After reviewing The Town that Food Saved, I wanted to sink my teeth into an even meatier look at the issues surrounding our food system, so I jumped at the chance to review Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations.
From the publisher’s website:
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 guide, Empires of Food vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past twelve thousand years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate—and gives us fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. In energetic prose, agricultural expert Evan D. G. Fraser and journalist Andrew Rimas tell gripping stories that 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, showing just what food has meant to humanity.
Cities, culture, art, government, and religion are founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses, complex societies built by shipping corn and wheat and rice up rivers and into the stewpots of history’s generations. But eventually, 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. It happened at the end of the Roman Empire, when slave plantations overworked Europe’s and Egypt’s soil and drained its vigor. It happened to the Mayans, who abandoned their great cities during centuries of drought. It happened in the fourteenth century, when medieval societies crashed in famine and plague, and again in the nineteenth century, when catastrophic colonial schemes plunged half the world into a poverty from which it has never recovered. And today, even though we live in an age of astounding agricultural productivity and genetically modified crops, our food supplies are once again in peril.
Empires of Food brilliantly recounts the history of cyclic consumption, but it is also the story of the future; of, for example, how a shrimp boat hauling up an empty net in the Mekong Delta could spark a riot in the Caribbean. It tells what happens when a culture or nation runs out of food—and shows us the face of the world turned hungry. The authors argue that neither local food movements nor free market economists will stave off the next crash, and they propose their own solutions. 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.
When I read this book, I kept thinking about the refrain from Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.” It was really interesting to read about the food empires and systems from long ago, and then compare it to where we’re at today. It was really well written, although I must confess to skimming over a bit of the more historical chapters. Although they were quite entertaining (the authors have a great sense of humor), I wanted to focus more on today. I suppose that’s my American impatience coming through.
The book didn’t provide any easy answers (surprise!), but I do feel like I learned more about the context of our food system, and it doesn’t seem quite so overwhelming, which is kind of strange because the solutions proposed are a bit more macro in scale than the other books I’ve read recently but somehow it seems doable. If you don’t mind a bit of historical detail, it’s a great book to help you think through the systems theory of our “food empire” and puts into perspective the threats that everyone keeps talking about. It also provides great motivation for eating local.
Win A Copy!
I’m so excited! The publisher has offered not one but TWO copies to give away to my readers.
To enter, simply comment below saying why you’d like to win.
For an additional entry, subscribe to my blog or tell me if you already do (in a separate comment).
Deadline for entry: June 25, midnight EST. Limited to the U.S. and Canada.
I would love a copy of this book. I could use it to teach students in my nutrition courses the essentials of how societies have been built up or have crashed due to food.
Also, it would be an excellent book to review for info on food’s effect on economies and global social structures.
Sounds like a great contest!
Thank you for offering it.
lawrence R.
i want to win because i’m really interested in reading the book
i subscribe via rss
I would like to win because I think it’s fascinating how history repeats itself and I’m interested in what the author’s solutions are.
I am a subscriber. 🙂
my two biggest passions are cooking and reading and what could be the better gift if both of them are combined together….thanks for the giveaway
My favourite aspects of food writing include cultural, socio-economic, and anthropologic issues, so this book would be right up my alley. Thanks very much for the chance to enter.
My blog is all about rediscovering things that we used to know, but forgot. So this sounds like it’s right up my alley.
And I’m a subscriber.
PS: I didn’t see what IslandEAT wrote before writing the exact same thing.
I’d love to win a copy. Evan D. G. Fraser is my best friend’s older brother. Plus their last book, Beef, looks fascinating (I’ve only read bits of it, but gave it to my dad for Christmas).
I went to high school with the authors and can’t believe how accomplished they have become! I’d love to read this book and hope to share some of the insights with my church congregation (I’m a minister) – the authors would probably be surprised to know that too!
This book looks fascinating! I’m beginning to think about going to grad school for a food related science, and I’m trying to do all the reading I can.
I’m paying more attention to what we eat and it’s fascinating. This book looks like a great read, I’d love to win it. I don’t think my local library has it
I subscribe in google reader. YAY for RSS
I come from a family that used to farm back through the generations. I would like to win this book because I’m really interested in the topic of our food, how it has formed our societies, what we’ve tried in the past, and where we’re headed for our future.
I’d like to win because I recently read Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel”. This sounds like an interesting counterpart to that book.
I subscribe to your blog via email.
I would like to read it because the authors are classmates of mine from decades ago and I would like to catch up on their areas of research. As a physician I think this is an important topic to be aware of from a public health persepective.
I think this book would actually be a better counterpart to Collapse than to Guns, Germs, and Steel — many civilizations have thrived or fallen because of their dietary habits. In Collapse, Diamond points out how the Vikings of Greenland (a well-spun name if there ever was one) were not able to make a go of it because they practiced eating habits that were not well-suited to the environment in which they lived. Many Polynesian cultures, on the other hand, were able to live for centuries because they saw how their farming practices were affecting the tiny islands on which they’d made their homes. Thus, I’d really like to see how Empires of Food treats similar themes.
