Joan Thirsk
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208136
- eISBN:
- 9780191677922
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208136.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
People like to believe in a past golden age of traditional English countryside, before large farms, machinery, and the destruction of hedgerows changed the landscape ...
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People like to believe in a past golden age of traditional English countryside, before large farms, machinery, and the destruction of hedgerows changed the landscape forever. However, that countryside may have looked both more and less familiar than we imagine. Take today's startling yellow fields of rapeseed, seemingly more suited to the landscape of Van Gogh than Constable. They were, in fact, thoroughly familiar to fieldworkers in 17th-century England. At the same time, some features that would have gone unremarked in the past now seem like oddities. In the 15th century, rabbit warrens were specially guarded to rear rabbits as a luxury food for rich men's tables; whilst houses had moats not only to defend them, but to provide a source of fresh fish. In the 1500s Catherine of Aragon introduced the concept of a fresh salad to the court of Henry VIII; and in the 1600s, artichoke gardens became a fashion of the gentry in their hope of producing more male heirs. The common tomato, suspected of being poisonous in 1837, was transformed into a household vegetable by the end of the 19th century, thanks to cheaper glass-making methods and the resulting increase in glasshouses. In addition to these images of past lives, the author reveals how the forces that drive our current interest in alternative forms of agriculture — a glut of meat and cereal crops, changing dietary habits, the needs of medicine — have striking parallels with earlier periods in our history.Less
People like to believe in a past golden age of traditional English countryside, before large farms, machinery, and the destruction of hedgerows changed the landscape forever. However, that countryside may have looked both more and less familiar than we imagine. Take today's startling yellow fields of rapeseed, seemingly more suited to the landscape of Van Gogh than Constable. They were, in fact, thoroughly familiar to fieldworkers in 17th-century England. At the same time, some features that would have gone unremarked in the past now seem like oddities. In the 15th century, rabbit warrens were specially guarded to rear rabbits as a luxury food for rich men's tables; whilst houses had moats not only to defend them, but to provide a source of fresh fish. In the 1500s Catherine of Aragon introduced the concept of a fresh salad to the court of Henry VIII; and in the 1600s, artichoke gardens became a fashion of the gentry in their hope of producing more male heirs. The common tomato, suspected of being poisonous in 1837, was transformed into a household vegetable by the end of the 19th century, thanks to cheaper glass-making methods and the resulting increase in glasshouses. In addition to these images of past lives, the author reveals how the forces that drive our current interest in alternative forms of agriculture — a glut of meat and cereal crops, changing dietary habits, the needs of medicine — have striking parallels with earlier periods in our history.
Kara Newman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231156714
- eISBN:
- 9780231527347
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231156714.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter charts the history of soybean futures trading. Soybean futures are one of the most active markets in the United States—second in crop production as well as trading volume, both second ...
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This chapter charts the history of soybean futures trading. Soybean futures are one of the most active markets in the United States—second in crop production as well as trading volume, both second only behind King Corn—and traded widely on other bourses around the globe. The soybean's by-product, soybean oil, was at the center of the 1960s debacle now known as the Great Salad Oil Swindle, considered by many to be one of the boldest acts of hubris and corruption in recent commodities history. This chapter first looks at how soya beans reached the United States and how soybeans replaced cottonseed as a major crop. It then examines how soybeans became a lauded food item during World War I and how Chicago emerged as the financial center of the soybean universe. It also recalls the Great Salad Oil Swindle and how it happened.Less
This chapter charts the history of soybean futures trading. Soybean futures are one of the most active markets in the United States—second in crop production as well as trading volume, both second only behind King Corn—and traded widely on other bourses around the globe. The soybean's by-product, soybean oil, was at the center of the 1960s debacle now known as the Great Salad Oil Swindle, considered by many to be one of the boldest acts of hubris and corruption in recent commodities history. This chapter first looks at how soya beans reached the United States and how soybeans replaced cottonseed as a major crop. It then examines how soybeans became a lauded food item during World War I and how Chicago emerged as the financial center of the soybean universe. It also recalls the Great Salad Oil Swindle and how it happened.
