A Brief History of Honey

I’ve eaten it on oatmeal, toast, yogurt, biscuits, cornbread and sandwiches, baked into rolls and pastries, as a glaze on ham, drizzled on cheese and in my salad dressing. I’ve slathered it onto my face in a mask, and even sucked it straight from the little plastic packets they provide at McDonalds. Nothing is sweeter than honey.

It is probable that the nomadic peoples of Central Asia were responsible to introducing the world to honey. The similarities in the Eurasian words for it suggest a single source of origin; “the Sanskrit word “madhu” and the Chinese word “myit” are related to the “mit” of the Indo-Europeans, the “medhu” of the Slavs, the “miel” of the French and the “mead” Germanic-English” (Tannahill 29). The oldest evidence that honey was important for human consumption is revealed in a prehistoric painting, discovered in 1919 at Cuevas de la Arana (Spider Cave) northwest of Bicorp, Valencia, Spain. Dated to be approximately 15,000 years old, it depicts a person climbing on long ropes to a hole in a cliff to collect the honeycomb produced there by a swarm of wild bees, also depicted in the drawing. The Egyptian tomb reliefs of the third millennium BC illustrate people smoking bees from their nests.

The importance of honey in ancient culture is further confirmed by its repeated use as a symbol in religious texts of the period and in modern ritual. The Bible’s book of Exodus describes the Jewish Promised Lad as “a land flowing with milk and honey” (33:3). John the Baptist is said to have lived off of locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4). Honey represents a symbol for a sweet new year during the holiday of Rosh Hashana in the Jewish tradition. In Buddhist tradition, a money brought the Buddha honey in a beehive to eat after he had retreated into the wilderness. Today in India and Bangladesh the festival of Madhu Purnima, a day of charity, is celebrated by giving honey to monks.

Honey’s sweetness is not it’s the only asset it brought to early peoples. Because it is almost pure sugar and ferments very readily, honeycomb left to soak in water will produce a mildly sweet but intoxicating beverage. Variations of this honey ale, known as mead, were popular for thousands of years across Europe and Asia, especially in countries where the grape did not grow and grains were scarce.

Nine years old, eight of them as a diabetic. I wake up on the floor of my kitchen in a pool of my own sweat. Somewhere in my heavy consciousness I register that I have had yet another seizure. My mother leans over me, a terrorized look in her eyes, squeezing the contents of a honey bear into my mouth. I close my eyes again and drink in the sweetness. It is comforting. This is not the first nor the last time honey will save my life.

Beyond your basic foodstuff, honey has also been exploited for its medicinal and healing properties throughout history. It was used as an embalming liquid by both the Egyptians and the Romans. While its use as an antimicrobial agent has been known and accepted for centuries, it is only recently that these properties have been chemically explained. Honey is a saturated mixture is low water activity and high acidity, which makes it a poor environment for microbial growth. Today, honey has been found to be useful in treating MRSA infections, diabetic ulcers, sore throats, and preventing scaring. For some fans of homeopathic medicine, consuming things like royal jelly (the secretions of worker bees that are fed to larvae) or pollen collected by bees is very popular, though they have no proven health benefits.

Saturday market in Uzes. The southern French sun warms up glass jars displayed on the table, warming their golden contents. The vendors look on with amusement as I, tasting spoons clutched in hand, sample each one, sometimes more than once. This becomes my weekly market ritual. Le miel de romarin (rosemary) is woodsy and sharp; le chataine (chestnut) is creamy and solid, the color and texture of cocoa butter; l’acacia is mild and subtle, tasting of flowers, the palest gold, le tournesol (sunflower) is nutty and dark….there are over 50 different pots on the table, each of their contents as the faces of the shoppers going by. These honeys make the contents of the friendly American honey bear seem insipid, bland, weak—no better than Karo syrup. The ‘flavored’ honeys found in most U.S. markets—infused with raspberry, green tea, and orange—are imposters. These honey producers travel the French countryside, harvesting from bees that fly in the low-lying marshes of the Camargue or in the spring meadows of the Alps. Tempering my joy of discovery is a twinge of regret; twenty years of my life have gone by without enjoying such honeys. Even the word “honeys” jars my American brain in its plurality. I have lived too long with just one honey.

The average worker bee will only make about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey during its lifetime. Consider how many bees it takes to make the 300,000 tons of honey that are traded internationally every year--and about four times this much is actually produced. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the major world producers of honey are China, Turkey, Argentina, the United States, and Mexico. A variety of techniques is used to harvest and process honey around the world, ranging from traditional methods of small beekeepers to huge honey corporations. According to the National Honey Board, there are between 139,000 to 212,000 beekeepers in the United States. The majority (95%) are hobbyists with fewer than 25 hives, and another four percent keep only 25-299 hives. The remaining one percent is made up of approximately 1,600 commercial operations that produce about 60% of the nation’s honey.

Unfortunately, despite the sunny nature of this delicious food commodity, the realities of its production are not all bright. In countries where export pressure is high, beekeepers feed artificial pollen substitutes and white sugar syrup to colonies to increase production and harvest more honey. If these practices are carried out for long periods, they lower hive productivity and lifespan. Beekeepers have also become dependent on the use of synthetic pesticides and antibiotics to fight pests like the bee mite, and this has led to problems of toxicological hazards for bees, and risks of honey contamination.

Bees, as a commodity, are also inherently linked to the politics of development. They are bought, sold, and traded worldwide. In a bid to improve the economics of honey production in South America in the 1950s the U.S. government ordered research into the use of the African honeybee, which is the most prolific honey producer in the world. Unfortunately, it is also the most aggressive. These bees not only attack humans, they also breed with and destroy the colonies of the smaller and more docile European honeybees.

