Bread, Wine, Chocolate : The Slow Loss of Foods We Love

"Sethi explores the history and cultural importance of our most beloved tastes, paying homage to the ingredients that give us daily pleasure, while providing a ... wake-up call to [what she sees as] the homogenization that is threatening the diversity of our food supply"--Amazon.com.;What's at stake -- Wine -- Chocolate -- Coffee -- Beer -- Bread -- Octopus. Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi explores the history and cultural importance of our most beloved tastes, paying homage to the ingredients that give us daily pleasure, while providing a thoughtful wake-up call to the homogenization that is threatening the diversity of our food supply. Food is one of the greatest pleasures of human life. Our response to sweet, salty, bitter, or sour is deeply personal, combining our individual biological characteristics, personal preferences, and emotional connections. Bread, Wine, Chocolate illuminates not only what it means to recognize the importance of the foods we love, but also what it means to lose them. Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi reveals how the foods we enjoy are endangered by genetic erosion—a slow and steady loss of diversity in what we grow and eat. In America today, food often looks and tastes the same, whether at a San Francisco farmers market or at a Midwestern potluck. Shockingly, 95% of the world’s calories now come from only thirty species. Though supermarkets seem to be stocked with endless options, the differences between products are superficial, primarily in flavor and brand. Sethi draws on interviews with scientists, farmers, chefs, vintners, beer brewers, coffee roasters and others with firsthand knowledge of our food to reveal the multiple and interconnected reasons for this loss, and its consequences for our health, traditions, and culture. She travels to Ethiopian coffee forests, British yeast culture labs, and Ecuadoran cocoa plantations collecting fascinating stories that will inspire readers to eat more consciously and purposefully, better understand familiar and new foods, and learn what it takes to save the tastes that connect us with the world around us. Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi explores the history and cultural importance of our most beloved tastes, paying homage to the ingredients that give us daily pleasure, while providing a thoughtful wake-up call to the homogenization that is threatening the diversity of our food supply. Food is one of the greatest pleasures of human life. Our response to sweet, salty, bitter, or sour is deeply personal, combining our individual biological characteristics, personal preferences, and emotional connections. Bread, Wine, Chocolate illuminates not only what it means to recognize the importance of the foods we love, but also what it means to lose them. Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi reveals how the foods we enjoy are endangered by genetic erosion a slow and steady loss of diversity in what we grow and eat. In America today, food often looks and tastes the same, whether at a San Francisco farmers market or at a Midwestern potluck. Shockingly, 95% of the world's calories now come from only thirty species. Though supermarkets seem to be stocked with endless options, the differences between products are superficial, primarily in flavor and brand. Sethi draws on interviews with scientists, farmers, chefs, vintners, beer brewers, coffee roasters and others with firsthand knowledge of our food to reveal the multiple and interconnected reasons for this loss, and its consequences for our health, traditions, and culture. She travels to Ethiopian coffee forests, British yeast culture labs, and Ecuadoran cocoa plantations collecting fascinating stories that will inspire readers to eat more consciously and purposefully, better understand familiar and new foods, and learn what it takes to save the tastes that connect us with the world around us In the last century, we have livedand eatenthrough the most dramatic shiftsever experienced in food and agriculture. While much of this is invisible, what we do know is that food is beginning to look and taste the same, whether youre strolling through a San Francisco farmers market, at a Midwestern potluckor a McDonalds in India.Ninety-five percent of the worlds calories now come from only 30 species, and a closer look at Americas cornucopia of grocery store options reveals that our foods are primarily made up of corn, wheat, rice, palm oil and soybeans. The diversity of our food supply is dwindling. Part journey to six continents in pursuit of delicious and endangered tastes, part investigation of the loss of biodiversity from soil to plate, Bread, Wine, Chocolate tells the story of what we are losing, how we are losing it, and the inspiring people and places that are sustaining the foods we lovecelebrating the fact that the solutions to the loss of agrobiodiversity arent difficult; theyre delicious. Join award-winning journalist Simran Sethi as she travels from wild coffee forests in Ethiopia to cocoa plantations of Ecuador, from the brewery to the bakery and the temple, to meet scientists, farmers, chefs, wine makers, beer brewers, coffee roasters and chocolate connoisseurs to discuss the reasons for this loss and learn what it means to experience food in a whole new way, tasting foods more deeply through each one of our senses in order to savorand savethe foods we love. "Bread, Wine, and Chocolate, part journey to six continents in pursuit of delicious and endangered tastes, part investigation of the loss of biodiversity from soil to plate, tells the story of what we are losing, how we are losing it, and the inspiring people and places that are bringing back the foods we love. Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi travels from wild coffee forests in Ethiopian to cocoa plantations in Ecuador, from the brewery to the bakery to the temple, in order to meet scientists, farmers, chefs, wine makers, beer brewers, coffee roasters, chocolate connoisseurs, bakers, and many more to explore the reasons behind four developing monodiets in order to savor and save the foods we love."--jacket What's at stake. Biodiversity Taste Wine. In the glass On the vine Tasting wine Chocolate. The baba The bar Tasting chocolate Coffee. The cup The wild Tasting coffee Beer. The spice The soul Tasting beer Bread. The temple The blessing Tasting bread Octopus. Eight tentacles Three hearts Appendices: Methods of conserving agricultural biodiversity Drivers of change in agricultural biodiversity.