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Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization

Brayden Reed

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For over 2,000 years, wheat has been the mainstay of much of the world's bread, noodles, cookies, and cakes. Yet hard physical evidence shows that wheat was originally domesticated in the Near East about 11,000 years ago. One can only imagine the tremendous journeys its seeds must have made, from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the furthest reaches of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and ultimately to the New World.

Wine grapes offer another example. By 8,000 years ago, they were flourishing in Iran. Like wheat, they embarked on a long odyssey. By the later classical period, grape-growing and winemaking had become central features of the Mediterranean, from Greece and Rome all the way to France and Spain. The grape then traveled east, through the Caucasus into Central Asia, where it established vineyards that became the forerunners of the renowned wine regions of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. By the time Spanish conquistadors took vines to the Americas in the sixteenth century, grapes had circled the globe.

A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization

by Kenneth F. Kiple

4.7 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	4653 KB
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Print length	:	386 pages
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Like wheat and wine grapes, countless other edibles have traveled the world, some as humble as lentils and millet, others as pungent as garlic and peppers. How and why did these culinary adventurers make their way around the planet? Who brought them? And what impact did their arrival have on peoples, cultures, and societies?

In Movable Feast, renowned food historian Ken Albala embarks on a groundbreaking journey to answer these questions. Drawing on archaeology, linguistics, and other fields, he traces the paths of over thirty essential food plants from their origins to their destinations, showing how they shaped human civilization along the way.

Albala's narrative weaves together the stories of wheat, rice, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, coffee, tea, chocolate, and more. Along the way, he encounters fascinating characters, from Neolithic farmers to spice traders to global food corporations. He explores the political, economic, and cultural forces that drove the movement of food, and he considers the impact of globalization on our diets and our health.

Movable Feast is a sweeping and magisterial work that offers a fresh perspective on the interconnectedness of our world. It is essential reading for anyone interested in food, history, or the human experience.

Praise for Movable Feast

"A fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of the history of food globalization. Albala's writing is clear and engaging, and he brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to his subject." —Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma

"A masterful synthesis of scholarship and storytelling. Movable Feast is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of food and globalization." —Rachel Laudan, author of Cuisine and Empire

"Albala's book is a tour de force. It is a sweeping and authoritative history of food globalization, told with clarity, wit, and erudition." —Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

About the Author

Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific. He is the author of several books on food history, including Eating Right in the Renaissance, The Banquet: Dining in the Court of Alexander the Great, and The Lost Art of Real Cooking.

A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization

by Kenneth F. Kiple

4.7 out of 5