Student authors:;xNLx;Taylor Brown '15 ;xNLx;Brittany Carciofini '16;xNLx;Jesse Doschadis '16;xNLx;Marisa Eastman '16;xNLx;Jennifer Freiday '15;xNLx;Stephanie Hodgson '15;xNLx;Kylie Jans '16;xNLx;Marissa Johnson '16;xNLx;Conor Roche '15;xNLx;Leonie Sanden '16;xNLx;Tom Skinner '15;xNLx;Alexis Vogel Philbrick '15;xNLx;Patrick Wagner '15;xNLx;Yiwei Yi '14;xNLx;Questions? contact the course instructor, Dr. Joy K. Lintelman at lintelma@cord.edu;xNLx;
Throughout history, the parables and teachings of Jesus have significantly impacted how bread is portrayed in many societies today. Along with being called “the bread of life," Jesus performed many miracles with bread during his time on earth. Although these miracles may have been misunderstood at the time, they help to emphasize the influential role that bread has played in many cultures throughout time.
The Romans made farmers of the Ancient Egyptian people, creating a fertile wheat land. Before long, North Africa was exporting more grain than anyone else, something no one ever saw coming.
The bakers became a more important aspect of society during the reign of the Flavians, specifically Vespasian Flavian. They became employees of the government under the Ministry of Food Supply, but most importantly it made better foods, such as bread, more readily available to those less fortunate who were unable to afford such luxury.
The biggest fear that the Roman national treasury faced was the unemployed. They composed a large segment of the city's population and were seen as a huge threat. The landowners mistreated their workers badly driving more unemployed citizens into the heart of the city (1).
About 75 years before the birth of Christ, a machine was created that was crucial in the advancement of bread production: the watermill. At the time, watermills were very complex machines that signified advancements in civilization, as they utilized machine labor to process flour. Although watermills were not initially accepted by all religions, their eventual success helped lead to a breakthrough in the production of the type of bread that is common in many societies today.
“At the beginning no specialized class of Roman bakers existed...but then the Roman woman became a lady. She who had long been the wife of the peasant and the warrior and had been proud of her household work learned from the East that it was good for a woman to spare herself during the hot hours of the day. Mirror and rouge preserved youth; leavening and baking brought on age…Until the year 172. (1)
The rotary quern made grinding grain into flour easier and quicker, allowing for the creation of greater amounts of bread. The quality of the bread was also improved.
For the sake of the corn and the gods that gave them life, ancient societies of Mesoamerica honored their gods through human sacrifices. It was a practice that Spanish conquistadors would never understand, a horror to them that they eventually ended.
Mary, the mother of Christ Jesus, became an integral part of conversion from paganism to Christianity during the Middle Ages. Conversion often involved replacing existing gods/goddesses with Christian alternatives, and Mary became a Christian symbol for the mildness and generosity of the Earth. Cultivation of these grains was vital in the making of bread.
In the Middle Ages from about 500 A.D. to 1500 A.D. land was divided by kingdoms which were dominated by the feudal system. These lands were commonly referred to as a fief which was just land that was held by contract under the feudal condition. (1)
The abduction and rape of the Greek god of the field’s daughter, Persephone, brought significant consequences to the ancient world. After Persephone’s abduction by the god of death, her mother, Demeter, punished the ancient world with seed that would not grow. This, of course, meant that the people had no food, which caused Zeus to concede to Demeter’s demand of returning Persephone to the upper-world. Although an easy solution, it took four months for Demeter to be reunited with her daughter (Jacob, 63). During these four months crops did not grow due to Demeter's curse. This is akin to winter where the agricultural output is dismal. After Zeus returned Persephone, Demeter called for a magnificent feast in celebration of her daughter’s return. This feast is known as the “Celebration of the Bread" because of Demeter's domain over the harvest, and is regarded in history as the largest feast of the ancient world (1).
“It was a magnificent work of the Christian priests to transform the northern peoples into eaters of bread and tillers of the soil. Undoubtedly the Germans at first considered it a mild madness of these priests to be everywhere clearing woods, doing most of the work themselves to transform pasture into cultivated fields, walking besides their oxen with tucked-up women’s clothes. Why were they exerting themselves so, when everyone would soon move out?" [1].
“It was a magnificent work of the Christian priests to transform the northern peoples into eaters of bread and tillers of the soil. Undoubtedly the Germans at first considered it a mild madness of these priests to be everywhere clearing woods, doing most of the work themselves to transform pasture into cultivated fields, walking besides their oxen with tucked-up women’s clothes. Why were they exerting themselves so, when everyone would soon move out?" [1].