It took me until the last day of the Farmers Market season to find him, a man with some honey I could wrap my tongue around. After combing Seattle markets for months preceding my return from France, this gooey liquid in its plastic “beehive” seems well worth the $12 I am paying for it. The Echinacea honey is floral and sappy; there are a few remnants of honeycomb stuck in the bottom, perhaps on purpose by the beekeeper for effect. My glee, unfortunately, is short lived. The beekeeper explains to me that I will not be seeing him at future farmers markets, because he is giving up beekeeping. Not from choice, but because his bee population has dwindled down to extinction, and he is tired and going broke from trying to save them. “Colony collapse disorder…” he says, and I begin to consider stockpiling honey.

“Colony collapse disorder (CCD)” is the polite name for the phenomenon that is robbing this man of his livelihood, and perhaps someday soon will rob all of us of honey, and a much more important tool: pollinators. Worker bees from a beehive or colony abruptly disappear in this poorly understood phenomenon, which was first observed starting in 2006 in the United States. Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Taiwan. Proposed causes include stress form climate change, malnutrition, pathogens, mites, pesticides, and pest-resistant crops like GM maize. While no one is certain of the cause, the potential ramifications if this problem continues are staggering. A Cornell University study has estimated the $14 billion worth of seeds and crops are pollinated by honeybees in the United States. The bee losses from CCD are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, some beekeepers on the East Coast and Texas are reporting losses of more than 70%.

It makes one take pause to consider the possibility that something so integral to our food system, a species that has existed in harmony with ours for thousands of years, could someday be wiped from the planet. A foodstuff like honey, integral to the history of human civilization, could cease to exist because of reasons that we do not understand, but are doubtlessly connected to the callous and irresponsible ways we use the resources of this planet. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

The "Food Network"

Freeganism: Do You Have Time for a Revolution?

Yesterday evening, as a trawled the aisles at Trader Joe’s, I came across an employee with a shopping cart full (and by full I mean stacked twice as high as the cart) with plastic containers of salad. Rather than placing them on the shelves, he was taking them off. These salads looked as good as any salad in a plastic container could- no wilted bits, tomatoes still red and plump, chicken breast white and conveniently chopped into bite-size bits. Of course, due to the expiration date that the employee was summarily checking, they had been relegated to disposal. Galvanized by David Gile’s recent “freeganism” lecture, I decided to perform an experiment.

“Excuse me,” I asked the employee (who seemed very annoyed at being interrupted), “are you throwing those away?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Well can I have some of them instead?” I didn’t know what I’d do with 80 + salads if he did give them to me, so some seemed like a better bet.

“You want to buy them?”

“No, I want you to give them to me instead of putting them in the trash.”

For a second he thought I was kidding, then a look of realization crossed his face.

“No, you can buy them if you want, but we don’t give away free food.”

I considered arguing for a moment—I’m not the type to buy packages salads anyway (which is true), I wouldn’t spend money on this in your store. I’m just trying to save it from the garbage. Look at it! It’s still good to eat! The tragedy of all that food going into the dumpster, replete with plastic box, plastic container full of salad dressing, plastic wrap around the outside, was disheartening and hard to bear. Still, I kept my peace- harassing some minimum wage employee in a Trader Joe’s who has no control over his company’s policies is not the stuff that social change is made out of.

Prior to David’s lecture, I had never really considered the politics of the social exclusion of food as related to the social exclusion of people. When you talk about people that are truly hungry in America, ideas like those presented in The Omnivores Dilemma or The Slow Food Movement about perfect, locally sourced foodstuffs carefully prepared are exposed to be made of the same classist fabric that deprives so many of the basic necessities to live a healthy life.

The reality is that most Americans, most people, do not have the time or the money to construct their lives around escaping the food system that surrounds them. Sure, there are Farmers Markets, but they are not always convenient, nor cheap. For that matter, the healthy fruits and vegetables in the grocery store are not cheap either, calorie for calorie, when compared to the packages of fried instant noodles. When you add on top of that a workweek of forty-plus hours, children to provide for, rising gas prices, etc. it becomes easy to see why most people do not feel they have the time to eat “right,” even if some author tells them what “eating right” really means. Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and other food politics writers seem to hold the view that if people really knew what they were eating they would be able to take the steps to struggle out of the grasp of “King Corn” and obesity, into the world of grass-fed chickens and sustainable produce. If these individuals are unable to take that step after they have been exposed to such frightening knowledge about current food system, that they must be somehow lacking in common sense or wherewithal. They do not seem to take into account that some intelligent people may just be too tired, to overworked and too broke to care.

While I do not think that “freeganism” and dumpster diving is for everyone, what is becoming increasingly clear to me is that the entire way we live needs to change. This does not mean simply buying organic from the grocery store. It may mean social and political organizing on a much larger level. However, those tired, overworked, broke people must be inspired for this type of revolution to occur.

National Eats

As Warren Belasco, in his essay “Food Matters: Perspectives on an Emerging Field” states that “food indicates who we are, what we came from, and who we want to be” (2). The strong link between food and memory make cuisine one of the most logical ways that people associate with their history, on both an individual and a national scale. People who consume foods unique to or common in their culture are regularly reminded of their place of origin in a comprehensive sensory experience. During a meal, sight, smell, and taste are used to experience foods. If the individual prepares the food, or if it is eaten with the hands, touch may also be used. Hearing is also an important part of the preparation of food. Consider, for example, the rhythmic pounding of a mortar and pistil or the popping of microwave popcorn, the sizzle of meat as it hits a wok. The experience of reproducing a dish can remind the individual of other sensory experiences related with the first; the sights and smells of the location where the food was prepared, the ritual of the family meal, and other customary familial traditions.

