Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Sunday 20 June 2021

The Food of Fools.

Bread, with its intensive, uncertain,
back-breaking cultivation, came a very long time ago,
when and where there were no bananas, broccoli,
asparagus, artichokes, cabbages, leeks, brussels sprouts,
courgettes, squashes, tomatoes, avocados, goji, oranges,
nectarines, apricots, plums, apples, cherries, pears...
rice or maize or quinoa, seaweed, seakale, spinach...
And yet people insist on eating bread, which now depends
on vast industries of seed-hybridisation (and patenting),
of machinery devoted to ploughing, planting, harrowing,
spraying, cutting, separating, winnowing, milling,
marketing, baking, marketing, transporting,
when they and the planet would be better off -
if we would only tell each other and our children to eat
all those fruits and vegetables which have been
developed since the start of the malign
and divisive dictatorship of wheat.
Bread is a complicated cultural artefact like language or religion
- and is just as toxic to the biosphere as the industry of meat.

Sic transit stultitia humana.

Leavened bread and alcohol both depend on yeast.
Bread and alcohol together constitute a feast.


4 comments:

Wofl said...

I realised in the 1960s that 'human woes' and inequality arrived with agriculture.

see
https://aeon.co/essays/for-97-of-human-history-equality-was-the-norm-what-happened

Anonymous said...

Albeit I cannot substantiate my gut feeling with sources, I pretty much doubt that the large-scale agriculture of named vegetables is so much more favourable to the biosphere than that of wheat. Homo sedentius destructivus can't help it - let alone billions of the same species - fruitarians bite merely less deep into the flesh of their surroundings.

M.

Wofl said...

Yes, indeed, but monoculture would be considerably less. As you know, I believe there is no solution to overpopulation.

Wofl said...

For a new view of ancient tropical cities and diverse agriculture see also:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jun/22/the-real-urban-jungle-how-ancient-societies-reimagined-what-cities-could-be