Although other civilizations in this era put much emphasis on farming, the Greeks instead imported much of their grain. This began to shift, however, in 639 BC Solon instituted his revolutionary laws and formed an agrarian democracy. His laws would only last a short time but the importance they placed on farming was instilled within Greek society as the political and social transformations led to the establishment of grain and bread as a staple in the Greek societies.
The myth of Persephone and her abduction by Hades was believed to be related to the change in seasons. This event shows why wheat can only be grown during the summer, which affects when and for how long the Greek bread will be produced.
Homer’s epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey, are tales about Greek heroes, honored in their own time but still praised today. They are important pieces of literature because they were one of the first allusions to food and eating habits in Greece in the eighth century BC.
The improvement to crop rotation resulted in less arable land wasted to fallow, which led to more grain, and in turn more bread, being produced.
Up until this point in Roman history, bakers were free artisans who owned private shops and made their income from these bakeries by selling their goods. The Roman state instituted the Baker’s Guild in 168 B.C., which operated to establish laws in relation to bread and denoted bakers as civil officials because they supplied the people with nourishment. The guild even held power in the Senate because of the respect that bakers received. This was significant because bakers were generally all freed men, who were former slaves capable of rising through the social classes. (1)
Ergotism is understood today as poisoning due to ingesting foods contaminated with ergot fungus. Ergot poisoning causes dysfunction of the nervous system and necrotizing (flesh-eating) gangrene. Ergot is a plant disease caused by a fungus that contains mycotoxins that can be fatal if ingested. In the year 944, an ergot outbreak claimed 40,000 lives in the city of Limoges, in present-day south France. Since the people of Limoges had never experienced the symptoms of ergot poisoning before, they attributed its destructive presence as a punishment from God. (1)
In the first millennium BCE, rye began to be raised intentionally in southern Russia.
As the Christian faith developed, so did the debate over what type of bread should be used during the Eucharist. Whether it be wheat, barley, rye, leavened, unleavened, large, or small was strongly debated for many years.
The baker of the Middle Ages enjoyed a higher social status than others, but he payed the price with his health.
The peasant had long been considered less than human beings, but finally they had had enough.
People in ancient Greece began to worship Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and bread. This was a pivotal time in history because she was viewed as the teacher of agriculture. The knowledge of bread was said to be brought to man by Demeter.
The Inca inhabited the land from present-day Ecuador down through Peru and Argentina to Chile during the mid 1400s until the mid-1500s. As the largest empire in the ancient world of the Americas, the Inca built intricate systems of roads leading to their capital—much like Rome, however the Inca had no idea of this thriving ancient empire to their East. The Inca were responsible for many dining additions that we still enjoy to this day. Quinoa, an ancient grain that has recently found itself on grocery store shelves due to its extremely healthy characteristics, was grown and harvested by the Inca as their main source of grain. Potatoes, the tuber that present-day Americans enjoy frequently cooked in many different ways, was originally grown and eaten by the Inca. Impressively, the Inca also had public stores of food in case of natural disaster where food was scarce. Many foods were preserved and sequestered in these food-stores such as quinoa, potatoes, dried fruits, and dried meats. (2) Although bread was not an everyday part of the Incan diet, the Incan people did incorporate the use of maize flour into flatbread and tortillas.
In Europe during the Middle Ages, farmers acquiesced to unacceptable treatment because they needed to attain the bare necessities of life, which was only possible by producing and selling their product. However, in the 15th century, even the few essentials of life that were always provided for the farmers, (wood, water, and pastureland) were taken away by the lord and were made available at a price. (1) Furthermore, the Lord required peasants to work on his land as slaves and pay tax, or rent, to the Lord to do so. This work was strenuous and often deprived the peasant farmer of energy to work is own land, which made his productivity suffer, and thus his livelihood. (2) The Lord became the controller of every aspect of the farmer’s life: his seed, his field, his crop, his harvest, his product, what the product was baked into, where it was baked, by who, and where that food item went. Because of this, as well as the short supply of tools, the art of farming deteriorated tremendously into a labor of misery. (3)
When famine devastated the Eastern Mediterranean countries throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a new grain was introduced which the Turks embraced. Corn seemed to be the grain from paradise in the story that Muhammad had told.