But it’s not just personal curiosity. I’m an astronomy teacher. In addition to telling my students where we are in the universe, it’s important to impart a sense of responsibility and an understanding that, right now, our planet is all we have. There is no telling whether or not the difficulties of living elsewhere are insurmountable.
The questions dealt with in Empires of Food seem to be deeply ingrained with where we’re going as a species. Whether we become a spacefaring civilization or not, we need to learn how to eat in such a way as to avoid poisoning ourselves or economically enslaving segments of the population. We need to eat within the planet’s means so that our home here can last — ideally forever.
I would love to win this book – it sounds very interesting and readable. I would love to give it to my daughter who loves to cook!
I have been reworking what and how I cook for my family toake it healthier, but also more sustainable. I would like to read about the history of food.
I am interested in Empires of Food because of its depth and dimension of history – not only that, but it is personal, it is my history and it is still changing! I am a Musicology student which has nothing to do with food (hm, or does it?), and this book yet seems to explicate some things already in perspective I would love to digest and divulge – history of food and culture!
Of course, food always tastes better when it’s free!
I’m interested in seeing how food affected the evolution of cultures. “Empires of Food” sounds like the “food” equivalent of “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies”” by Jared Diamond, which discusses how societies were affected by the arrival of diseases and weapons. I’m curious to see how food fits in with this.
I live and breath food and I am a food historian as well as an organic food advocate-This sounds like a book I would want in my library.
I’d love to win because I’m an aspiring food journalist and this would give me ideas for historical connections I can use in my writing! Plus, it would give me ideas for new articles =D
I want to win because this sounds like a very interesting book.
The part that food plays in the history of mankind would make a remarkable read.
I would love to win a copy of this book, because I am a self-taught foodie and am obsessed with everything food related. I also believe in the power of food to change individuals, society, and (most obviously) your physical and mental well-being. I’ve heard good things about this book and would love a copy. Thanks.
This book would be great motivation in my current challenge to eat better and more locally. Thanks for the entry!
I love history and food. What a great combo.
I’d like to win because I believe we could be on the edge of a real food crisis and understanding the past can help us get thru it.
This sounds great – think I would like the historical parts 🙂
In the city where I grew up, Binghamton, NY in upstate there were many immigrant families arriving during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s to work in the factories and as I result when I was growing up in the 40’s and 50’s our high school was a conglomerate of many ethnic and national groups and so Binghamton was peppered with ethnic and national restaurants and everyone knew someone or was someone who was a second generation friend. Because of this I am acquainted with many ethnic and national foods and add to that my travels from NY to Norway, France, Hong Kong, England, Scotland et al and I love trying new foods. This book review reads like an exciting trip through time and would greatly add to my knowledge of the world foods and the world’s history to pass on to my 4 granddaughters. Fingers crossed here in the Poconos (lots of great PA Dutch foods here).
Am subscribed to your newsletter through My Yahoo.
I would like to win and read this book because I believe that understanding food, both in the past and the present opens dialogue up to the world.
sounds like an interesting read
This sounds like a read I would enjoy. I’ve become very interested in the state of our food supply. Although I grow a veggie garden every summer, after watching Food, Inc. and reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I’ve been become even more interested in our food system and how to eat as responsibly as possible. Thanks for the chance to read this!
My son (a college student) would love to read a book like this, so if I win I’ll give it to him!
I think this will be a good read
I’d love to win because it sounds like a great read.
i’d like to win because im fascinated by this topic
I’d like to win because I’d like to learn more about the history of food systems.
I love the educational aspect of this book. I would love to read it
rhondastruthersa tyahoo.ca
I subscribe by google reader
rhondastruthers atyahoo.ca
I am interested in this book because it shows a different approach on the historic events
I’d like to win because I am an avid reader of non-fiction and history, enjoy food and cooking, and this book will teach me about a topic I most definitely don’t know much about.
Email subscriber.
I like to think that I am a cook, and love reading anything about the history of food!
This book would be great for research. I write fantasy novels with emphasis on the worldbuilding, and part of that is the types of food people eat. I’d like to really delve into the economics and sociology of that, and this book sounds like a good way to do so.
Marian
mdperera at hotmail dot com
I love history, I love food, this book is perfect
I’d love to win because I’ve had a somewhat troubled relationship with food personally, and it would be fascinating to look at the larger, ultimately more important perspective of how it impacts historical, life-and-death matters. Thanks for the chance, and God bless you.
I subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed in Google Reader.
I would love to win it for my husband he is a huge foodie–and loves all things to do with food–lately he’s been reading Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer and is terribly depressed by all the awful things governments do—I would love to get him something to sick his teeth into that might be a little bit more tasty!!
I’d like to win. Sounds like an interesting book.
I’d like to win because I think these are key issues everyone should read about, and I’d love to know the author’s take on them…
This sounds like a really interesting book. I’ve always been interested in the relationship between food and drink and society/civilization.
I would love the chance to read thanks for the chance
I subscribe to your blog
I’d love to win because this sounds like a fascinating book.
I’m food obsessed so it would be a very interesting read.