The Secret Financial Life Of Food

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The Secret Financial Life of Food

Author : Kara Newman
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231156715
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis The Secret Financial Life of Food by : Kara Newman

Download or read book The Secret Financial Life of Food written by Kara Newman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One morning while reading Barron's, Kara Newman took note of a casual bit of advice offered by famed commodities trader Jim Rogers. "Buy breakfast," he told investors, referring to the increasing value of pork belly and frozen orange juice futures. The statement inspired Newman to take a closer look at agricultural commodities, from the iconic pork belly to the obscure peppercorn and nutmeg. The results of her investigation, recorded in this fascinating history, show how contracts listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange can read like a menu and how market behavior can dictate global economic and culinary practice. The Secret Financial Life of Food reveals the economic pathways that connect food to consumer, unlocking the mysteries behind culinary trends, grocery pricing, and restaurant dining. Newman travels back to the markets of ancient Rome and medieval Europe, where vendors first distinguished between "spot sales" and "sales for delivery." She retraces the storied spice routes of Asia and recounts the spice craze that prompted Christopher Columbus's journey to North America, linking these developments to modern-day India's bustling peppercorn market. Newman centers her history on the transformation of corn into a ubiquitous commodity and uses oats, wheat, and rye to recast America's westward expansion and the Industrial Revolution. She discusses the effects of such mega-corporations as Starbucks and McDonalds on futures markets and considers burgeoning markets, particularly "super soybeans," which could scramble the landscape of food finance. The ingredients of American power and culture, and the making of the modern world, can be found in the history of food commodities exchange, and Newman connects this unconventional story to the how and why of what we eat.

The Secret Life of Groceries

Author : Benjamin Lorr
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0553459414
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (534 download)

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Book Synopsis The Secret Life of Groceries by : Benjamin Lorr

Download or read book The Secret Life of Groceries written by Benjamin Lorr and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A deeply curious and evenhanded report on our national appetites." --The New York Times In the tradition of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma, an extraordinary investigation into the human lives at the heart of the American grocery store The miracle of the supermarket has never been more apparent. Like the doctors and nurses who care for the sick, suddenly the men and women who stock our shelves and operate our warehouses are understood as 'essential' workers, providing a quality of life we all too easily take for granted. But the sad truth is that the grocery industry has been failing these workers for decades. In this page-turning expose, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on the highly secretive grocery industry. Combining deep sourcing, immersive reporting, and sharp, often laugh-out-loud prose, Lorr leads a wild investigation, asking what does it take to run a supermarket? How does our food get on the shelves? And who suffers for our increasing demands for convenience and efficiency? In this journey: We learn the secrets of Trader Joe's success from Trader Joe himself Drive with truckers caught in a job they call "sharecropping on wheels" Break into industrial farms with activists to learn what it takes for a product to earn certification labels like "fair trade" and "free range" Follow entrepreneurs as they fight for shelf space, learning essential tips, tricks, and traps for any new food business Journey with migrants to examine shocking forced labor practices through their eyes The product of five years of research and hundreds of interviews across every level of the business, The Secret Life of Groceries is essential reading for those who want to understand our food system--delivering powerful social commentary on the inherently American quest for more and compassionate insight into the lives that provide it.

The Secret Life of Food

Author : Martin Elkort
Publisher : Tarcher
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Secret Life of Food by : Martin Elkort

Download or read book The Secret Life of Food written by Martin Elkort and published by Tarcher. This book was released on 1991 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gives information and unusual facts on the origins of food and beverages.

Free Food for Millionaires

Author : Min Jin Lee
Publisher : Grand Central Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0446504386
Total Pages : 663 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (465 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Food for Millionaires by : Min Jin Lee

Download or read book Free Food for Millionaires written by Min Jin Lee and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2007-07-02 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this "mesmerizing" novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, the Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants strives to join Manhattan's inner circle (USA Today). Meet Casey Han: a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean immigrants immersed in a glamorous Manhattan lifestyle she can't afford. Casey is eager to make it on her own, away from the judgements of her parents' tight-knit community, but she soon finds that her Princeton economics degree isn't enough to rid her of ever-growing credit card debt and a toxic boyfriend. When a chance encounter with an old friend lands her a new opportunity, she's determined to carve a space for herself in a glittering world of privilege, power, and wealth-but at what cost? Set in a city where millionaires scramble for the free lunches the poor are too proud to accept, this sharp-eyed epic of love, greed, and ambition is a compelling portrait of intergenerational strife, immigrant struggle, and social and economic mobility. Addictively readable, Min Jin Lee's bestselling debut Free Food for Millionaires exposes the intricate layers of a community clinging to its old ways in a city packed with haves and have-nots. Includes a Reading Group Guide.

