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Lily- as we discussed earlier in the semester, this topic is huge. Update your article title to reflect HISTORY OF FOOD WASTE: ANTIQUITY THROUGH MIDDLE AGES. Remove the later portions- you won't have time to finish this. We assume that your article is going within the larger FOOD WASTE between DEFINITIONS and CAUSES. Sources are good. Just clean it and edit. Good job.

Article Evaluation: Phaseolus Lunatus

Informative article. Some irrelevant information and facts listed in unfitting sections. For example, the quote, "In the United States, when lima beans are served mixed with sweet corn, it is called succotash" is listed in under the "Health and Nutrition" category, but is not relevant to that category. Could use further explanation in the "Origin and Uses" section, i.e., the quote "The Moche Culture (1–800 CE) cultivated lima beans heavily and often depicted them in their art" does not describe what the Moche Culture was, where it was located, nor does it provide deeper information on their association/history with Phaseolus Lunatus. The quote is also followed by a discussion of the Viceroyalty in Perú ("During the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru,...boxes of such goods had their place of origin labeled "Lima, Peru", the beans got named as such"), and the two quotes seemingly have no link, so either a link between the two topics or omission of the Moche Culture sentence would better the "Origin" section.

Under the "Origin and Uses" section, there is no specific discussion of the "uses". An addition of one or two historical dishes that include the Lima Bean may make this section more complete.

Additionally, needs further citations to complete subcategories "Heart" and "Blood Sugar" as well as category "Health and Nutrition". Besides the missing citations, all citations are accurate and up-to-date.

Add to an Article: Tea House

"In China, Japan and Nepal, a tea house (茶館 cháguăn or 茶屋 cháwū; Standard Nepali:चिया घर) is traditionally a place which offers tea to its consumers. People gather at tea houses to chat, socialize, and enjoy tea, and young people often meet at tea houses for dates. The Guangdong (Cantonese) style tea house is particularly famous outside of China especially in Nepal's Himalayas. These tea houses, called chálou (茶樓) serve dim sum (點心), and these small plates of food are enjoyed alongside tea."

Addition: During the Chinese adaptation of Buddhism between 200 C.E. and 850 C.E., tea was introduced as a medicinal herb. It was then evolved to assist Buddhist monks in their meditation by providing the energy needed to stay awake (likely via the effects of caffeine as a stimulant on the brain). Soon thereafter, tea popularized as a commonplace beverage (replacing the previously consumed milk- and water-based beverages) as Chinese teahouses provided a new kind of social life for the Chinese during the 8th-9th centuries C.E.[1]

Possible Articles to Improve:

1. Tea Houses: There is minimal information in this article about the role that Chinese Buddhism played in the formation of casual tea-drinking and the tea house. I would also add detailed info about how the tea house was one of the first indicators of the transition from a spiritual to secular society. There is minimal information about the social implications of the tea house, so I would also provide insight about how the tea house was one of the first places where free thought outside of state/religious authorities arose. There is a small section at the end about the relationship of the tea house and the 19th Century Temperance movement, and I'd like to add more about the dynamic of gender and the tea house.

2. Coffee Culture: While there is a lot of historical information on the Coffee Houses Wikipedia page, there is little historical background information on coffee culture. The only mention of the Ottoman Empire's role in coffee culture is the following quote "Coffeehouse culture has a high penetration in much of the former Ottoman Empire, where Turkish coffee remains the dominant style of preparation." Because the Mosque and workplace enforced a hierarchical system, I would add more historical info about the impact of coffee culture as a gateway to the emergence of free expression, questioning government, and a secular, non-hierarchical society, similarly to the Tea House.

3. Food Consumption by Socioeconomic Status: This article does not exist yet. I would hope to add the history of food inequality by class (and also relative to religion), but not sure if I could focus most of the article on contemporary issues because of the amount of research it would take. But still an option.

  • Diamond
  • Laudan-Ch. 2-5
  • Mennell-Ch. 3. Pottages and Potlach

4. History of Leftovers: Article doesn't contain a history section. I'd add info about the origins of leftovers, and how the concept likely sprang from "leftover" grains for next years harvest, how it led to a potentially more productive society, etc. and how that turned into modern day "leftovers". Also, the role of refrigeration companies in promotion of excess and leftovers.

