in terms of the role of food in the evolution of nationalism. For many, food is a major part of national identity. The arrival of Polish food shops on British high streets, for instance, is often cited as a major factor in the recent backlash against migration. While the book assumes a teleological path for the opening up of culinary horizons, I can't help but wonder if the era of food globalisation may one day come to an end.
Some other interesting titbits include:
- Animals were probably first domesticated (and their milk consumed) as an accidental byproduct of ritual sacrifice. In some parts of Asia, chickens are still exclusively used for decorative and entertainment purposes.
- Maize agriculture, combined with the limited stock of animals, led the pre-contact Americas to have some of the highest rates of nutritional deficiency ever recorded. While the domestication of Maize permitted huge population increases, only the rich could afford a varied diet. This may have played a major role in the collapse of Mayan civilisation, and famine came close to bringing down the Aztecs decades before the arrival of the Spanish. After the Columbian exchange, maize became a popular crop around the world due to its great versatility. However, unless prepared in a specific way, it lacks the critical vitamin niacin. This led to the worldwide spread of the deficiency disease pellagra, which probably killed more people than any other nutritional deficiency in history, right up to the 1950s.
- Latin and Central America provided almost all of the new foods to the old world. From North America came only sunflower seeds while Australia and New Zealand have contributed nothing to the global larder.
- Europeans were initially sceptical about American foods. Potatoes, in particular, were regarded as potentially poisonous. In Germany and Russia, peasants had to be forced at gunpoint to plant and harvest them. In Asia, by contrast, chilli peppers were rapidly integrated into local cuisines.
One of the strongest aspects of the book is its global focus. Unfortunately, in the last 100 or so pages the author inexplicably abandons this broad perspective and only writes about the United States. The assumption seems to be that food globalisation is now effectively synonymous with Americanisation (or at least Westernisation), but I don't think this is adequately proven. Moreover, the book misses a lot of opportunities to comment on the modern history of Western relations with the developing world and how food globalisation has been actively used as a tool of imperialism. Nick Cullather, for example, has written about how the concept of the calorie has been used by Westerners to denigrate non-Western diets which did not conform to the European understanding of nutrition. While the book does discuss a similar issue relating to the racial and demographic biases of American government nutrition advice, it does not even attempt to discuss these problems on the global level.
I also wish the author had dedicated more attention to cultural and political aspects of food globalisation. While the book thoroughly documents when and how foods arrived in different places, rarely do we get a sense of what people thought about this transformation of their food culture. I also pondered, in light of contemporary politics, whether there is more to say in terms of the role of food in the evolution of nationalism. For many, food is a major part of national identity. The arrival of Polish food shops on British high streets, for instance, is often cited as a major factor in the recent backlash against migration. While the book assumes a teleological path for the opening up of culinary horizons, I can't help but wonder if the era of food globalisation may one day come to an end.
May 14, 2024
Essentially a distillation of the "Cambridge World History of Food," the author traces the paths by which the modern cuisines of the world came to be, and the attendant health and social issues that these processes have left in their wake. At the very least I'm reminded of the notorious quip by Tony Bourdain that great cuisine is the result of non-consensual relations with invading armies!
Originally written: January 25, 2014.
Originally written: January 25, 2014.
March 14, 2022
Son derece kapsamlı bir çalışma olmuş. Hangi bitki ya da hayvanın hangi kıtada ortaya çıktığı ve dünyanın geri kalanın bundan nasıl haberdar olduğu anlatılıyor. Örneğin, Afrika'da ortaya çıkan kahvenin bugünkü üretim üssü Brezilya olmuş. Sadece insanlar değil gıda ürünleri de üretilebilecekleri en iyi yerlere taşınmış ve küreselleşmiş durumda. Avcı-toplayıcıların tarımcılardan daha iyi beslendiği de bir gerçek. Tarımın icadı insanları tahıllarla beslenmeye alıştırmış ve avcı toplayıcılara göre tarımcıların boy ortalamalarını da 10-15 cm düşürmüş. Obezite ve kronik hastalıklara yatkınlık da artmış.
PS: Kahve anlatılırken Türkiye'ye gelişi 1454 olarak yazılmış, ama 1554 olması gerekirdi. Kahve ilk defa Halepli Hakem adında bir herif ile Şamlı Şems adında bir zarif tarafından İstanbul'a getirilmişti.
PS: Kahve anlatılırken Türkiye'ye gelişi 1454 olarak yazılmış, ama 1554 olması gerekirdi. Kahve ilk defa Halepli Hakem adında bir herif ile Şamlı Şems adında bir zarif tarafından İstanbul'a getirilmişti.
September 15, 2020
It's written in a very dry, academic manner. That's because it's precisely what this book is, an academic text for study.
