Author(s)

Publisher

Publication Year

ISBN: 9781773054070

Categories: , , , ,

 
View more details about this title
on the publisher's website:

Go to publisher’s site

Lost Feast

Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food

When we humans love foods, we love them a lot. In fact, we have often eaten them into extinction, whether it is the megafauna of the Paleolithic world or the passenger pigeon of the last century. In Lost Feast, food expert Lenore Newman sets out to look at the history of the foods we have loved to death and what that means for the culinary paths we choose for the future. Whether it’s chasing down the luscious butter of local Icelandic cattle or looking at the impacts of modern industrialized agriculture on the range of food varieties we can put in our shopping carts, Newman’s bright, intelligent gaze finds insight and humor at every turn.

Bracketing the chapters that look at the history of our relationship to specific foods, Lenore enlists her ecologist friend and fellow cook, Dan, in a series of “extinction dinners” designed to recreate meals of the past or to illustrate how we might be eating in the future. Part culinary romp, part environmental wake-up call, Lost Feast makes a critical contribution to our understanding of food security today. You will never look at what’s on your plate in quite the same way again.

Contributors

Lenore Newman

Lenore Newman is the Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment at the University of the Fraser Valley. She is the author of the acclaimed Speaking in Cod Tongues: A Canadian Culinary Journey. She divides her time between Vancouver and Roberts Creek, British Columbia.
Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

Preview

 This chapter follows Newman’s time in Iceland tasting Icelandic butter and her reflections on culinary extinction and how the Iceland’s unique dairy products could soon become lost. 17 $1.70

Preview

 In this chapter Newman explores the history of major animal extinction through the work of Charles Darwin and other naturalists, through using the decline of the dodo bird throughout. 22 $2.20

Preview

 In this chapter Newman reflects on her travels to the Yukon to explore northern cuisine during which she reflects on the local bison, their preservation, and the history of the decline of … 17 $1.70

Preview

 In this chapter Newman explores the history of the cow, both as a animal and a food source. 19 $1.90

Preview

 In this chapter Newman explores the possible future of alternative meat, through examining the history of veggie burgers, Beyond Meat products, and the next generation of agricultural innovation … 16 $1.60

Preview

 In this chapter Newman provides an overview on the rise and fall of the passenger pigeon in North America. Through this Newman examines how during the shift from agricultural to industrial … 21 $2.10

Preview

 In this chapter Newman explores the long history of chickens. 22 $2.20

Preview

 In this chapter Newman reflects on the history of her favorite fruit, the pear. She explores the act of domestication, the shift from small scale local production and the evolution to the … 25 $2.50

Preview

 In this chapter Newman explores the history of place preservation and seed storing, fruit hunting and the creation of the “ark of taste.” 23 $2.30

Preview

 In this chapter Newman describes her time travelling through Hawaii and the biodiversity she witnessed there. Newman describes how after centuries of plant and animal invasions, both purposefully … 24 $2.40

Preview

 In this chapter Newman explores the history of honey and mead and how it has maintained a presence and connection to society for millennia’s. 15 $1.50

Preview

 In this chapter Newman continues to focus on the roles of bees, however, this time she explore their role in pollination, crop survival, and the dangers of decline and loss of bee populations … 23 $2.30

Preview

 In this final chapter Newman focuses on our relationship to the ocean and how global warming, pollution, and overfishing puts the is leading us to a global crisis which needs to be addressed. 27 $2.70