The sensory link between food and memory produces food conservatism by informing food habits throughout life. Comprehensive sensory perception is used to identify oneself from the other, thus establishing individual identity. Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft, in his article “Incensed: Food Smells and Ethnic Tension,” gives the example of immigrants to Ellis Island, who claimed to identify one another on the boat not be sight but by smell. He continues that any person tied to the old world by the scent of their cuisine was not considered fully American by the Americans themselves or their immigrant contemporaries (58). While a diner can choose what they will allow to enter their mouths, they cannot choose what enters their nose. This lack of autonomy is perhaps what has caused ethnic food smells to bear the brunt of xenophobia. People often make choices about their food consumption or food pairings based upon what is familiar, rejecting the unknown.

These identities centered on food are usually established early in an individual’s life. The patterns associated with food preferences and aversions are often associated with childhood, where socialization to eating habits defines an individual’s future food choices. The internalization of childhood tastes guarantee that likings formed in early development endure the longest. The food we eat as children will remain forever what defines, for us, familiarity and comfort. It did not escape my notice that a lot of the food that people brought to class- Rosealee’s tortillas and Marlyn’s flan- were foods that they had enjoyed in childhood. Repeatedly I heard people bringing up favorite foods that they had as children, and also how changing those food habits somehow signified their transition from childhood to adulthood, as individuals capable of making their own food choices.

By sharing a food dear to them with us, Rosealee and Marlyn were also sharing a part of themselves and their culture. Food is a social activity in every society around the world. The importance of food to intensifying group identity is reflected in language. The word “companion” literally means one with who bread is shared. The symbol of the common table exists in many cultures as the embodiment of communal trust, strengthening family and group ties. Family and community feasting during celebrations ritualize food and place it in a culturally sacred and iconic light, central to group traditions.

The differing food traditions in each culture also vary in their definition of what is considered edible or acceptable in the diet, which ties into the concepts of “taboo” that we discussed as a class. What an individual chooses to eat is therefore equally important to their cultural identity as what they choose not to eat. In some cases people will resist adapting to unfamiliar foods, even in dire circumstances. Fernández-Armesto, in his book Near a Thousand Tables, asserts that migrants resist the food of host communities, even to their great nutritional detriment. He gives the example of Japanese workers who migrated to Fiji to replace the local population, which had been killed off by measles. Although there were abundant foodstuffs, especially fruits and vegetables, he says, the workers tried to subsist on white rice, and as a result many died of beriberi, a disease of the nerves caused by a deficiency of Vitamin B (136). In the same passage, he claims that during the Korean War American POW died of malnutrition on a regular basis because they refused to eat the unfamiliar and repulsive rations (136).

Food is an important component of nationalistic sentiments. Food has an immense nostalgic value for people which may become intensified the further away they are from their country of origin. Nationalism and food have a complex relationship that developed after the establishment of the European nation-state, where flowering ideologies of nationalism contributed to an increase in the prevalence of distinct foodways attached to different nations. In the “Real Belizean Food” article that we read, Richard Wilk explains how food has been used in personal and political contexts in Belize to create a sense of nationhood, despite the shifting political and economic situation that undercuts Belizean autonomy. One of the more interesting questions that he asks of us is how something so intrinsically tied to identity formation can also be so fluid. This fluidity is described in Counehan and Helstocky as well. My hypothesis is that the meaning of identity is also very fluid, as economic and personal circumstances change people adapt, and their ideas of what they can, should, and do eat change and adapt as well. Andrea Rei’s example of the horror her husband displayed when she suggested he eat millet, what was for him the food of pigs (and of his poor ancestors), is a great example of this. If the economic, political, and situation circumstances change for an entire population that entire population changes as well.

The rigidity we perceive in food traditions is also at least partially constructed. We asked the question “can food have a nationality?” The answer lies definitively in the grey zone. After all, Indian curry is the preferred dish of the British (exceeding fish and chips in popularity), and the taco is the dish of L.A. Some dishes that were invented in the United States- like cioppino, pot roast, jambalaya, apple pie, hamburgers or clam chowder – are not the dishes that most Americans would say remind them of home.

A friend and I were traveling in Spain, and she remarked that she would really like to go to a McDonalds. “McDonalds?” I asked, horrified, “But you hate McDonalds. You never go to McDonalds when we are in the states.” “I know,” she replied, “but for some reason, when I’m this far away, it reminds me of home.” The increasingly sophisticated consumer population is aware that many of the things we consider to be “tradition” are in fact inventions of marketing campaigns. Though ideas of tradition, custom, soul, and terrior are at the very heart of the idea of national cuisine, the reality of these concepts is in large part modern marketing, capitalizing on nationalistic fervor to sell more products.

The Immigrant’s Table: a Brief Look at Ethnic Food and American Culture

Food, as an essential component of identity has, throughout the history of United States immigration, concurrently contributed to the maintenance of diverse ethnic cultures and the integration of those cultures into American society. With the exception of First-Nations people, we are a country composed of immigrants, and the cuisine of the United States has always been varied by foreign influences. Yet the acceptance of these ethnic cuisines and the nature of their presence in the United States have changed over time. As a child of immigrants, I have always been curious as to what this change represents, how it manifests itself, and the importance of food to immigrant culture.

