Columbia University Press
The Secret Financial Life of Food: From Commodities Markets to Supermarkets
Key Metrics
- Kara Newman
- Columbia University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780231156707
- 8.3 X 5.6 X 0.9 inches
- 0.8 pounds
- Business & Economics > Industries - Food Industry
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
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.
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