Mark Dery
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677733
- eISBN:
- 9781452948324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677733.003.0017
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter focuses on the surrealist poetry of robot spam. Writing on his blog Beyond the Beyond, Bruce Sterling—futurist and sci-fi novelist—noted how spambots are “evolv[ing] into...Surrealist ...
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This chapter focuses on the surrealist poetry of robot spam. Writing on his blog Beyond the Beyond, Bruce Sterling—futurist and sci-fi novelist—noted how spambots are “evolv[ing] into...Surrealist poet[s]” in order to trick anti-spam programs. In 2002, spam hunters escalated hostilities in the arms race between spam-zapping programs and junk-mail programmers by making use of a statistical method called a Bayesian filter to rank words according to their likelihood of turning up in a piece of junk e-mail. Spambots countered via camouflage whereby they inserted random words or letters into headers and tacking what is known as a “word salad” onto the end of the e-mail. As anti-spam programs add the mutated comeons to their indexes of spamwords, spambots are forced to mutate still further. In time, their solicitations are reduced to alphanumeric gobbledygook. Spam scans the dream life of consumer culture and gives the Dadaists and the Burroughsian cut-up squad a run for their money when it comes to machineage avant-gardism.Less
This chapter focuses on the surrealist poetry of robot spam. Writing on his blog Beyond the Beyond, Bruce Sterling—futurist and sci-fi novelist—noted how spambots are “evolv[ing] into...Surrealist poet[s]” in order to trick anti-spam programs. In 2002, spam hunters escalated hostilities in the arms race between spam-zapping programs and junk-mail programmers by making use of a statistical method called a Bayesian filter to rank words according to their likelihood of turning up in a piece of junk e-mail. Spambots countered via camouflage whereby they inserted random words or letters into headers and tacking what is known as a “word salad” onto the end of the e-mail. As anti-spam programs add the mutated comeons to their indexes of spamwords, spambots are forced to mutate still further. In time, their solicitations are reduced to alphanumeric gobbledygook. Spam scans the dream life of consumer culture and gives the Dadaists and the Burroughsian cut-up squad a run for their money when it comes to machineage avant-gardism.
Paulette Kershenovich Schuster
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190265427
- eISBN:
- 9780190461935
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190265427.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter compares the dietary practices of Jews of Syrian descent in Mexico and in Israel. It also provides a case study of Syrian Jewish women from both groups. Eating patterns observed in ...
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This chapter compares the dietary practices of Jews of Syrian descent in Mexico and in Israel. It also provides a case study of Syrian Jewish women from both groups. Eating patterns observed in Mexico and Israel indicate that the sequence of meals is similar: breakfast, a main meal in the afternoon, and a light dinner. But, the cuisines differ in the types of food consumed. For example, a typical Mexican breakfast may include eggs with some kind of salsa, served with tortillasor bolillos, whereas Israeli breakfast includes eggs, bread, a finely chopped “Israeli salad” of cucumbers, and onions. An examination of women of Syrian descent as they cook in Mexico and Israel also reveals some of the differences between the social structures in these countries. Israeli Syrian women use food as a medium for control and empowerment, albeit to a lesser degree than their Mexican counterparts.Less
This chapter compares the dietary practices of Jews of Syrian descent in Mexico and in Israel. It also provides a case study of Syrian Jewish women from both groups. Eating patterns observed in Mexico and Israel indicate that the sequence of meals is similar: breakfast, a main meal in the afternoon, and a light dinner. But, the cuisines differ in the types of food consumed. For example, a typical Mexican breakfast may include eggs with some kind of salsa, served with tortillasor bolillos, whereas Israeli breakfast includes eggs, bread, a finely chopped “Israeli salad” of cucumbers, and onions. An examination of women of Syrian descent as they cook in Mexico and Israel also reveals some of the differences between the social structures in these countries. Israeli Syrian women use food as a medium for control and empowerment, albeit to a lesser degree than their Mexican counterparts.