One of the most interesting ways for me to evaluate the changing discourse around ethnic food is to turn to my cookbook collection, which spans the 20^th century. One of the older books is The Art of Chinese Cooking, published in 1934 by the “Benedictine Sisters of Peking.” It demonstrates common cultural stereotypes prevalent in American culture at that time. The sisters explain that if you can’t find a “Coolie Hat Pan” (they mean wok), a normal aluminum frying pan will do. Nigel Slater’s book Toast contains a short vignette on how his family reacts to their first experience with “Italian” cuisine- spaghetti – it is nothing short of a debacle. In contrast, I look at my more recent cookbooks- like Eileen Yin-Fei Lo’s The Chinese Kitchen, which demonstrates a new style of ethnic cookbook that emphasizes the importance of authenticity. This includes two full pages on the history, maintenance, and use of woks and how essential they are to Chinese cooking.

The increasing popularity of ethnic cuisines can also be seen in supermarkets and restaurants. My personal experience walking down Broadway on Capitol Hill is that if you don’t want Indian Curry, Vietnamese Pho, Thai, or Mexican your only option is a hamburger. The US Census Bureau reports that almost a third of the restaurants in the United States serve some form of “ethnic” cuisine. The reasons for preserving ethnic foodways as a marker of individual, familial, and national identity should be clear from my previous blog entry, “National Eats.” But how do these foods make the leap from family table to the every-day consumer’s plate?

This process took more work that you would think, and took a considerable amount of compromise on the part of immigrants and “Americans,” producing types of ethnic cuisine that bear only some resemblance to the original, as seek in Carol Helstoky’s Garlic and Oil: Food and Politics in Italy. While Italian food has undergone a transformation in Italy, it has undergone and even greater transformation here. Many immigrated to the United States during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries because of scarce food resources in their own countries. In Hasia R. Diner’s Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish foodways in the age of migration, the author explains that many migrants during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries were not seeking out the land of milk and honey, but rather the land of beef and wheat. With access to an abundance of food, these immigrant communities, like the Italians, transformed the food of their upper classes and sacred days—feast foods that incorporated more expensive products like meat—into a generic “Italian” food that inspired community pride and cohesion while becoming marketable to the general American public. Many of the foods considered by the rest of the world to be typically “American” have roots in this wave of immigration, like hotdogs and dove bars. Jewish restaurants popularized cheesecake, traditionally eaten by Jewish people during the Shavuot festival to celebrate the spring harvest. A Jewish banker in Chicago began mass-producing these cakes, using more sugar, cream cheese instead of cottage cheese, and making the definitive decision to call his company “Sara Lee” after his eight-year-old daughter because the name sounded more wholesome and All-American

Changing attitudes towards the importance of distinct cultural identities in the United States, as well as the character of the immigrants, defined the food patterns of the immigration wave of the latter part of the 20^th century until today. Servicemen returning from the Korean and Vietnam War brought with them a newfound taste for and interest in ethnic foods. The Civil Rights Movement inspired people to take pride in their racial and ethnic identities, and changed the way they looked at food consumption from a simple means of sustaining life to a political statement. Carolyn Rouse and Janet Hoskin’s “Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam” explains how the ethnic pride and Islam have shaped the food habits of Islamic African Americans over time.

For immigrants, food also plays a vital role in politics, economics, and culture. Enclave food markets, created by the demand among immigrant communities for ethnic or traditional foods, economically benefit both ethnic entrepreneurs and their communities. Restaurants and markets are important for developing social networks and financial connections, and an indispensable source of employment for immigrants as well as first and second-generation Americans. From my experience working in restaurants, I have also seem many immigrants coworkers invest in restaurants as a legal way to get their green cards—opening a small business is a great way to facilitate this process. This may eventually lead to the real fulfillment of the “American dream,” if I may allow myself to be idealistic for a moment. Joel Denker’s book The World on a Plate tells the story of Giuseppe Uddo, who in 1909 began peddling Italian tomato paste from a horse cart. The cart led to a store, embargos on Italian products during World War I led to a tomato paste factory, the factory led to other canning factories, and the company Progresso was born.

The fact that I can now buy nori, Thai chili paste, and canned menudo in my local QFC also indicates the growing market power of ethnic groups. Concern for authenticity and a “genuine” ethnic experience also invests ethnic groups and individuals with a sense of authority when it comes to food; authority that may be denied to them in life’s other venues.

In a country where racial tension is a persistent problem, food is integral in the understanding of other cultures, both for Americans and immigrants. The non-confrontational and enjoyable nature of food makes it an easy medium to transcend cultural boundaries. The personal investment in experimenting with different ethnic cuisines is low—you do not have to have intimate knowledge of a culture, agree with its beliefs, or speak the language to have access to and enjoy its foods. Juxtaposed with this “low investment” is a very high potential for pleasure, and the slight risk that the foods you eat may just not agree with you (something that some of my classmates experienced in the bento project). I believe that food is inherent to culture, and thus an acceptance of another culture’s foods can perhaps be indicative of a greater willingness to try to understand that culture as a whole, or perhaps it is just a first step. As a first-generation American who is excited by all types of food, I would urge everyone to go out and try something new, even if it may seem uncomfortable at first. Who knows, you may like it!

Finally, I would like to share with you two recipes, from the afore-mentioned The Art of Chinese Cooking, brought to you by the Benedictine Sisters of Peking, and Eileen Yin-Fei Lo’s The Chinese Kitchen. Can you guess which is which?