5. Food Waste: would add history section. Similar to leftovers, and I want to some how link the two in whichever I choose. Would add info about the beginning of food waste glorification in Renaissance France, the symbolism of food waste in social class, and the different levels of food waste (agricultural, transportational, in the supermarket, and consumer food waste). Also want to add some bit about history of "gleaners" and what thats turned into today and the beginnings of national food waste policies. Also: psychological understandings/impact of food waste in upper class vs. lower class

  • Picked Topic: History of Food Waste

Sources/key points:

Draft:

History of Food Waste Antiquity through Middle Ages (pre-historic–15th century)

Lead:

Since early societies began cultivating crops and developing agricultural systems, food waste has been an inevitable by-product of food surplus, and food surplus has been a key factor in human advancements and successes over the past 10,000 years[2]. The disappearance of concerns surrounding food scarcity have both caused and defined social systems that equate surplus and the potential to waste food with an abundance of choice, security, and success. Until relatively recently, food waste was generally reserved only for the upper class, while lower classes typically were required to make the most of their food supply. [3]

Surplus and Food Waste in Hunter Gatherers and Early Farmers

In the first transitions from nomadic and semi-nomadic to settled societies, also known as the Neolithic Revolution (10,000 BC–8,000 BC), the potential to create food waste was one of the key factors that differentiated hunter gatherers from farming societies. While no single set of characteristics can be applied, Hunter Gatherers usually spent 1.7–2.4 hours a day on a quest for food, and were often on the verge of starvation. [4] While Hunter Gatherers rarely produced leftovers or food waste, research suggests that they may have scavenged for leftovers of carnivorous cat's prey[5], and when non-storing peoples did obtain excess food, it was given away[6]. However, some archaeological remains of mammoth carcasses show that only a small amount of bones display signs of lacerations, suggesting that "it was more convenient for [Hunter Gatherers] to move on and make a fresh kill than go to the effort of preventing dead meat from reaching its use-by date too rapidly"[2]. It was approximately 13,000 years ago that the early, semi-nomadic ancestors of the first farmers in the Fertile Crescent area began using pit storage systems to keep surplus wild grains dry and prevent them from germinating[2]. This system developed over the next 4,000 years, and, as suggested by carbon data records, the first crop domestication took place around the year 8,500 B.C.E. in the same area.[4] It has been suggested that early societies turned to grain cultivation as a result of depleted megafaunal and other wild game population extinctions or depletions, caused by either hunting, climate change, or a combination of the two[7]. Unlike their nomadic and semi-nomadic counterparts, early farming societies were required to settle in one place in order to tend to domesticated livestock and cultivate crops. Their newfound food production and storage systems allowed farmers to raise more offspring, and the resulting population increase sparked innovation in agricultural technologies, which allowed farmers to increase food supplies. However, the exploitation of farm lands to meet increasing food demands sometimes led to environmental degradation.

Social Implications and Surplus

Food surpluses in agricultural societies are necessary for sustaining and population growth, hierarchal divisions of labor, and military forces; it has even been argued by many cultural and ecological anthropologists that food surplus is the root cause of social divisions and increasing economic complexities. Over the course of history and today, small bands of Hunter-Gatherers have typically been defined as egalitarian societies, but as populations increase, sociopolitical typology advances from band to tribe, chiefdom, or state and is associated with foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, and agriculture, respectively. This is because the advancements in agricultural production and storage system technologies allowed food surpluses to increase and enable "farming societies to support full-time craft specialists who did not grow their own food and who developed technologies"[7]. As a general trend, increasing food surpluses also began to affect individual identity once people had enough to support a certain standard of living. Charles Feldman, in Roman Taste, attributes this phenomenon to the upper-class individual's ability to choose what foods they wished to eat (and discern one taste from another) from a variety or surplus of accessible foods, whereas the peasantry (or any individual lacking access to food) were easily satiated by almost any food as their physiological need for food, or hunger, was fulfilled[8].

Food waste and Surplus' Role In Society–Middle Ages (1000AD-1500AD)

The largest economic changes during the Middle Ages were marked by both the shift toward Feudal agriculture societies–in which agricultural landowners exploited serf and peasant labor–and the shift from family farms towards towns and cities as the predominant centers of commerce.[9] The agricultural changes that took place in Middle Age societies (beginning in 1030AD) both in technological advancements and the increased importance of and reliance on stored grains contributed hugely to the rise of serfdom, a larger population, and a sharp divide between social classes. In Medieval Europe, society was constructed around the rules and laws of Feudalism that bound the majority of the population–peasants–to plots of land and servitude to their superiors–typically the lord of the Manor, or other of the noble class. The rules and laws of Feudalism reflected a division of labor and prioritized the economic self-sufficiency of a manor measured in surplus agriculture. [10] Karl Marx criticized Feudalism for its basis on "patriarchal, idyllic relations... feudal ties that bound man to his 'natural superiors,' and... a nexus between man and man [based on] naked self-interest, [and] callous "cash payment."[11]

Similarly to the trend observed in prehistoric agrarian societies, the leading cause for progress in Medieval agrarian societies has repeatedly been attributed to an increase of surplus foodstuffs–particularly cereal grains–by many historians and cultural anthropologists. These increases in surplus and their significance in societal progress during the middle ages cannot be understood without a recognition of advancements in agricultural technology during the period. Although the impact of agricultural-technological advancements in the middle ages on long-term economic progress is much debated, many historians argue that the improvement and widespread use of the heavy plow in Europe c. 1000AD was the single most revolutionary tool in medieval agriculture, and later, in the agricultural revolution. The heavy plow allowed laborers to work more land in a shorter amount of time by "handl[ing] the clods with such violence that there was no need for cross-plowing"[12], thus increasing farmer productivity. The introduction of the horse collar furthered the productivity of the plow by increasing horse pulling power to 1.5 tons/horse, in contrast with the previous throat-and-girth harness, which could only allow the horse to pull up to 1/4 ton. The three-field crop rotation system, another agricultural innovation in medieval Europe, allowed farmers to increase soil productivity by replenishing soil nutrients with nitrogen-fixing legume plants and, as a result, increase crop yield.

