Moveable Feasts
From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat
- 318 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Moveable Feasts
From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat
About this book
"A fascinating chronicle of mankind's efforts to move food throughout history" from the Financial Times contributor and author of Making an Exit ( The News & Observer ). Today the average meal has traveled thousands of miles before reaching the dinner table. How on earth did this happen? Through delightful anecdotes and astonishing facts, Moveable Feasts tells the stories. Combining history, science, and politics, Financial Times writer Sarah Murray provides a fascinating glimpse into the extraordinary odysseys of food from farm to fork. She encounters everything from American grain falling from United Nations planes in Sudan to Mumbai's tiffin men who, using only bicycles, carts, and their feet, deliver more than 170, 000 lunches a day. Following the items on a grocery store shopping list, Murray shows how the journeys of food have brought about seismic shifts in economics, politics, and even art. By flying food into Berlin during the 1948 airlift, the Allies kept a city of more than two million alive for more than a year and secured their first Cold War victory, appealing to German hearts and minds—and stomachs. In nineteenth-century Buffalo, the grain elevator (a giant mechanical scooping machine) not only turned the city into one of America's wealthiest, but it also had a profound influence on modern architecture, giving Bauhaus designers an important source of inspiration. In a thought-provoking and highly entertaining account, Moveable Feasts brings an entirely fresh perspective to the subject of food. And today, as global warming makes headlines and concerns mount about the "food miles" clocked by our dinners, Murray poses a contentious question: Is buying local always the most sustainable, ethical choice?
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1. LIQUID GOLD: The Ancient Amphora Delivers Roman Riches
- 2. THE BUSINESS OF BONES: The Norwegian Salmon Pays a Visit to China
- 3. CANNON FODDER: Battlefield Food Fuels Packaging Technology
- 4. PLANE FARE: The Berlin Airlift Secures a Cold War Victory
- 5. TIFFIN TRAVELS: Curry Catches the Corporate Imagination
- 6. YES, WE CAN DO BANANAS: Refrigerated Ships Shape Central American Regimes
- 7. WHEY TO GO: Mongolian Nomads Practice Mobile Biochemistry
- 8. BARRELS AND BOUQUETS: The Oak Tree Leaves Its Mark
- 9. A QUICK CUPPA: Commercial Competition Speeds the Racing Tea Clippers
- 10. FOOD WITH ALTITUDE: Jet Planes Dispatch a Strawberry for All Seasons
- 11. ELEVATED DESIGN: Buffalo Grain Feeds Bauhaus Inspiration
- 12. GOING WITH GRAVITY: Cold War Weaponry Finds a New Purpose
- EPILOGUE
- Acknowledgments
- Select Bibliography
- A Note on Sources
- Index