Asparagus Peking Style (p. 57)

Lung Hsu Ts’ai

Heat pan, add 2 T. oil, ¼ c. chicken stock, ¼ c. water, 1 T. sherry, 2 T. soy sauce, and 1 T. cornstarch. Stir constantly until it boils. Now add 1 can asparagus (14 ½ oz.) drained; heat thoroughly. Serve hot. This is very good with Western-style meat. Serves 4 or 5.

And at the bottom of the page:

"Let there be plenty of food and clothing, and propriety and righteousness will flourish." Credited to “Ancient Chinese Proverb”. I should also mention that there are illustrations of asparagus dressed up as “Chinamen” in silk robes.

Hot Tianjin Bok Choy p. 100

Here is a Shanghai classic “little dish” using those pickled peppers from Sichuan in combination with that showy white bok choy form Tianjin. Its Chinese name translates as “hot white vegetable” which it is. It is a perfect appetizer, often served in a “big 8, small 8” banquet. It is also perfect as a salad, a small course, by itself, or as an accompaniment.

2 ¾ pounds Tianjin bok choy, outer leaves removed

2 ½ tsp. salt

1 ½ tbs. Sichuan Pepper Pickle, julienned

1 ½ tbs. sesame oil

6 small dried Thai chilies

1/8 tsp. Sichuan peppercorns

½ tbs. shredded fresh ginger

3 tbs. Chinese white rice vinegar

2 tbs. sugar

1 tsp. soy sauce

1. Separate the individual stalks of bok choy, wash, and drain well. Cut the bok choy crosswise into 1/3 inch pieces. Place in a large bowl, pour in the salt, mix, and let stand for 2 hours. Drain well and squeeze off all liquid. Place back in the bowl and add the Sichuan pepper pickles.

2. Heat a wok over medium-low heat for 10 seconds. Add the sesame oil. When a wisp of white smoke appears, add the dried chilies, stir, and cook for 20 seconds. Add the Sichuan peppercorns and ginger, stir, and cook for 10 seconds. Turn off the heat; pour the sesame oil, dried chilies, and peppercorns over the bok choy. Add the vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce and mix thoroughly. Allow to stand for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight to allow the flavors to mix and the pepper pickles to take hold. Serve cold. Kept in a closed container, refrigerated, this bok choy will keep for a week.

Can you guess where the recipes came from? The fact that they used the work “wok” in the second recipe instead of “coolie hat pan” should have given it away, if you didn’t get it before then. Despite their socio-cultural bumbling, I also think that the Benedictine Sisters of Peking had great intentions at heart, and were doing the right thing by trying to introduce American palates to something new. Furthermore, I think these are both delicious recipes (if you substitute fresh asparagus for canned in the first), and the second one is great for dinner parties because it can be prepared in advance. Enjoy!

GMOs: Savior or Safety Risk?

The increasingly widespread use of genetically modified (GM) crops on our farms and in our food creates a sense of urgency to resolve the many ethical, political, environmental, and scientific issues surrounding the implementation of this technology. The debate thus far has been polarized: on one side, the biotechnology industry, which is seeking to capitalize on markets and also sees the humanitarian necessity of increasing food production. On the other side lie consumer and environmental movements, who see the looming threat of GM-related ecological and medial catastrophes. The debate hinges on this question: will GM foods ultimately turn out to be beneficial or harmful to human beings and the planet? As citizens of the world, we are trying to deal responsibly with the vital issues involved, recognizing that the decisions we make about the seeds today will shape our and the earth’s future.

Unfortunately, the debate on GMOs seems to contain little room for a balanced perspective of compromise and conciliation. Viewed historically, we can see that biotechnology is just one of the many steps humans have taken over millennia to mix and control the genomes of crops, and it seems like the predictable next step considering our current technological advancement. However, the perceived desirability of this step depends on one’s perspective, self-interest, and values.

The class reading seemed to be squarely on only one of the polarized sides of this debate. If Karen Sue Tausig’s “Bovine Abominations: Genetic Culture and Politics in the Netherlands” and films like The Future of Food don’t convince you that genetic modification is something to be feared, if not the end of civilization as we know it, then very little will. They appeal to a certain “yuk” factor in all of us that sees a blatant culinary taboo in the idea of halibut genes in tomatoes, or human genes in beef. Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation does examine the lives of farmers who choose to plant Bt potatoes in order to reduce pesticide spraying, which is making them sick. However, ultimately the moral of the story seems to be that the farmers must reject GM food crops and embrace organic food, the only real solution. This literature also appeal to the suspicious and wary side of all of us, who see the obfuscation and opaque nature of companies promoting GM technology as a source of definite concern. The anti- side of the GM debate centers around some basic ideas, a few of which I list and explain below:

1. Genetically Engineered Food is Different – A tomato altered to be frost-resistant with a flounder gene, antibiotic resistanct with a bacterial gene, and containing a viral gene to “turn on” the other added genes is different from your original tomato. It is also different from all the cross-bred tomatoes of the past, who could only acquire and exchange genetic material with other tomatoes or close relatives. Because other foods that contain additives or that have been irradiated are labeled, these foods that are, in face “substantially different” from their non-GMO brethren should be labeled as well.

2. Genetically Engineered Food can cause Toxic Effects – GMO food and dietary supplements, like Showa Denko typtophan, have in the past caused toxic poisoning as a result of their use of genetically engineered organisms. Government regulatory agencies have been ineffective in montoring the safety of food produced here in the United States, much less abroad.