I wonder just how many of us realize the origins of the various things we eat. Or, for that matter, the "globalization" of certain foodstuffs over the last several thousand years. The most recent example of this, and it's so massive that it's rather hard to get your head around, is the Columbian exchange. If you want to focus on that particular event, or series of events, you might want to give Mann's "1493" a look as well.
A fascinating book about something we take for granted, that being the extraordinary diversity of food encountered when you walk into your local grocery store.
I wonder just how many of us realize the origins of the various things we eat. Or, for that matter, the "globalization" of certain foodstuffs over the last several thousand years. The most recent example of this, and it's so massive that it's rather hard to get your head around, is the Columbian exchange. If you want to focus on that particular event, or series of events, you might want to give Mann's "1493" a look as well.
A fascinating book about something we take for granted, that being the extraordinary diversity of food encountered when you walk into your local grocery store.
April 15, 2019
A very interesting, comprehensive and easy-to-read story that covers the development of agriculture from beginning to present-day. At times it could feel a bit repetitive (referring back in more detail than necessary to information that had already been explained in previous chapters), and at times it felt like it got a little too involved in specific details that didn't seem so important nor that interesting. However, it was also full of very interesting tidbits of information and it definitely gives you a better understanding of the history of agriculture, animal domestication, food, and nutrition.
December 11, 2021
I think I got this one for a class early in my undergrad and haven't read it again until now. A well researched look at food, domestication, and the globalization of crops that covers everything from our hunter gatherer prehistory to the modern era.
I enjoyed most the chapters on early domestication of plants and animals, and those on the different regional cuisines that I've never heard of.
As other reviews do point out, it often felt like reading an encyclopedia, and I found myself skimming some more esoteric sections.
I enjoyed most the chapters on early domestication of plants and animals, and those on the different regional cuisines that I've never heard of.
As other reviews do point out, it often felt like reading an encyclopedia, and I found myself skimming some more esoteric sections.
March 26, 2023
Well while I found this book interesting I was disappointed by the author's need to use the word eskimo especially as he used the correct word Inuit in other instances. I also found the fact that Kiple seemed to imply that kebab is a Russian dish when it is a Middle Eastern one.
June 13, 2024
I don't know if all of this is still considered true, but it's all worth thinking about regardless.
April 8, 2012
Interesting book, although a little too long.
It tends to drag itself in the middle of the book, repeating the same formula of facts, told in the same manner. Not very exiting for the reader.
The beginning and the end, on the other hand, are exiting and very good eye openers.
The way the author presents the facts for our species transition as hunter-gatherers into agriculture is well achieved. It makes one think about what we lost, more that what we gain, as we stop becoming nomads and start to domesticate plants and animals. Very good.
The last part, about the present state of globalized food, brings nothing really new, specially if you keeps tabs with modern media trends (food processing issues, vegetarianism, fusion cuisine). It does solidify your previous knowledge on the matter, while giving the newcomer a nice introduction on the subject.
Overall, a great book about the history of food and it's relationships with the human history.
It tends to drag itself in the middle of the book, repeating the same formula of facts, told in the same manner. Not very exiting for the reader.
The beginning and the end, on the other hand, are exiting and very good eye openers.
The way the author presents the facts for our species transition as hunter-gatherers into agriculture is well achieved. It makes one think about what we lost, more that what we gain, as we stop becoming nomads and start to domesticate plants and animals. Very good.
The last part, about the present state of globalized food, brings nothing really new, specially if you keeps tabs with modern media trends (food processing issues, vegetarianism, fusion cuisine). It does solidify your previous knowledge on the matter, while giving the newcomer a nice introduction on the subject.
Overall, a great book about the history of food and it's relationships with the human history.
July 12, 2014
There is a great deal of interesting information in this book, but it suffers from being adapted from an encyclopedia. It feels like a string of facts, without a thesis to give them meaning.
More coming once I've finished.
More coming once I've finished.
November 6, 2007
ugh... he loves GM and doesn't even begin to problematize global agribusiness
February 14, 2008
A great non-fiction book. A history of food, from caveman to fast food.
February 24, 2008
Lots of interesting facts but a very dry read.
Want to read
January 4, 2009A bit slow/boring... I didn't finish. It looked like it had lots of interesting information - but is for those into history more than people into food.
August 14, 2011
Unnecessarily mean to ethical veg*anism and uncritically accepting of agricultural biotechnology, but otherwise a good overview of food globalization.
March 23, 2013
fascinating first half, messy and boring finish.
Read
May 31, 2014did not read...accidentally clicked in currently reading and could not remove without selecting finished
November 17, 2014
Interesting but very dry.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews