Empires of Food

Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

Andrew Rimas, Evan D. G. Fraser

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English

Arrow Books Ltd
15 July 2011

Social & cultural history; Food & society

An evocative history that considers how food has shaped our world - and what the future holds

For thousands of years we have grown, cooked and traded food, and over that time much has changed. Where once we subsisted on gritty, bland grains, we now enjoy culinary creations and epicurean delights made with vegetables from the New World, fish trawled from the deep sea, and flavoured with spices from the Orient.

But how did we make that change from eating for survival to the innovations of modern cuisine? How has food helped to shape our culture? And what will happen when global warming and peak oil have their inevitable effect on agriculture?

Empires of Food is an authoritative exploration of the innumerable ways that food has changed the course of history. The earliest cities, after all, were founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses, and since then trade routes of ever greater sophistication have developed. We've built complex societies by shunting corn and wheat and rice along rivers, up deforested hillsides, and into the stockpots of history.

But we cannot go on forever. As Evan D. G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas compellingly show, the abundance that we all enjoy comes at a price, and unless we think of a more sustainable way to grow, eat and enjoy food, we may find that our civilization reaches its best before date.

By: Andrew Rimas, Evan D. G. Fraser
Imprint: Arrow Books Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 224g
ISBN: 9780099534723
ISBN 10: 009953472X
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 15 July 2011
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Evan D. G. Fraser holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Human Security in the Department of Geography at the University of Guelph, Canada, and is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Development at the University of Leeds. He has first-hand experience with food production in a range of settings, including the UK, Thailand, Belize, British Columbia, and Ontario, and has published many scholarly research articles and book chapters, as well as policy briefs on environmental issues for senior politicians. He lives in Southern Ontario with his wife and three children. Andrew Rimas is a journalist based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the editor of The Improper Bostonian magazine and has worked as an associate editor and staff writer at Boston magazine. His work has also frequently appeared in The Boston Globe, as well as the Boston Globe magazine, the Mail on Sunday, the Ottawa Citizen and other publications. Along with Evan D. G. Fraser, he is the co-author of Beef- The Untold Story of How Milk, Meat, and Muscle Shaped the World.

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

[A] lively history of food Metro It is a dense and intensive read, but the pair's flair for scene-setting rhetoric and well-timed wit lifts it from the drier tones of academia -- Book of the Week Time Out A richly entertaining history of our relationship with the food that we put on our plates Express This isn't just first class scholarship, it's energetic writing ... a must-read for anyone who wants to know why every night a billion people got to bed obese and another billion go to bed hungry -- George Alagiah It is an absorbing, fascinating and timely book. The analysis ... is compelling, and their warning is stark. Best of all, it's a rattling good read -- Matthew Fort