Understories: Plants and Culture in the American Tropics

Author : Lesley Wylie
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
ISBN 13 : 1835535224
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (355 download)

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Book Synopsis Understories: Plants and Culture in the American Tropics by : Lesley Wylie

Download or read book Understories: Plants and Culture in the American Tropics written by Lesley Wylie and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2023-11-15 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understories: Plants and Culture in the American Tropics establishes the central importance of plants to the histories and cultures of the extended tropical region stretching from the U.S. South to Argentina. Through close examination of a number of significant plants – cacao, mate, agave, the hevea brasilensis, kudzu, the breadfruit, soy, and the ceiba pentandra, among others – this volume shows that vegetal life has played a fundamental role in shaping societies and in formulating cultural and environmental imaginaries in and beyond the region. Drawing on a wide range of cultural traditions and forms across literature, popular music, art, and film, the essays included in this volume transcend regional and linguistic boundaries to bring together multiple plant-centred histories or ‘understories’ – narratives that until now have been marginalized or gone unnoticed. Attending not only to the significant influence of humans on plants, but also of plants on humans, this book offers new understandings of how colonization, globalization, and power were, and continue to be, imbricated with nature in the American tropics.

Bank On Yourself

Author : Pamela Yellen
Publisher : Vanguard
ISBN 13 : 0786745347
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

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Book Synopsis Bank On Yourself by : Pamela Yellen

Download or read book Bank On Yourself written by Pamela Yellen and published by Vanguard. This book was released on 2010-03-23 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and BusinessWeek bestseller Bank On Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future reveals the secrets to taking back control of your financial future that Wall Street, banks, and credit card companies don’t want you to know. Can you imagine what it would be like to look forward to opening your account statements because they always have good news and never any ugly surprises? More than 100,000 Americans of all ages, incomes, and backgrounds are already using Bank On Yourself to grow a nest-egg they can predict and count on, even when stocks, real estate, and other investments tumble. You’ll meet some of them and hear their stories of how Bank On Yourself has helped them reach a wide variety of short- and longterm personal and financial goals and dreams in this book.

Food and World Culture [2 volumes]

Author : Linda S. Watts
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1440870004
Total Pages : 878 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (48 download)

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Book Synopsis Food and World Culture [2 volumes] by : Linda S. Watts

Download or read book Food and World Culture [2 volumes] written by Linda S. Watts and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-08-23 with total page 878 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses food as a lens through which to explore important matters of society and culture. In exploring why and how people eat around the globe, the text focuses on issues of health, conflict, struggle, contest, inequality, and power. Whether because of its necessity, pleasure, or ubiquity, the world of food (and its lore) proves endlessly fascinating to most people. The story of food is a narrative filled with both human striving and human suffering. However, many of today's diners are only dimly aware of the human price exacted for that comforting distance from the lived-world realities of food justice struggles. With attention to food issues ranging from local farming practices to global supply chains, this book examines how food’s history and geography remain inextricably linked to sociopolitical experiences of trauma connected with globalization, such as colonization, conquest, enslavement, and oppression. The main text is structured alphabetically around a set of 70 ingredients, from almonds to yeast. Each ingredient's story is accompanied by recipes. Along with the food profiles, the encyclopedia features sidebars. These are short discussions of topics of interest related to food, including automats, diners, victory gardens, and food at world’s fairs. This project also brings a social justice perspective to its content—weighing debates concerning food access, equity, insecurity, and politics.