These advancements, in combination with improved transportation systems, created a greater food surplus in medieval agrarian societies that would allow an increasing number of civilians to specialize in non-agricultural occupations. [13] Many historians have even argued that food surplus was one of the most necessary medieval prerequisites to the commercial revolution; in The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, Robert Sabatino Lopez states that when food surpluses in the Middle Ages increased, "it became possible to release more people for governmental, religious, and cultural pursuits".[14] Historian Bas Van Bevel in Manors and Markets: Economy and Society in the Low Countries 500-1600 also noted that the rise cities during the 12th century resulted in new agricultural markets that offered more possibilities for the division of labor, alongside the presence of wealthy consumers.[13] These new interdependent markets stimulated demand from agricultural producers outside the cities and is a leading cause of why the large majority of the population at this time consisted of farmers of varying legal status; the majority of farmers were peasants and bound to plots of land–typically a manor–owned by lords to whom they provided labor in return for protection/housing.[10] Although the increasing number of laborers toward the latter half of the Middle Ages made peasants freer, it made them poorer while high food prices and lower wages made landowners richer, especially when they enforced efficient labor practices.[15] In Surplus Utilization in Agriculture, Ratan Khasnabis states that unlike in Capitalism, "the feudal appropriator typically utilizes surplus for the purpose of consumption. In the case of the feudal lord, the surplus supported his excess in luxury."[16]

The most common economic goal of the Feudal System during the Middle Ages feudalism was to maximize and extract agricultural surplus on a regular basis for the upper class who could afford the increasing food prices at the time, the maintenance of the royalty and nobility, and for the benefit of the manorial lord.[17] The system relied heavily on peasant labor for production and created a higher demand for efficiency on an individual level from peasants in order to maximize surplus. In medieval, what one ate was directly representative of their social status. Given their lack of monetary income, the peasantry was usually restricted to eating the surplus foodstuffs they produced on a manor and could not afford excess or wasting of food; contrarily, the stature of the nobility was equated to his excess agricultural product of the manor. Royalty during the middle ages displayed their wealth and generosity during extravagant feasts, in which the royalty typically consumed the freshest meats and other foodstuffs, while they reserved older-age or less valuable foods for communal distribution to their retainers or, ultimately, wastage.[18]

  1. ^ Laudan, Rachel (2013). Cuisine and Empire. Berkley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-520-28631-3.
  2. ^ a b c Stuart, Tristam (2009). Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-393-34956-6.
  3. ^ Gardiner, Beth (23 April 2014). "The Economic and Environmental Costs of Wasted Food". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b Diamond, Jared (May 1st, 1999). "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race". Discover Magazine. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Pobiner, Briana (April 2016). "Meat Eating Among the Earliest Humans". American Scientist.
  6. ^ Testart, Alain (1982). Food Storage Among Hunter Gatherers. Vol. 23. The Wenner-Green Foundation for Anthropological Research. p. 523.
  7. ^ a b Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: W.W. Norton. p. 142. ISBN 0-393-03891-2.
  8. ^ Feldman, Charles (April 2005). "Roman Taste". Food, Culture & Society. 8: 11. doi:10.2752/155280105778055407. S2CID 218839911.
  9. ^ "State and Society in the Late Middle Ages". http://facstaff.bloomu.edu/. 28 November, 2017. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |website= (help)
  10. ^ a b "History of the Organization of Work". Encyclopedia Brittanica.
  11. ^ Marx, Karl (2008). The Communist Manifesto. Virginia: Wilder Publications. p. 27. ISBN 978-1934451632.
  12. ^ Andersen, Thomas (January 2016). "The heavy plow and the agricultural revolution in Medieval Europe". Journal of Development Economics. 118: 133–149. doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.08.006.
  13. ^ a b Van Bavel, Bas (2010). Manors and Markets: Economy and Society in the Low Countries 500-1600. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199278664.
  14. ^ Lopez, Robert (1976). The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950-1350. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 0521290456. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  15. ^ "Medieval English Society". University of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty History.
  16. ^ Khasnabis, Ratan; Chakraborty, Jyotiprakash (1989). Surplus Utilisation in Agriculture: Study of a District in West Bengal. Delhi, India: Concept Publishing Company. p. 7. ISBN 978-8170222552.
  17. ^ Anderson, Dale (2006). Exploring the Middle Ages, Vol. 4. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. p. 269. ISBN 9780761476177.
  18. ^ Woolgar, C. M.; Serjeantson, Dale; Waldron, Tony (2009). Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition. New York, NY: OUP Oxford. p. 68. ISBN 978-0199563357.
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