3. Genetically Engineered Food can cause Allergic Reactions – Many people have food allergies, caused by proteins found in food. Many gene transfers of crops result in a change in protein production. What is more concerning is that proteins will be coming into food crops not just from known sources of common allergens, like nuts or shellfish, but from plants of all kinds, bacteria, and viruses. In March of 1996, researchers from the University of Nebraska confirmed that an allergen from Brazil Nuts had been transferred into soybeans when the Pioneer Hi-Bred International seed company put a Brazil nut gene into soybeans to improve protein content (Marion Nestle, New England Journal of Medicine Editorial 1996: 726). In this case the problem was identified and the soybeans were pulled from the market. This may not always be the case.

4. Genetically Engineered Foods can create Environmental Risk – Genetically engineered crops are engineered for herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, and virus resistance. Herbicide resistant crops, which can be sprayed with herbicide to kill weeds without killing the crops themselves, may increase herbicide use. Herbicides may then filter into streams and lakes, killing many varieties of plants other than their intended target. Insect-resistant crops produce Bt, which initially may seem like a good thing because they reduce insecticide use. However, widespread use of these crops may increase Bt resistance. Also, if the genes for these herbicide tolerant or insect resistant crops “escape” into wild plants like weeds, this “gene pollution” may create superweeds or superpests.

5. Genetically Engineered Foods may be lower in nutritional value – An example of this is Round-up Ready soybeans, which contain less isoflavones, an important phytoestrogen present in soybeans.

There are, however, two sides to every story. Are we to assume that the scientists on the other side are either stupid (even with PhDs in biology and genetics) or all simply unethical? Clearly, there are reasons for the spread and use of GMOs, a few of which I list below.

1. Food Biotechnology Increases Yields – the yields of GM crops have usually been shown to be higher than their non-GM counterparts. While the world can produce enough today to feed the population of humans, in 50 or 100 years, at current growth rates, this may not be so.

2. Food Biotechnology has the potential to improve the health of those in developing countries – Development of strains like “golden rice”- fortified with Vitamin A, have the potential to end the diseases and disabilities, like blindness and measles, caused or contributed to by lack of this nutrient. Plants can be manufactured to contain other nutrients, like iron, or even to increase the bioavailability of the nutrients that already exist in the plants. Edible vaccines, delivered in locally grown crops, could be an accessible way to eliminate diseases.

3. Food Biotechnology has the potential to decrease chemical use – Pest-resistant crops allow farmers to apply fewer pesticides to the fields, increasing the overall health of the ecosystem as well as lowering the exposure of average consumers to these risks.

4. Biotechnology crops are tested – Obviously the companies that produce genetically modified crops have a vested interest in keeping their customers alive. Producing crops with the potential to kill is in no one’s interest, but especially not theirs. Considering the large amounts of GM crops available on the world market, the lack of any current of historical health emergency speaks to their relative safety, rather than their apparent danger.

In spite of, and perhaps because of, my research into the world of GMOs, I feel no more ready now to weigh in my opinion on this debate than when I started. There are some modest proposals, however, that I believe warrant a closer look:

- There is no relationship between the prevalence of hunger in a given country and its population. For every densely populated hungry nation like Bangladesh or Haiti, there is a sparsely populated and hungry nation like Brazil. Even without GM crops, the world has the capacity to produce enough food per inhabitant. The real causes of hunger are poverty, inequality, and lack of access to land. Too many people are too poor to buy the (poorly distributed) food that is available, or lack the land and resources to grow it themselves. Large corporations like Monsanto are out to make a profit- forcing already impoverished farmers to buy the seeds for their crops every year, the herbicides to spray on them, and the fertilizers to make them grow creates a cycle of dependence in which the farmer is always faced with lower returns. The solution may not lie in technology, but in simple ideas like increasing access to water supplies, education, and land.

- Considering the urgency of the need to produce more food for a larger population under changing climate conditions, governments and extra-governmental institutions should invest more time and resources in conventional agricultural research. GMOs may be the wave of the future, but they also may not, and we risk losing what agricultural knowledge we already have or could hope to gain by assuming that conventional agriculture is a thing of the past.

- Going along those lines of thinking, yield increases are being achieved by using agroecological technologies that emphasize diversity, synergy, recycling, and integration, and social processes that emphasis community participation and empowerment. The Cuba Diet is an excellent example of how yield enhancement and stability of production can be achieved using some traditional agricultural approaches, as well as a series of other iconological benefits such as conservation of biodiversity, soil and water restoration and conservation, improved natural pest regulation mechanisms, and lower chemical use.

- A collaborative and comparative testing program on health and environmental issues of GM technologies, involving farmers, scientists, consumers, environmental advocacy groups, as well as GM companies, should be put into place.

Where GM foods will take us is unsure. What I am sure of is that the solution to most debates lay somewhere in the middle ground between technological benefits and environmental/human risks. Unfortunately, ideologically positioning ourselves on one side without examining the other only diminishes the amount of knowledge we are gaining. I believe that diversity of opinion is one of the greatest human resources, a resource that has kept our civilization thriving for so long and hopefully well into the future, if we allow ourselves to listen and think.

Does Memory Serve?

Everyone has one—that food, the taste, smell, and texture of which, by the power of some poorly understood mechanisms of the brain, draw us back to finite moment in the past. This sensory memory has the power to bring back memories not only of the sights and sounds, but also the emotions of that moment or time. The power of food’s commemorative function, from listening to class discussion, has touched all of us. We all have a “Madeleine de Proust,” sometimes sought out purposefully for reasons of comfort, security, and nostalgia; sometimes stumbled upon accidently as Proust discovered his. The accidental stumbling can have less positive effects, as McKinley explained the emotions of defeat and sadness she felt upon consuming a snack she had eaten once after losing a chess tournament.