Italian Identity in the Kitchen, or Food and the Nation

Author : Massimo Montanari
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231535082
Total Pages : 126 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Italian Identity in the Kitchen, or Food and the Nation by : Massimo Montanari

Download or read book Italian Identity in the Kitchen, or Food and the Nation written by Massimo Montanari and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-23 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Massimo Montanari draws readers into the far-flung story of how local and global influences came to flavor Italian identity. The fusion of ancient Roman cuisine—which consisted of bread, wine, and olives—with the barbarian diet—rooted in bread, milk, and meat—first formed the basics of modern eating across Europe. From there, Montanari highlights the importance of the Italian city in the development of gastronomic taste in the Middle Ages, the role of Arab traders in positioning the country as the supreme producers of pasta, and the nation's healthful contribution of vegetables to the fifteenth-century European diet. Italy became a receiving country with the discovery of the New World, absorbing corn, potatoes, and tomatoes into its national cuisine. As disaster dispersed Italians in the nineteenth century, new immigrant stereotypes portraying Italians as "macaroni eaters" spread. However, two world wars and globalization renewed the perception of Italy and its culture as unique in the world, and the production of food constitutes an important part of that uniqueness.

Food Policy in the United Kingdom

Author : Martin Caraher
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000916103
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Food Policy in the United Kingdom by : Martin Caraher

Download or read book Food Policy in the United Kingdom written by Martin Caraher and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-24 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an introduction to food policy in the United Kingdom, examining policy development, implementation, influences and current issues. The book begins by providing a wide-ranging introduction to food policy in the UK, situating it within wider global debates and establishing key drivers, such as issues related to global citizenship, trade and finance. The use of food control as a policy lever is also discussed and contrasted with alternative approaches based on behaviour change. The book presents an overview of the history of UK food policy, from which there is much to be learned, before moving onto current challenges posed by political instability, both at home and abroad, global pandemics and cost of living crises. Foremost is the need to manage public health, including both malnutrition and obesity, while promoting sustainable and healthy diets, as well as the broader issues around addressing food security and food poverty. The book also examines public sector food initiatives, such as school food and early childhood provisions, and food regulation. As a part of food regulation, chapters examine food scares and food fraud, from chalk in flour to "horsegate". The role of media, marketing and advertising is also considered within a policy perspective. Taking a wider lens, the book also discusses the impact of global food trade and the financialisation of food on food policy in the UK and vice versa. The book is supported by instructor eResources on the Routledge website designed to support student learning as well as provide regular updates on UK food policy developments. The eResources include student activities, group exercises and links to further reading and additional resources. This book serves as a key introduction to UK food and agricultural policy for students, scholars, policymakers and professionals, as well as those interested in food systems, public health and social policy more widely.

Meals Matter

Author : Michael Symons
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231551606
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Meals Matter by : Michael Symons

Download or read book Meals Matter written by Michael Symons and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until the early nineteenth century, political philosophy and economics were dining companions. Both took up fundamental questions of how we should feed one another. But with the rise of corporate capitalism, modern economics lost sight of its primary task and turned away from the complexities of real people’s sustenance in favor of the single-minded pursuit of money. In Meals Matter, Michael Symons returns economics to its roots in the distribution of food and the labor required. Setting the table with vivid descriptions of conviviality, he offers a gastronomic rebuttal to the narrow worldview of mainstream economics. Engaging with a wide variety of thinkers—including Epicurus, Enlightenment philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, the gastronomer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, and economic theorists from François Quesnay and Adam Smith through the neoliberals—Symons traces how we went astray and how we can find our way back to a more caring, sustainable way of life. He finds hope for shared “table pleasure” in institutions like community gardens, street markets, and banquets and in eating fresh, local, and “slow” food. An innovative, historically based argument at the intersection of food history and social thought, Meals Matter challenges us to reject the economics of greed in favor of a community-based economics of sharing and gastronomic enjoyment.

