Just as the Slow Food movement revolutionized the farmer¿s relationship to the table, The Secret Life of Financial Food reveals the economic pathways connecting food to consumer, unlocking the mysteries behind culinary trends, grocery pricing, and restaurant dining. Newman¿s lively and compact history travels back to the markets of ancient Rome and medieval Europe, where vendors first distinguished between ¿spot sales¿ and ¿sales for delivery.¿ She retraces Asia¿s famed spice routes and recounts the spice craze that prompted Christopher Columbus¿s journey to North America, and she links these developments to modern day India¿s bustling peppercorn market. Newman centers her history on corn and its transformation into a ubiquitous commodity, and she 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 she considers burgeoning markets, particularly ¿super soybeans,¿ which could scramble the landscape of food finance.
University Presses
978-0-231-15670-7