But what happens when this food or foods cannot be found? What if that connection to your past disappears?

In C. Nadia Seremetakis’ The Breast of Aphrodite, she longs for a peach, the peach of her childhood, “…well rounded and smooth like a small clay vase, fitting perfectly into your palm. Its interior was firm yet moist, offering a soft resistance to the teeth. A bit sweet and a bit sour, it exuded a distinct fragrance;” a love poem to this peach, “the breast of Aphrodite, if I ever heard one. Unfortunately, upon returning to her native Greece, the peach of her childhood has vanished, replaced in the market stalls with a more durable, less sweet, less perfect varieties. Despite a long search galvanizing friends and family it seems that this peach has disappeared, fallen victim to what Seremetakis believes are the pressures of the EEC market rationalities of uniformity. Now that peach, which was “both eaten and remembered” by Seremetakis, can only be recreated in memory and language for the next generation.

Perhaps the reason we have built such a cult of consumerism is the fact that mass-produced items tend to have more consistency over time than your average peach (dependent as it is on the whims of the grower, the weather, and even the pollinators). If you have a longing nostalgia for Twinkies, it is likely that the Twinkie you pick up at the grocery store will taste pretty similar to the one your enjoyed 20 years ago--same crinkly plastic wrapper, spongy exterior, and sickly sweet cream (sic) filling. This is also probably the reason that there was such a huge public outcry when Coca-Cola introduced "New Coke" in 1985, in an infamous corporate blunder that cost them dearly until they switched back to “Coca-Cola original”.

Perhaps it is not the consistency of the taste at all, but a host of other factors. A concern with these “disappeared” foods is the reality of their existence—perhaps they never existed, or perhaps the essence of their taste was so deeply intertwined with other factors that their existence is impossible to recreate. Even if you are not the only one who remembers it, if you cannot find the food (or you do find the food, and it doesn’t taste the same), one must ask oneself whether that food ever really existed, or if it is just the power of “the Good Ol’ Days” and nostalgia playing a trick with your head. Seremetakis explains that people often extended the tastelessness of the new peaches to all food, remarking “Nothing tastes as good as the past.” But can this actually be true? Surely something must taste as good as in the past, or I would be seriously concerned for future generations. Part of the problem, I believe, lies in the necessity to construct the scene in which you first tasted the food. This may be as complex as the sights and smells of the location, the company you shared, or the innocence and wonder of youth—things that may be impossible to recreate.

However, since traveling backwards in time is not possible, and traveling to a different place is not always feasible, one must make do with what one has at hand. For me, there is a sweet nostalgia embedded in the ritual of dropping and ice cube into clear pastis, watching the slow tendrils of opacity extend, then pouring in a stream of water and watching the whole glass go cloudy. If I close my eyes when I take the first sip, the bitter anise flavor tickling my tongue, I can almost feel, beaming down on me, the quality of afternoon sunlight that only exists on my patio in France. It is a pleasure enjoyed somewhat less at such a distance, but a pleasure nonetheless.

Ingredients Necessary for Your First Glass of Pastis

Two DRY clear glasses, filled 1/3 full with of Pastis (of a variety of your choosing)

Two clear glasses, filled with ice cubes

One small pitcher of water

One small plate of olives

A sunny patio

A good friend, preferably one who is a good conversationalist

Directions: Mix the pastis with the ice, the ice with the pastis, (or not), the water with either (or not). You will develop your own ritual. Sit back, enjoy the olives, enjoy the company, enjoy the pastis, and don't think about the fact that you may never be able to recreate the scene of your first taste of pastis ever again...you will always enjoy trying to.

"Organically Correct"

Let me paint you a scene from a recent night in the restaurant I work at as a server. A table was trying to decide on dessert. Their options were fairly limited, from my view- Affogato (vanilla gelato doused in hot espresso), nectarine sorbetto, or chocolate cake with a scoop of chocolate gelato…I couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Is your chocolate fair-trade?” asked one guest.

Another piped in, “What about the nectarine sorbetto? Is it made from fresh nectarines? Are they local? Are they organic? What farm do you get them from?”

And yet another, “I don’t eat any corn syrup. Does any of this have corn syrup in it? What about gluten? I’m not on a gluten free diet, but you can never be sure.”

“Actually, I’ll have the Affogato,” resumed guest number one, “Do you use fair-trade espresso? Where do the vanilla beans come from?”

“Oh, no dairy for me,” says guest number two, “WAY to many hormones. Oh, I’d also like a latte (assuming your espresso is fair-trade), so that needs to be soy. Organic soy…you can never trust those GM soybeans.”

While this is an extreme case, I am confronted with the realities of people’s heightened awareness in food politics every day. The phrase “organically correct” has increasingly been creeping into the public’s lexicon in describing food manufacturing companies, restaurants, and even themselves. This term obviously must be expanded to encompass the large variety of “correct” eating habits—local, vegetarian, etc. When you read Michael Pollan’s An Omnivore’s Dilemna, it becomes blatantly obvious that “organic” does not even begin to cover the bases when it comes to ethical eating.

I am overjoyed that people have been paying more attention to what they eat, but we must also consider the cost of this consumer consciousness. If being “organically correct” means that you can no longer enjoy your friend’s backyard BBQ because you don’t know the provenance of the meat in your hamburger; or that you must forgo eating a slice at a class pizza party because you are pretty sure those veggies have been drenched in pesticides; or you have to pass up that beautifully fragrant pineapple at the grocery store …is it all worth it? Forgive the run-on sentence, but it seems that the more I learn about the current food system, the less I want to eat. And so I must ask, does framing your food choices within a context of political and ethical living take too much of the pure enjoyment out of food?