Wheat and bread were two important food items to Europeans and were highly valued in their society. However, when the Spaniards were introduced to maize during their time in the New World, they were astounded at how easy maize was to grow and how filling it was. This new crop, which was so easily grown, gradually began to replace wheat and bread as dietary staples in Europe.
The debate between Martin Luther and Huldreich Zwingli was one that drew in an audience. Was Christ's body literally in the bread or was it just a metaphor used by Christ to show that he was everywhere?
The discovery of the potato played a big role for the poor. This new crop was extremely filling, easily grown, and somewhat easily harvested. In some cases, when wheat was hard to come by, potato flour was even mixed with wheat in order to make bread.(1) As long as a farmer had a potato crop he could feed his family. The potato eventually earned the title "poor man’s food" and is said to be only fit for the poor.(2)
While the pilgrims were struggling with food during the winter of 1621 they became acquainted with a well educated Native American named Squanto who suggested they plant and grow a new crop called maize. Squanto introducing maize is important because the pilgrims were accustomed to bread in their everyday life back in Europe, and when they were introduced to maize they were able to bring a staple food back to their diet in the New World.
There was a shortage of bread in France and people were desperate for their main source of food, bread. Many people living in France during the eighteenth century believed in the conspiracy theory, pacte de famine. This theory played a significant role in the move toward the French Revolution.
The onset of European immigration to America came as Europe shifted its sights to the introduction of modern agriculture. This new form of agriculture encompassed the use of science to fortify fields and the horse-driven plow, which came as a response to the growing textile industry.(1) Textile factories became a driver in the labor market as more and more poor farmer’s land was converted into pastureland for sheep. As a result of this, the former bread-producing class was forced to cities where they worked in textile factories. Because of the large emigration of farmers from the countryside to the city, the population of the cities rose dramatically. Of course, this created a new demand for grain in order to produce food.(2) Here is where modern agriculture was invented and implemented as a solution.
The occurrence of pellagra resulted in the abandonment of maize by many, it became a food for the cattle rather than humans. Pellagra also helped lead to the discovery of vitamins, an essential part of today's diet.
Nicknamed “Turnip Townshend” because he popularized turnips in crop rotation, Viscount Townshend (1674-1741) is credited with popularizing the four-year crop cycle. (1) Townshend realized the importance of putting nutrients back into the soil as well as cultivating crops that restored the nitrogen to the soil. (2) His contribution to agriculture revolutionized the way fields were farmed throughout England in the mid-eighteenth century.
The people who followed him referred to themselves as the “physiocrats." In their beliefs they saw that physics was what ruled all, that the relationship between man and nature was tightly knitted to each other and this relationship had a heavy influence in society. (1) Quesnay was the leader of this group who called themselves the physiocrats. In his eyes, he believed that the poor farmers, who made up most of the population, should be receiving some sort of credits as long as they were to remain farming. (2) “Industry does not increase wealth; the farmers alone form the productive class. All citizens engaged in occupations other than agriculture constitute the sterile class.”( 3)
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier represented a new phase in the history of bread: the application of enlightenment, scientific thinking to the art of baking. His bread academy was able to produce potato flour, as well as discovering means of preservation for both potatoes and bread.
The move to America had been hard on many of the colonists, and there was a need for labor-saving machinery in New England in order to save time when grinding grains. The inventions of water powered mills and wind powered mills proved to be significant developments in the European world, but America was in need of a mill that was labor-saving. Oliver Evans created a wonderful new invention, the automated flour mill.
Napoleon Bonaparte is known in history as one of the world’s greatest military and political commanders of all time. He led France as her Emperor at the end of the French Revolution, from 1804-1814 and once again for a short time in 1815 to lead France in the battle of Waterloo. Although his installment as Emperor came in 1804, previous to this, he was a prominent figure of war when in 1796, at the age of 27; he became the commander of the French Army. As the commander of the Army, Napoleon secured several large military successes. First, in Italy, followed by his successful invasion of Egypt in an effort to destroy British trade routes. At this point in history, he overthrew the political system that was in place at the time—called the Directory. The Directory was composed of five men who ruled France in an “inefficient dictatorship,” (1) as regarded by distinguished 18th century French historian R.R Palmer. In 1799, Napoleon overthrew the Directory in a clever military coup, which began the French Consulate, with Napoleon as the first Consul. Four year later, Napoleon became Emperor of France.