The Terroir of Whiskey

Author : Rob Arnold
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231550898
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Terroir of Whiskey by : Rob Arnold

Download or read book The Terroir of Whiskey written by Rob Arnold and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Look at the back label of a bottle of wine and you may well see a reference to its terroir, the total local environment of the vineyard that grew the grapes, from its soil to the climate. Winemakers universally accept that where a grape is grown influences its chemistry, which in turn changes the flavor of the wine. A detailed system has codified the idea that place matters to wine. So why don’t we feel the same way about whiskey? In this book, the master distiller Rob Arnold reveals how innovative whiskey producers are recapturing a sense of place to create distinctive, nuanced flavors. He takes readers on a world tour of whiskey and the science of flavor, stopping along the way at distilleries in Kentucky, New York, Texas, Ireland, and Scotland. Arnold puts the spotlight on a new generation of distillers, plant breeders, and local farmers who are bringing back long-forgotten grain flavors and creating new ones in pursuit of terroir. In the twentieth century, we inadvertently bred distinctive tastes out of grains in favor of high yields—but today’s artisans have teamed up to remove themselves from the commodity grain system, resurrect heirloom cereals, bring new varieties to life, and recapture the flavors of specific local ingredients. The Terroir of Whiskey makes the scientific and cultural cases that terroir is as important in whiskey as it is in wine.

Chop Suey, USA

Author : Yong Chen
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231538162
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Chop Suey, USA by : Yong Chen

Download or read book Chop Suey, USA written by Yong Chen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American diners began to flock to Chinese restaurants more than a century ago, making Chinese food the first mass-consumed cuisine in the United States. By 1980, it had become the country's most popular ethnic cuisine. Chop Suey, USA offers the first comprehensive interpretation of the rise of Chinese food, revealing the forces that made it ubiquitous in the American gastronomic landscape and turned the country into an empire of consumption. Engineered by a politically disenfranchised, numerically small, and economically exploited group, Chinese food's tour de America is an epic story of global cultural encounter. It reflects not only changes in taste but also a growing appetite for a more leisurely lifestyle. Americans fell in love with Chinese food not because of its gastronomic excellence but because of its affordability and convenience, which is why they preferred the quick and simple dishes of China while shunning its haute cuisine. Epitomized by chop suey, American Chinese food was a forerunner of McDonald's, democratizing the once-exclusive dining-out experience for such groups as marginalized Anglos, African Americans, and Jews. The rise of Chinese food is also a classic American story of immigrant entrepreneurship and perseverance. Barred from many occupations, Chinese Americans successfully turned Chinese food from a despised cuisine into a dominant force in the restaurant market, creating a critical lifeline for their community. Chinese American restaurant workers developed the concept of the open kitchen and popularized the practice of home delivery. They streamlined certain Chinese dishes, such as chop suey and egg foo young, turning them into nationally recognized brand names.

Umami

Author : Ole Mouritsen
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231537581
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Umami by : Ole Mouritsen

Download or read book Umami written by Ole Mouritsen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the West, we have identified only four basic tastes—sour, sweet, salty, and bitter—that, through skillful combination and technique, create delicious foods. Yet in many parts of East Asia over the past century, an additional flavor has entered the culinary lexicon: umami, a fifth taste impression that is savory, complex, and wholly distinct. Combining culinary history with recent research into the chemistry, preparation, nutrition, and culture of food, Mouritsen and Styrbæk encapsulate what we know to date about the concept of umami, from ancient times to today. Umami can be found in soup stocks, meat dishes, air-dried ham, shellfish, aged cheeses, mushrooms, and ripe tomatoes, and it can enhance other taste substances to produce a transformative gustatory experience. Researchers have also discovered which substances in foodstuffs bring out umami, a breakthrough that allows any casual cook to prepare delicious and more nutritious meals with less fat, salt, and sugar. The implications of harnessing umami are both sensuous and social, enabling us to become more intimate with the subtleties of human taste while making better food choices for ourselves and our families. This volume, the product of an ongoing collaboration between a chef and a scientist, won the Danish national Mad+Medier-Prisen (Food and Media Award) in the category of academic food communication.