The answer is different for everyone, perhaps depending on your level of commitment. Those people at my restaurant? They left disappointed, without dessert or coffee. What would you do?

Let Them Eat Cake

Alright, enough with all the heavy stuff.

While Marie Antoinette never actually uttered these words, it is helpful to remember that throughout history they hungry masses have been responsible for the fall of many powerful people and institutions who were unwilling or unable to help them. Equally interesting to me is the fact that today's presidential candidates are more concerned about repealing the federal gas tax for the summer, which would probably cause more gas consumption (and probably more ethanol consumption).

However, while I live a relatively cushy life in terms of food, I decided to make a cake today with all of the leftover chocolate, butter, flour, and eggs from a catering job I did this weekend. Hopefully the class will enjoy the results on Tuesday!

This recipe is from Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock's The Gift of Southern Cooking, a cookbook I highly recommend. The title of the recipe is "Very Good Chocolate Cake," and it is very good indeed, thank you Miss Lewis and Mr. Peacock.

THE CAKE
2 cups granulate sugar
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup hot double-strength brewed coffee
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

THE FROSTING
1 cup heavy cream
8 tbs. unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 pound semisweet choc late, finely chopped
1/4 cup hot double-strength brewed coffee
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 F

For the cake: sift together the sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Pour the hot coffee over the finely chopped chocolate, and allow the chocolate to melt.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and oil, followed by the sour cream, vanilla, and coffee-chocolate mix. Stir this liquid into the dry ingredients by thirds, stirring well. Divide the batter between two buttered and floured parchment-line 9-inch cake pans. Drop each cake pan once on the counter from a height of 3 inches (Miss Lewis is precise!) to remove air pockets. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until cake springs back to tough. Remove immediately to cooling racks, and allow to rest for 5 minutes before turning out the pans. To unmold, run a knife or spatula around the cake and the side of the pan, and turn the pan upside down. Allow cakes to cool completely before lifting off the parchment bottoms and frosting.

For the frosting: Heat cream, butter, sugar, and salt until butter is melted. Add the chocolate, and cook over low heat until chocolate is melted and is smooth. Remove from heat, blend with coffee and vanilla. Transfer to a bowl to cool, stirring occasionally, until it is of a spreading consistency- about 1 hour, depending on the temperature of the kitchen. DO NOT REFRIGERATE!!!! (butter and chocolate solidify at different temperatures and quick chilling will cause the frosting to separate and turn grainy - reference Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking)

To assemble this cake (or any layer cake, for that matter): Place one cake on plate, bottom side (parchment paper side) up. Frost the top generously. Place the other cake on top, bottom side down, and frost the top and sides. If you want one of those picture-perfect, flat topped layer cakes, saw off the rounded top with a bread knife before frosting and moisten with some simple syrup to keep the crumbs from flaking.

Note: for the best frosting, resist the urge to whisk or beat to cool faster. This will incorporate air, which will cook and set the frosting more quickly, but will also dilute its dark color. Also, because it takes time to cool, have everything ready for the frosting as the cakes go in the oven so you have something to do while they are baking.

ENJOY WITH MILK! (picture to come)

More Problems than Solutions

200 years after the fact, Malthus may finally be proved right.

So far "advancements" in technology have kept most of the world fed (marginally) and the population growing at a steady exponential rate. Fortunately, the Western world is finally coming to realize that unbridled consumption is not sustainable. Unfortunately, they are more concerned with everyone's consumption but their own.

The current spike in food prices and the lack of available food to people around the world is causing political turmoil. Jeffrey D. Sacks, economist and special adviser to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said “It’s the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 years. It’s a big deal and it’s obviously threatening a lot of governments. There are a number of governments on the ropes, and I think there’s more political fallout to come.” (NYT April 18, 2008).

Most troubling to me is the fact that the coverage in the media (NYT, WSJ, NPR) I have seen of the current "food crisis" seems to have a decidedly neo-liberal bent when it comes to finding solutions. Many have suggested that free trade can solve the problem. Others are promoting a second "green revolution" focusing on Africa, increasing fertilizer use and irrigation projects.

Why can't people learn that past "solutions" are what got us into this mess to begin with, and they certainly do not provide a way out?

Free trade encourages the centralization of agricultural production, increasing the profits and the preponderance of large companies. By doing this smaller regional producers are discouraged- to say the least- from continuing production and feeding their communities. Large-scale production of crops like soybeans, rice, corn, etc. have caused many of the environmental problems we are seeing today.

As rainforests are razed for crop production earth's lungs are removed; the trees suck in greenhouse gases, but once gone, they can do nothing. This also causes the rich topsoil to run-off quickly into lakes and streams, killing the wildlife that lives in them and rendering the land useless for crops in a matter of years. The minerals are sucked out of the land by unsuitable crops and replaced them with poisonous insecticides. Irrigation empties rivers and lakes, and we must remember that people are not only hungry, they are also thirsty. Fertilizers also pollute water sources, rendering them unsuitable for the fish that live in them because of algae growth. Not to mention the fact that they are created from fossil fuels. Finally, the run these farms people use tractors and sprayers. For neo-liberal economics to work, these foods must then be transported halfway around the world, using up more fossil fuels and emitting more greenhouse gases.

Solution indeed.