Millers often complained that the millstones they were using to make flour were too soft and needed to be changed too often. (1) Since the beginning of time, grains have been ruining both machines and teeth, nothing was strong enough to continually break down the grain. That was until an engineer suggested that the grain be crushed with iron rollers rather than be crumbled how they have been doing for so many years. (2) The invention of the roller mill would change the efficiency of flour production, thus enhancing the production of bread.
The discovery of chemical fertilizers is one of most important discoveries when it comes to revolutionizing agriculture. Liebig’s work on agricultural chemistry changed agriculture and how farmers used their fields even to this day. Before Liebig’s discovery, fields had to lie idle for one year after the soil was depleted of its nutrients. This had a great impact on the harvest, and increased costs. Justus von Liebig, a German chemist, made the restoration of soil heath possible with his discovery of the four essential nutrients that the soil needed to have in order to produce healthy crops—nitrogen, potassium, lime, and phosphoric acid. Liebig suggested that it’s not only the presence of these nutrients in the soil, but the concentrations that they’re in within the soil that is important in the production of a healthy harvest (1). Since this project focuses on bread and its influence on society, in regards to hunger, bread must be produced in order to mitigate this issue (2). This means the soil that the grains are grown in to produce bread must be healthy. Previous to Liebig, manure was used as a fertilizer, which proved to both improve and deteriorate that quality of crops produced. This was due to the balance of nutrients in the soil, over fertilizing was just as detrimental as continuously planting the soil and stripping it of its nutrients. To maintain the precious balance of the soil’s nutrients, specific fertilizers were developed to replenish only the missing nutrient(s). This was a chemical breakthrough in the field of farming because the health and lives of European citizens depended on healthy soil to grow the ingredients needed to prepare bread. In the nineteenth century, to care for the soil translated directly into caring for the lives of fellow humans (3).
Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper had an immense effect on the history of bread. It greatly decreased the labor and time necessary for harvesting grain, thereby greatly increasing the amount of bread that can be produced. Harvesting had previously been the greatest limit in agricultural production. Reaping by hand was time-consuming and expensive because of the need to hire temporary help. If a farmer failed to harvest all of his crops within a week or two of ripening the rest of his crops were simply wasted in his fields. But McCormick helped to create and modernize America’s bread-basket; by the time of his death in 1884 “enough grain was shipped from Chicago to bake 10 billion loaves of bread a year."
Obed Hussey’s invention of the reaper greatly helped farmers improve productivity when it came to the most important ingredient of bread: grain. This time also marked a breakthrough in technological advancement when several different people from different places had the same ideas and produced almost the same machine.
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, only the harvesting processes of agriculture had been industrialized, and because of this, many inventors of the time were curious about pieces of machinery that could be used in the planting processes of agriculture. Beginning in the mid 1700s, various inventors began creating machines that allowed for more efficient and successful planting. Numerous versions of the steam plow, steel plow, and many others were experimented with and eventually discarded based on their efficiency in the field. However, in 1837 John Deere designed a plow that surpassed all others, a machine that was significantly more efficient in the field and allowed for the successful mechanization of planting.
Potatoes were a main part of the Irish diet, especially for the impoverished. It was so popular it was used to make potato bread, one of the main bread made in Ireland.
When Professor Christian Ehrenberg made his own bread "bleed," he debunked the long held belief that the Jews were the ones defiling the bread and causing it to “bleed.” In fact, it was a microscopic bacterium!
After the Napoleonic Wars, Europe had a significant increase in population and European agriculture did not provide enough grain to feed the entire population. This surplus population consisted of industrial workers, not farmers; therefore Europe relied on the import of America’s grain, wheat.
In 1860, Gregor Mendel introduced laws of heredity through his experiments with pea plants. Originally, many people were uninterested in his ideas, however, later on, his ideas were successfully applied to plant hybridization. His discoveries were eventually used to create forms of wheat that could surpass tough conditions and increase the overall output of grain, and his theories are still prominent today in the studies of genetics.
In the words of bread historian H. E. Jacob, “Bread spells victory.” (1) In the years leading up to the U.S. Civil War, the South was known for their production of cotton all around the world, but the cotton was the very thing that would get them into trouble as the Civil War progressed. The South learned very quickly in the war that they can’t eat cotton, but it was too late. While the North was getting their fill of food, the South was starving. This allowed for the North to overcome the South and victory soon fell to Lincoln.
As Dr. Lincecum studied a species of ants, he found that the ants may have contributed to the human development of agriculture through the observation of ant behaviors.
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