Mouthfeel

Author : Ole Mouritsen
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231543247
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Mouthfeel by : Ole Mouritsen

Download or read book Mouthfeel written by Ole Mouritsen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is chocolate melting on the tongue such a decadent sensation? Why do we love crunching on bacon? Why is fizz-less soda such a disappointment to drink, and why is flat beer so unappealing to the palate? Our sense of taste produces physical and emotional reactions that cannot be explained by chemical components alone. Eating triggers our imagination, draws on our powers of recall, and activates our critical judgment, creating a unique impression in our mouths and our minds. How exactly does this alchemy work, and what are the larger cultural and environmental implications? Collaborating in the laboratory and the kitchen, Ole G. Mouritsen and Klavs Styrbæk investigate the multiple ways in which food texture influences taste. Combining scientific analysis with creative intuition and a sophisticated knowledge of food preparation, they write a one-of-a-kind book for food lovers and food science scholars. By mapping the mechanics of mouthfeel, Mouritsen and Styrbæk advance a greater awareness of its link to our culinary preferences. Gaining insight into the textural properties of raw vegetables, puffed rice, bouillon, or ice cream can help us make healthier and more sustainable food choices. Through mouthfeel, we can recreate the physical feelings of foods we love with other ingredients or learn to latch onto smarter food options. Mastering texture also leads to more adventurous gastronomic experiments in the kitchen, allowing us to reach even greater heights of taste sensation.

The Insect Cookbook

Author : Arnold van Huis
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231166842
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis The Insect Cookbook by : Arnold van Huis

Download or read book The Insect Cookbook written by Arnold van Huis and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insects will be appearing on our store shelves, menus, and plates within the decade. In The Insect Cookbook, two entomologists and a chef make the case for insects as a sustainable source of protein for humans and a necessary part of our future diet. They provide consumers and chefs with the essential facts about insects for culinary use, with recipes simple enough to make at home yet boasting the international flair of the world’s most chic dishes. Insects are delicious and healthy. A large proportion of the world’s population eats them as a delicacy. In Mexico, roasted ants are considered a treat, and the Japanese adore wasps. Insects not only are a tasty and versatile ingredient in the kitchen, but also are full of protein. Furthermore, insect farming is much more sustainable than meat production. The Insect Cookbook contains delicious recipes; interviews with top chefs, insect farmers, political figures, and nutrition experts (including chef René Redzepi, whose establishment was elected three times as “best restaurant of the world”; Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations; and Daniella Martin of Girl Meets Bug); and all you want to know about cooking with insects, teaching twenty-first-century consumers where to buy insects, which ones are edible, and how to store and prepare them at home and in commercial spaces.

The Winemaker's Hand

Author : Natalie Berkowitz
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231167563
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis The Winemaker's Hand by : Natalie Berkowitz

Download or read book The Winemaker's Hand written by Natalie Berkowitz and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these fascinating interviews, winemakers from the United States and abroad clarify the complex process of converting grapes into wine, with more than forty vintners candidly discussing how a combination of talent, passion, and experience shape the outcome of their individual wines. Each winemaker details their personal approach to the various steps required to convert grapes into wine. Natalie Berkowitz speaks to winemakers from different backgrounds who work in diverse wine-producing regions, including Chile, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and the United States. They talk about familiar and unfamiliar grape varietals, their struggles with local terroirs, and the vagaries of Mother Nature. Some represent small family wineries with limited production while others work for corporations producing hundreds of thousands of bottles. Each individual offers rare insight into how new technologies are revolutionizing historic winemaking practices. The interviews are supplemented with personal recipes and maps of winemaking regions. An aroma wheel captures the vast array of wineÕs complex flavors and aromas.

The Kitchen as Laboratory

Author : Cesar Vega
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231153457
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis The Kitchen as Laboratory by : Cesar Vega

Download or read book The Kitchen as Laboratory written by Cesar Vega and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-13 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this global collaboration of essays, chefs and scientists test various hypotheses and theories concerning? the physical and chemical properties of food. Using traditional and cutting-edge tools, ingredients, and techniques, these pioneers create--and sometimes revamp--dishes that respond to specific desires, serving up an original encounter with gastronomic practice. From grilled cheese sandwiches, pizzas, and soft-boiled eggs to Turkish ice cream, sugar glasses, and jellified beads, the essays in The Kitchen as Laboratory cover a range of culinary creations and their history and culture. They consider the significance of an eater's background and dining atmosphere and the importance of a chef's methods, as well as strategies used to create a great diversity of foods and dishes. Contributors end each essay with their personal thoughts on food, cooking, and science, thus offering rare insight into a professional's passion for experimenting with food.